Even though the show is over, the Harriton Theater Company is still wowing audiences. On May 5, Harriton attended and participated in the Greater Philadelphia Cappie awards. The Cappie gala and awards are equivalent to the Tony’s for high school theater. Throughout the year, thirty-seven schools put on shows that are reviewed by Cappie critics, and other students from the greater Philadelphia area. At the end of the year, these critics vote to award schools for different aspects of their productions.
Harriton’s spring musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, showed the weekend of April 11-14. With the book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar, and music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, the musical is a parody of American musical comedy of the 1920’s. The show portrays an unsocial musical theater fan, played by sophomore Marcel Werder, as he plays the record of his favorite musical, The Drowsy Chaperone. During the Saturday night performance, a group of approximately thirty critics came to review the production.
Harriton received a total of 16 nominations, including best musical! Each category includes five to six nominees for each award. Below is the list of nominees for the award show:
Underclassman Female Critic – Peri Levitt
Marketing/Publicity – Jessi Silverman
Lighting – Asa Lipton
Sets – Hannah Klugman, Alex Friend, Asa Lipton
Costumes – Emma Seymour, Alana Koenig, Tatiana Fogt
Make-Up: Sage Davis, Alana Koenig, Emma Seymour, Ilissa Kaye
Special Effects/Technologies – Alex Friend, Hannah Klugman, Asa Lipton, Barbhara Alves
Choreography – Sean Green Jr., Allison Langer
Creativity – Jordan Rosenthal-Kay
Ensemble in a Musical – The Gangsters (Haley Selarnick + Emily Goldenberg)
Featured Actor in a Musical – Brendan Scalon
Dancer- Sean Green
Female Vocalist – Tori Mueller
Comic Actor in a Musical – Ben Seltzer
Lead Actor in a Musical – Marcel Werder
Best Musical – The Drowsy Chaperone
Since Harriton was nominated for best musical, they were asked to preform their largest musical number, “Toledo Surprise”. The actors got to break out their costumes and dancing shoes in order to preform this number one more time. HTC delivered an amazing performance, which received one of the largest applause of the night at the Cappies Gala.
At the end of the night, Harriton took home three major awards. Asa Lipton and the HTC lighting crew received the award for Best Lighting. The award for Best Costumes in the Greater Philadelphia area went to juniors Alana Koenig and Emma Seymour, along with the senior Tatiana Fogt and the whole HTC costumes crew.
Lastly, Brendan Scanlon received the award for Best Featured Actor in a musical. Each winner got to go down to the stage to receive his or her award and give a short speech. The costumes and lighting crew both thanked their hard-working crews and directors. Brendan Scanlon put on a smile for those in the audience by only thanking peanut butter during his time in the spotlight.
Overall, the evening was a great success and everyone in the company went home feeling like a winner. Junior, Eileen Wickline, spoke truthfully after the awards and said, “Now we are really only looking forward to next year!” It appears that the whole theater company feels this way and is ready and excited to put on more shows next year when they will impress the Cappies critics once again.
