The Critics’ Awards Program, or Cappies for short, will celebrate outstanding achievement in high school theater when students from 22 public and private schools throughout Broward and Palm Beach counties vie for top honors in the 17th Annual South Florida Cappies Awards Gala on Tuesday, May 14 at 7 p.m. in the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.
Modeled after Broadway’s Tony Awards, the Cappies Awards will feature songs and scenes from the top-nominated shows and recognize the best in high school theater with 42 categories recognizing performers, designers, technicians, publicists and critics.
NSU University School holds the most nominations with 22 including 19 for its production of Curtains, which is the most-nominated musical. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School leads in the play category with 16 nominations for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Newsworthy Nominees
Emiliana Quiceno, who played the 11th Juror in Archbishop McCarthy High School’s production of 12 Angry Jurors, is already a winner having nabbed the only nomination as Best Comic Actress in a Play.
Two sets of siblings are among the nomination pool with Cypress Bay High School students Ashley and Kathleen Valent and J.P. Taravella High School students Emma and Nicole Sugarman. In another family affair, Kimberly Sessions, daughter of J.P, Taravella High School theatre director Lori Sessions, is nominated for Best Female Dancer for her role in Sweet Charity.
North Broward Preparatory School junior Madeline Finkelman is the only student with three nominations having been recognized for criticism, marketing and publicity and Best Female Vocalist in the school’s production of Bring It On.
More than a dozen students have been nominated in more than one category: Annie Sudler (Calvary Christian Academy); Reese Abrahamoff (Cooper City High School); Kevaughn Reid (Dillard Center for the Arts); Jamie Happel and Nicole Sugerman (J.P. Taravella High School); Caroline Eaton (Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School); Eve Cohen and Natalie Langnas (North Broward Preparatory School);
Jared Cohen and Julia Musso (NSU University School); Dwayne Reed (South Plantation High School);
and Eva Daskos, Marc Plaskett and Ariel Seligman-Delgado (The Sagemont School).
The Cappie Award Gala
Cappie Award winners are determined by votes from students through a weighted peer-review voting process. Nominations are made by student critics from participating schools who attend productions at rival schools and write reviews, which then are edited by theater educators and published on FloridaTheaterOnStage.com.
Tickets are $20. Ticketmaster is the only official ticketing service of the Broward Center, Parker Playhouse and affiliated venues. Buy tickets online at BrowardCenter.org or Ticketmaster.com; by phone at 954.462.0222 or the Broward Center’s AutoNation Box Office. Know who you are buying from when you purchase tickets.