HOUSTON – A local high school is one of 30 schools from across the country named a finalist in NBC's "Smash" Make a Musical constructed by Lowe's.
Students at Cypress Falls High School have been burning up social media trying and get enough online votes for a chance at the grand prize.
"We need the clicks to win," said theater teacher Cory S. Kelley, who entered the school in the contest.
"Vote for us -- Cypress Falls High School," theater student and senior Nekia Harris said.
The Cypress Falls theater students can win a $3,000 Lowe's gift card to be used for theater renovations if they are one of the schools with the most online votes.
"It would be a massive help," said Dakota Nicolai, who has been involved in the school theater program for all four years of high school.
The money would be used to replace unstable risers used on sets in the Black Box Theater on campus.
"You have to clamp them together because they are really old," added Nicolai.
"We have to put metal chairs on top of them and we don't have something to block it from tipping over," sophomore Marian Vessalpour said.
If the school wins, teachers said the money would also be used to replace light grids.
"You have to bring the lights in and hook them up so the money would be put to really good use," senior actress Sara Gollogly said.
The students perform two shows a year in the school auditorium, but most of their productions are done in the Black Box Theater they want to renovate.
"We want to make it so it is not as shabby as it has been," said theater teacher Rachel Seney, who was once a Cy-Fair high school student.
"This is our main classroom. There are three teachers that teach a different theater class at any one time. We may have one or two or three classes in the same room at the same time," said Seney, who teaches in the theater department along with her mother.
Seney said shows like "Smash" are getting more students interested in theater programs and upgrades to performance spaces will help keep them center stage.
"It instills the kids with pride to know that the space they are working in every day is taken care of and loved just as much as they are," added Seney.