Thousands of students, donned in their best dresses and suits, take their seats in the enormous Aronoff Center, preparing to receive the biggest awards in their high school theater careers.
These talented individuals are a part of The Cappies, an organization dedicated to recognizing the achievements of exceptional high school theater groups. There are 12 chapters of this organization across the United States and Canada, and WHHS competes in the Greater Cincinnati Chapter.
“The Cappies is a really great advocate for student theater artists to have a voice and have their work recognized in a public forum,” Michael Sherman, program director for the Greater Cincinnati Chapter and WHHS theater director, said. “Oftentimes, theater programs are overlooked in favor of sports or don’t get the same media coverage in town that sports do.”
Each participating school designates one show from their season as their “Cappie show” and creates a team of three to nine student critics who review at least five other schools’ Cappie shows. Once they’ve reviewed multiple shows, the critics then vote on awards such as Best Musical, Best Song, etc.
“They’re doing this under the supervision of adult mentors, who are teachers from other schools that volunteer to basically run discussion rooms at these shows or to be the judge of which reviews get published from the show and at the end of the year,” Sherman said. “After the whole season has completed, the critics who are eligible vote on the awards for the season.”
The WHHS theater department chose its upcoming musical, the regional premiere of “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” to be its Cappie show for this year.
“Our Cappie shows are usually our biggest shows of the year; that’s usually how they’re picked, and so we really put an effort into publicizing them and using Cappies as an element to bring people in so that we can expand our community,” Abigail Kershner, ‘26, a member of the critic team, said.
There is an extra boost of excitement knowing that the production is being reviewed, and everyone tries to perform their best, not only for a Cappie award but also for their own achievement.
“Trophies are trophies, but being able to pride yourself on pulling the best performance out of yourself is really the heart as to why we keep participating in Cappies,” Sherman said.
Along with participating in WHHS Cappie shows, critics also get to see other schools’ Cappie shows and observe how one school puts on a production compared to another.
“I joined [the critic team] because I wanted to be able to experience what other schools are doing with their theater program,” Kershner said. “It’s really important to understand theater, something I want to go into, so understanding how different people work and how they’re doing stuff is really interesting.”
This is Kershner’s first year as a critic, and she has enjoyed the whole experience, from writing reviews to interacting with other theater students.
“It’s a really fun bonding experience with theater kids [because of] the camaraderie element of getting to talk to people from [other] schools and getting to know the people that go to my school a little bit more,” Kershner said.
Another advantage of being a critic is that they can apply their knowledge of what critics look for to better the shows they are a part of.
“I’m an actor primarily, and [being a critic] has really helped me to learn what really makes a good, hopefully award-worthy performance in the eyes of a critic,” Caroline Lovelace, ‘26, another member of the critic team, said.
In her second year on the team, Lovelace has started to become more comfortable with the procedures and people.
“You start to hone your own process as a critic,” Lovelace said. “There’s a lot of training that they give us on how to be a critic, and it’s very helpful, but you have to perfect your own process in terms of taking notes, interacting in discussion rooms at shows and especially writing reviews.”
Student critics often create a unique writing process that they use each time they watch and review a Cappie show.
“I write down almost any thought that I have about the show during the show; [then] at home, I have all my thoughts to look at… my ‘brain vomit’ from during the show,” Lovelace said. “I type the sensical stuff together into my laptop, sit down and it takes me two to three hours, max, [to plug it into] the outline that I’ve set up for myself over the past two years.”
At the end of the year, the critic teams and all the students who participated in their school’s Cappie show attend a formal gala at The Aronoff where winning students receive their awards and perform excerpts from their productions.
“The gala is so exciting,” Lovelace said. “It’s really cool [that] you’re there with people who are just excited to see the theater and support other Thespians in the Cincinnati area.”