Before the Cappies, many students had no idea what shows were going up outside their own schools. Audiences consisted of family, fellow students, and not much more.
One of the major goals, with the Cappies, and a key reason theater teachers are willing to donate so many hours to make it work, is to build a community among theater students — to get them excited not just about the plays and musicals they're doing, but also about what's going up in schools all over the area.
This year, at a Cappies show, an average of 37 student critics attend (along with 15 or 20 of their parents and friends). Typically, these critics represent about 20 schools from Virginia, D.C., and Maryland. In the critics room, amid the discussions, many of them are becoming good friends with students from schools as diverse as Duke Ellington, Washington Christian, Suitland, Madeira, Stonewall Jackson. It's a wonderful thing to see.
This month, the Cappies community shares in the grief of Loudoun County's Stone Bridge High School. In a tragic accident, Cappies critic and star performer Nick Pendola was killed, along with Anthony Cibelli-Mason, another SBHS theater student. Nick was an outstanding critic, well-liked — and his work on-stage was well-reviewed, too ("expert comedic timing," "elastic face and hilarious body language," "priceless facial expressions"). He was slated for a starring role in Kiss Me, Kate!
We will miss Nick — but in the great tradition of theater, the show will go on. Cappies night for Kiss Me, Kate! is Saturday, May 1. Forty-nine critics have signed up. I'll be there too, along with Andrea Mays, Cappies superboostermom who comes to nearly every Cappies show, helping critics and mentors, hugging the cast and crew.
WE HAVE MANY other intriguing Cappies shows coming up. For musicals, you can find some old-fashioned song-and-dancey style shows (The Boyfriend, Fame, Anything Goes, an urban rock musicals (Runaways), shows with beautiful scores (Fiddler on the Roof, Les Miserables, Into the Woods, or classic children's stories (The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan).
Often, high schools find it a bit of a challenge to sell tickets to non-musical plays. This spring, we have a number of schools who are doing their best to find entertaining fare, from the raucous Noises Off to the melodramatic Gold in the Hills and The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940. What is Wahrend Die Welt Schlief about? Go, and find out.
In high school theater and in all theater, I encourage people to try to see shows they've never seen — or heard about — before. You do that with movies, don't you?
I especially — please do mark this down — want people to come see the summer-time shows of the Cappies National Theater. Now in its third year, the CNT invites top Cappies-winners from our nine programs across the U.S. to assemble for 24 days as a national all-start teenage cast and crew of about fifty. For three consecutive weekends at Madison High School and the Kennedy Center Theater Lab, they will workshop three shows, performing on Sunday afternoons at Madison and Monday evenings at the Kennedy Center.
On July 24-25, they will present Starz!, a cabaret of new songs and play cuttings. On July 31-Aug. 1, they will do Playz!, a set of new short plays. On Aug. 7-8, they'll do Muzical!, a workshop of a new musical. Last year's shows were terrific, and a lot of people felt the cast was better than the finalists in American Idol. When the time comes, you can check our 'http://www.cappies.com web site for ticket info.
TODAY'S YOUNG PEOPLE are putting on wonderful shows, at high skill levels, and it's the responsibility of the adult community to support them.
When I started the Cappies with Judy Bowns, one of my goals with this, as with a book I was writing at the time, was to try to encourage people my age (OK, 50s) to think beyond our own sons and daughters now and then. All our teenagers need our time, our affection, our standing ovations.
If you're driving by a school, any school, and you see a show that sounds interesting posted on the marquee, pause for a minute. Busy that night? No? Well, roll into that free parking lot, pull out the six to eight bucks, and treat yourself to a real good time.
(William Strauss is co-author, "Millennials Rising," and co-founder, the Capitol Steps.)