seandotpolitics:

Parkland Students Give Surprise Tonys Performance After Teacher Gets Award

Melody Herzfeld, a drama teacher who hunkered with her students in a classroom at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February as a gunman massacred 17 people in its hallways, accepted the excellence in theater education prize at the Tony Awards on Sunday evening.

She said that receiving the award, which is given annually to a K-12 theater teacher by the Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University, was one of her life’s most significant moments.

Ms. Herzfeld, who will receive a $10,000 prize for her theater program, has been responsible for more than 50 productions at Stoneman Douglas since 2003 [and saved 65 of her students the day of the mass shooting]…

During the main event, Ms. Herzfeld’s students surprised the audience, singing an emotional rendition of “Seasons of Love,” from the musical “Rent.” They received a standing ovation, and left some in the crowd in tears.