Triangle Rising Stars has a group of 30 dedicated and qualified year-round judges. While these judges are to remain anonymous throughout the school year, it is important to call attention to their time and importance to the Triangle Rising Stars process. This season they have reviewed 34 high school musicals, and it is their scores which will determine finalists in all possible awards categories.

Triangle Rising Stars Awards Top 20 Student Finalists will be adjudicated live on May 18^th. We are pleased to welcome the below four talented individuals who will ultimately decide which two students go on to compete nationally at the Jimmy Awards® in NYC.

Terri Dollar has spent most of her life passionately working in the arts in Raleigh, NC.  With a career in the entertainment industry spanning over 40 years, Terri Dollar is a creative leader in the arts and enthusiastic champion in the development of the careers of hundreds of young performers. 

Formerly the Program Director of the award-winning non-profit Artsplosure—The Raleigh Arts Festival---Terri Dollar spent twenty-one years defining the arts scene in downtown Raleigh. Terri’s greatest joy in life has been as Talent Agent with the agency she created, KUTALENT Agency, for over 3 decades. Terri also co-directs a Drama Program for Special Needs Adult Actors called S.T.A.R.  She and this group were awarded The Raleigh Medal of Arts in 2023.  She is proud to have helped launch the careers of many current stars who began their careers in the Triangle area. Her roster has included over 400 actors performing  in Broadway shows, as well as many successful Film, Television and Commercial Actors. 

She is thrilled to be asked to again judge this year’s Triangle’s Rising Star competition. 

Lisa Jolley has been an actor, singer, and improviser for over 30 years. Credits include: Hairspray (Broadway), The King Stag, (Yale Rep) Sweeney Todd (Paper Mill, PlayMakers Rep), Disaster (NCC Summer Theater), among others. Locally, she has appeared in Into the Woods, Les Miserables, Hairspray, and The Producers (North Carolina Theatre), Spamalot (Cape Fear Regional Theatre), Next to Normal (Deep Dish), Souvenir, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, and Sylvia (Theatre Raleigh). She has also been a featured soloist with the North Carolina Symphony. Television appearances include The Staircase, Law & Order: SVU, Sex and the City, Hope and Faith, and Banshee.

As an improviser, she has been a cast member/team player with Amsterdam's Boom Chicago, in NYC at UCB, The Magnet Theater, and The PIT. Her solo musical improv show, Jolley On the Spot, played to critical acclaim in New York, LA, and at the Chicago Improv Festival, Del Close Marathon, and the New York Musical Improv Festival.

A graduate of the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, Lisa has taught classes and private students at UNC Chapel Hill, North Carolina Theatre Conservatory, Moonlight Stage Company, Raleigh Area Children’s Theatre, The Comedy Conservatory, The PIT, and William Peace University. She currently maintains a private studio.

DIRK LUMBARD – Broadway; Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; Music Man; Imaginary Friends;  On Your Toes;  Barnum; and Sugar Babies.  Off-Broadway; Flora, the Red Menace;  Dames at Sea ; and She Loves Me.  National Tours: The Tin Man in The Wizard  Of Oz  (Joseph Jefferson Award);  Grand Hotel and Crazy for You.  Canada's Stratford Festival Theatre: Harold Hill in The Music Man (winning Canada’s Stage Door Award), Kiss Me, Kate,.  Television credits: Deadline (NBC), Home Improvement (ABC) . Cast recordings: On Your Toes (Grammy nomination) Barnum; Wizard of Oz (Grammy nomination) Flora the Red Menace, (OB cast recording)  As a Tap Consultant he has worked on many of Agnes deMille’s productions of Rodeo  (ABT, Joffrey, Winnepeg, ect.), as well as assisting her for her ballet, The Informer.  He has directed/choreographed for Papermill Playhouse, NJ; Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis; Muny Theatre, St. Louis; Pioneer Theatre, Salt Lake; Stratford Theatre, Canada. He is proud to be part of the Musical Theatre/Dance Faculty of East Carolina University.

Chauntee’ Schuler Irving is an Assistant Professor of the Practice of Theater Studies at Duke University and a Broadway actor with over twenty years of experience in the industry and the classroom. Recent teaching appointments include the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Francisco and the American Music and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in Los Angeles. Her pedagogy centers embodied performative practices which bring equitable and inclusive approaches to the forefront of actor training. Chauntee’ has performed lead roles in Broadway, Off Broadway, Broadway National Tour, and regional productions, as well as on television and in national commercials. She has trained with The Actors’ Studio Drama School, The Barrow Group Theater Company, and The Ailey School prior to receiving her MFA in Theatre Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is a member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. chauntee.com

• Apex Friendship High School - Anastasia
• Athens Drive Magnet High School - Seussical the Musical
• Broughton High School - Mean Girls High School Version
• Carrboro High School - Mean Girls High School Version
• CE Jordan High School- Mean Girls High School Version
• Clayton High School - Freaky Friday
• Cleveland High School - Legally Blonde
• Durham Academy - Chicago Teen Edition
• Durham School of the Arts – Chicago Teen Edition
• East Chapel Hill High School - Sweet Charity
• Enloe High School - Disney's The Little Mermaid
• Fuquay Varina High School - The Wizard of Oz
• Garner Magnet High School - Anastasia
• Glenn High School - Mean Girls High School Edition
• Glenn High School - Little Women
• Green Hope High School - The Addams Family
• Heritage High School - Mean Girls High School Version
• Hillside High School - Matilda the Musical
• Holly Springs High School - SpongeBob the Musical
• Jordan-Matthews High School - Shrek the Musical
• Knightdale High School - The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical
• Longleaf School of the Arts - Into the Woods
• Millbrook High School - Guys and Dolls
• North Raleigh Christian Academy - Anastasia
• Panther Creek High School - Anastasia
• Penn-Griffin School for the Arts – Chicago Teen Edition
• Ravenscroft - Footloose
• Sanderson High School - Chicago Teen Edition
• Southern School of Energy and Sustainability- The Color Purple
• St. Thomas More Academy - The Wizard of Oz
• Wake Forest High School - The Sound of Music
• Wakefield High School - Sleeping Beauty the Musical
• Weaver Academy for the Performing Arts - SpongeBob the Musical
• West Johnston High School - Mamma Mia!

• Best Actor
• Best Actress
• Best Dance
• Best Ensemble
• Best Musical
• Triangle Shining Star
• Best Costume Design
• Best Student Orchestra
• Best Set Design
• Best Choreography 
• Best Lighting Design