On Sunday, May 3, 2026, the Sara Bareilles Award Ceremony took place, with senior Story Ng nominated for lead actress for her role as Mimi Marquez in San Marin High School’s spring musical “Rent School Edition.” The Sara Bareilles Award is meant to recognize high schoolers involved in musical theatre in Northern California. Nominated students and schools from 11 counties were invited to the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco to perform specific numbers and be honored for their hard work. Winners in each category will move on to the Jimmy Awards. Ng competed against four other high school girls for lead actress in the Northern California region.
Ng started performing in musical theatre in fourth grade, but later developed a much greater passion for it in high school. She has been a part of every musical available in high school, performing or helping behind the scenes of each fall and spring musical.
In her role as Mimi, she portrayed a young, exotic woman dancing and living in New York City. The musical follows her journey as a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive woman who is also addicted to heroin. Throughout the musical, Ng hoped to portray the character journey of Mimi with her different dance numbers and solos.
“Portraying Mimi was a challenge but in a fun way,” Ng said. “I personally relate a lot to aspects of her character so I had to take on the challenge of using what I related to [and] translating it onto stage.”
For Ng, she had mostly taken on roles with an emphasis on vocal strength and less on character development and complex acting. Mimi was a harder character for Ng to portray because she focused more on deliberate facial expressions to illustrate Mimi’s journey with addiction and her experience as an HIV-positive woman living in the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) crisis.
“This role was a good challenge,” Ng said. ”Making sure every detail in my face was well thought out and purposeful. That was a great challenge and playing her was the perfect full-circle moment that was the perfect ending to my journey in musical theatre.”
Ng did not advance to the next round of nominations, but received recognition from Sara Bareilles, who performed her own number and answered questions from students.
