What if drama club was competitive? Well, it is! Throughout 12 cities in Northern America, numerous local high schools take part in the Cappies Program. But what is it? As said by the Cappies website, “The Cappies is a writing and awards program that trains high school theatre and journalism students to be expert writers, critical thinkers, and leaders. Student critics vie to be published in local media outlets by attending productions at other schools and writing critical reviews.”
For every high school in Cincinnati that is a part of the Cappies program, they will have a show that will be their “Cappies show” that students from other schools will attend and evaluate. Selected theatre students from these schools are able to go watch other Cappies shows and write their reviews. After watching the show, these students come together to talk about what/who is eligible to be nominated for certain Cappies awards. A few examples include “best supporting actress in a play” or “best marketing and publicity.” Later, six of these eligible-for-nomination groups are selected to be fully nominated, and the winner is announced at the Cappies Gala, where theatre students get to go to the Aronoff Center in Downtown Cincinnati and see who won awards! This evening is similar to the Tony awards, where everyone dresses up and enjoys the awards show. Each school also gets to perform a scene or a musical number on the stage for the Gala to see!
In the past 4 years, Harrison High School’s drama program has been a part of Cappies. The shows we have won awards with include Radium Girls, Addams Family, Legally Blonde, and Footloose.
Competing against 16 other high schools in Cincinnati, we have won 5 Cappies! As you can see, these awards are not the easiest to win. We would like to give recognition for these students for doing a fantastic job and for their well-deserved awards!
21-22, Featured Male in a play, Christian Mauldin (Radium Girls)
22-23, Up and Coming critic, Ashlyn Fuhrmann (Adams Family)
23-24, Marketing and publicity, Ashlyn Fuhrmann and Chloe Schwettmann. (Legally Blonde)
24-25, Featured female in a musical, Ashlyn Fuhrmann (Footloose)
24-25, Comic male in a musical, Connor Hannon (Footloose)
This year, our spring musical Into the Woods was our
Cappies show, meaning we had students from other high schools reviewing our show. Into the Woods is up for 13 different nominations! That’s 13 times someone from our school gets a ⅙ of a chance to be the winner of a Cappie. The Cappies we are nominated for include Best Musical, Best Lead Actor in a Musical, Best Lead Actress in a Musical, Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, Best Featured Actor in a Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Comic Actor in a Musical, Best Comic Actress in a Musical, Best Vocalist in a Male Role in a Musical, Best Sets, Best Marketing & Publicity, and Best Costumes.
Unfortunately, this year was our last year being a part of the Cappies. But there’s no reason to be sad! Our high school will still be doing two shows a year for the public to come enjoy! We also plan on joining a similar program called CAST which is similar to Cappies, but adults will be adjudicating shows, rather than other high school students. We wish our drama students the best of luck for the future!
