2024 Features (Large Newsroom) Winners

About the Winner:

In Texas, local stories have a way of blowing up. That’s what happened in Sherman, when news outlets from Hollywood to Broadway descended on a town about an hour-and-a-half north of Dallas to cover the story of a transgender boy who was kicked out of his leading role in the musical, “Oklahoma!”

Talia Richman stuck around long past the breaking news scrum to attend chatty dress rehearsals, heated school board meetings and an electric opening night. She embedded with Max Hightower and his family to tell the deeper story of what it means to simultaneously be a 17-year-old kid and a national symbol for the backlash against LGBTQ+ students. Her investigation included filing public records requests to learn why the superintendent and principal intervened in the musical’s casting.

Comments From the Judges:

“This feature covered a lot of ground, from the personal to the national. The public records requests paid off by revealing a script to be used to answer questions about changing the casting in a high school play. It succeeded in giving readers a [peek] into Max’s emotions and thoughts as his story went national. Good details included being present when the students [were] picking out costumes and how a big football player was used during opening night as security.”

“This story captured national attention because of the intrusion of politics into what seemed like a place where it didn’t belong: A high school musical. This is a gorgeously reported story that captures the pain and consequences of applying political agendas to student lives. This has popped up around the country as things like high school plays and musicals that once drew little notice are now a center of controversy.”

Photo credit: Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News