The Cappies, similar to the Tony and Academy Awards, recognize their best school actors in the area, and recognized six drama students as critics choice nominees for their performances in the spring musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
The unofficial list of Cappies choice nominees is: lead actor in a musical/comedy— Andy Riddle, 12; lead actress in a musical/comedy— sophomore Deanna Gowland; supporting actor in a musical— junior Mark Slough; supporting actress in a musical— senior Gwen Levey 12; featured actor in a musical— senior Harris Fitzgerel; and featured actress in a musical— senior Maddy Reinert.
A board will have a vote to choose official nominees on Saturday, May 13. The winners will be announced at the 14th annual Cappies Gala at the Kennedy Center on Sunday, June 9.
Students travel to different schools to review plays that are being performed. They then go home to write and submit detailed reviews of the show. Nominations are submitted by votes. Cappie nominations have the same qualities as would a Tony nomination; there are 15 different categories with five nominees in each.
“We have had eight students nominated to receive Cappie awards in the last four years. In 2010, BJ Odom won Best Comic Actor for our production of The Mousetrap,” Drama teacher George Bennett said.
“When I heard that I was up for a Cappie award, I was really excited,” Gowland said. “It made me want to work even harder to develop my character and definitely helped me stay motivated.”
Junior James Barker was originally cast for the lead role of Charlie Brown. One week before opening night, he fell ill and was forced to stay home for an indefinite amount of time. Riddle stepped in for the role and excelled despite only having a few days to learn the lines and songs.
“This whole experience was a very interesting one, I had to learn the part of Charlie Brown in three days,” Riddle said. “I never thought that I would end up with three Cappies choice nominations!”
Barker was pleased that his absence did not negatively impact his crew.
“I was happy that Andy could step in because we did not originally have any understudies,” Barker said. “Though I was really disappointed that I couldn’t perform, all I could think about was the success of my fellow cast members.”
All cast members did well, but those six exceeded expectations. Despite setbacks, the cast managed to recieve the most cumulative awards in recent years.
