ShowBizRadio

ShowBizradio has been a proud support of the Cappies since 2007, and will a part of the award ceremony on Sunday evening.

The Twelfth Annual Cappies Gala will take place at 7:00 PM on Sunday, June 12, 2011, in the 2400-seat Concert Hall at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Performers critics, and tech crews from 63 high schools in Northern Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., will receive 35 prestigious “Cappie” awards, in a glamorous atmosphere that Cappies (Critics and Awards program) co-founder and Capitol Steps co-founder, Bill Strauss, used to call “part Tonys, part Final Four.”

Casts of nominated shows and the performers of nominated songs will act present musical numbers as well as sketches from the nominated plays. The entire show will be aired on Cox Cable “Red Apple” Channel 21 later in the summer.

Throughout the year, the Cappies program is driven by over 400 area high school theater student critics who attend each others’ shows, write reviews for newspapers and TV, and serve as “Cappies” awards judges. Over the past eleven years, more than two thousand student-written Cappies reviews have been published by The Washington Post and more than a dozen other area newspapers in both hard copy and online..

On May 15th, approximately 380 student critics voted for Cappie awards, through a digital, student-designed voting process. A list of nominees (5 for each of the 35 award categories) is available.

Launched in Northern Virginia in 1999, Cappies programs are now underway in 15 U.S. cities, (including Cincinnati, Dallas, Kansas City, and three in Canada, with three or more cities who are preparing to start up in the fall.

Bill Strauss, who died in 2007, always proudly said: “High School Theater is the real youth culture in America, and someday, these kids are going to revitalize Broadway. They’re the next great theater generation.”

Tickets to the gala are available through Cappies high school theater departments, and might be available at the VIP table the night of the event.

Photo Gallery

Lead Actress in a Musical – Anitra McKinney (Duke Ellington), Emily Madden (Walt Whitman), Lintle Motsoasele (Wakefield), Maggie Roos (Woodrow Wilson), and Emily Whitworth (Mount Vernon)	Musical – front: Dylan Everett (Wakefield) back: Colby Dezelick (Westfield), Amy Bernhard (Walt Whitman), Anitra McKinney (Duke Ellington), Jason Kutchma (George Mason)
Lead Actor in a Musical – Ricky Drummond (Bishop Ireton), Andy Raoufi (Herndon), Jake Miller (Paul VI), Kevin Clay (Westfield). Not pictured: Ben Mitchell (St. Andrew’s Episcopal School)	Lead Actor in a Play – back: Ty Sheedlo (Dominion), Charlie Belt (Marshall), front: Jeffrey Davis (Stone Bridge), Brennan Jones (Falls Church), Keegan Cotton (Thomas Jefferson)
Props and Effects – front:Chris Foote (James Madison), back: Mandy Sachs (Westfield), Fox Williams (Walt Whitman), Karlyn Dunne (Stone Bridge), Chris Rosecrans (James Madison)	Play – Charlie Bell (Marshall), Celia Lechtman (Stone Bridge), Brennan Jones and Sam Johnson (Falls Church), Chris Foote (James Madison) Not pictured: Georgetown Preparatory School
Lead Actress in a Play – Amanda Miesner (Chantilly), Elena Lagon (Thomas Jefferson), Virginia Tucker (St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes), Ilana Naidamast (Lake Braddock). Not pictured: Maria Simpkins (T.C. Williams)

Photos by Andrea (Andy) Mays.