The lights dim. The curtain rises. Actors and actresses take their places on stage. And, somewhere in the audience, a few high schoolers are taking notes.
These students are the Cappies, a club that travels to other high schools to review their plays and musicals. At the end of each school year, their reviews are combined and used to recognize performers at an end-of-year gala.
Cappies advisor Mr. Matthew Morris compared the gala to the Tony Awards for high school students that participate in the Cappies program around Philadelphia.
“Every play and musical that’s nominated for the best play, or the best musical, or the best song of the year also performs at the gala, so it gives an opportunity for everybody who attends to see a snippet of some of the best performances from the about 30 schools we have during the course of the school year,” Morris said.
The gala celebrates the Cappies themselves as well as the performers and crew that put on the productions through the year.
“It’s an opportunity for us to get to acknowledge our own critics and all the work we did, keeping up with seeing shows and writing reviews and giving scores, and in the end we get to see who won and celebrate everyone’s strengths, highlightinh the different parts of the productions that we loved,” junior and head critic Madeline Garson said.
Teacher advisor Ms. Roxie Everly agrees with the sentiment, particularly surrounding the gala’s festivities.
“There’s a red carpet, so there’s photo opportunities,” Everly said. “Everyone dresses up really nicely, and then there’s live performances from some of the schools that are nominated for best play, best musical, or best song. It’s really great to see all this great talent from across the area.”
This year, Haven received eight nominations for the fall play “Clue”, ranging from the costumes department to the actors themselves. The Cappies were able to score more behind-the-scenes aspects of the play.
“Before the Cappies come and see our show, we have to put together a ton of evidence, like how we did people’s hair, where we got our props from, or what the process was like to create the set. Then we present that to the Cappies, and they analyze those technical elements to see and measure how [the crew] did, too,” Garson said.
The Cappies gala will be a chance for the six Cappies from Haven, as well as members of our theater program, to celebrate the shows they’ve put on and reviewed over the course of the school year.
“It’s great to get to go see shows, and I’m really proud of our program for getting so many nominations,” Garson said. “They worked really hard.”
