Drama club’s spring production singled out for best overall production in area high school theater awards
The nominations have been announced for the third annual Syracuse High School Theatre Awards, and Cazenovia High School’s production of “42nd Street” received five nominations, including best overall production.
The awards, sponsored by the Syracuse Post Standard and The Landmark Theater, celebrate and recognize local student achievements in the production and performance of theater.
“We are thrilled to see our production included on the list of high-quality school musicals from the area,” said Theresa Campbell, music director for the show and also director of the fine arts for the Cazenovia school district. “Our students have worked hard, balancing their other responsibilities while attending show rehearsals and developing acting, singing and, in particular, tap dancing skills. In addition, we have a very dedicated and skilled set construction, tech crew and pit orchestra. This was a huge team effort.”
Each year, the SHSTA committee calls for interested schools to enter the competition early in the year. A team of volunteer judges from the local theater scene attends several plays each, then undergoes an adjudication process to calibrate their ratings, according to sponsor information. Awards are handed out in 14 categories, including best overall production, outstanding lead and supporting actor roles, best chorus, orchestra, director and more.
The Cazenovia High School Drama Club was recognized this year for its March performance of “42nd Street.” First produced on Broadway in 1981, “42nd Street” depicts the glamour and excitement of Broadway and New York City, circa 1932. Essentially a show within a show, the musical tells the story of a troupe preparing to perform the show “Pretty Lady” when the leading lady gets injured and can’t go on. “42nd Street” is a show full of songs that everybody knows, such as “We’re in the Money,” “Lullaby of Broadway” and “42nd Street.”
“Each year we are challenged to select a show that will provide opportunities for our talented students to shine. The selection of ‘42nd Street’ was risky because it involved a great deal of tap dancing, which was new to most of our students,” Campbell said. “Mrs. Carroll had a vision for making this a successful and balanced company production. She worked closely with Mr. Phan (set/tech director), myself and Mrs. Coburn (pit orchestra director) to pull everything together. She deserves a great deal of credit for bringing the goal to fruition.”
Cazenovia’s five SHSTA nominations include:
•Outstanding overall production of a musical.
•Outstanding performance by an ensemble/chorus.
•Outstanding production number – “We’re in the Money.”
•Outstanding choreographer – Maureen Carroll.
• Rising Star – Jonathan Benn.
This was the second year that Cazenovia entered the competition. Last year, student actor Zach Simms was nominated for the “Rising Star” award.
“We always feel as though our musicals are strong so we thought it would be nice to try and get recognized in the Central New York arena,” Campbell said. “Mostly it seemed like an excellent way to motivate our students to stretch themselves and work for even greater perfection, knowing that guest adjudicators would be attending our show and scoring their work. We knew how fabulous all of the other shows at surrounding schools are, so expectations for getting nominated were not unrealistically high.”
Some of the schools and shows competing against Cazenovia for this year’s SHSTA trophies include the Fayetteville-Manlius production of “The Phantom of the Opera;” the Oneida High School production of “Les Miserables;” and the Vernon-Verona-Sherill production of “Anything Goes.”
Jonathan Benn, who played Andy Lee in the Cazenovia show and was nominated for the “Rising Star” award, said he was “ecstatic and very thankful” for the experience of performing in the show. “But I can’t take all the credit because the whole cast was an important part of helping me get to this point. As I looked at the list of each category I got even more excited when I saw everyone got nominated for outstanding overall production. This information made me even more proud than I am already of this amazing cast,” Benn said. “As I got a chance to work with stage crew also, I have an even higher appreciation because they did things for the show that I never would have thought of. This was an experience I will remember for the rest of my life.”
Maureen Carroll, nominated for outstanding choreographer, said she felt honored for the recognition. “I have enjoyed all of the shows and casts I have been able to work with over the years, but choreographing a show that has so many dance numbers is even more fun for me,” she said. “Watching the students learn from the beginning to seeing them in the finished production is really exciting.”
Carroll, who has choreographed 31 musicals at Cazenovia High School, said she started teaching students tap dancing last fall, selected the final musical actors in December and worked with them on the choreography up until the March performance. “The students looked at learning the tap dances as a challenge and were very proud each time the conquered a new step,” Carroll said. “I could not be more proud of how hard they worked to learn the dances and how well they performed them.”
The Syracuse High School Theatre Awards will be presented starting at 5 p.m. Sunday, June 4, at the Landmark Theatre in a Tony Awards-inspired production featuring hundreds of high school performers and the participation of cast, crew and orchestra members from local schools and the community. Fourteen awards will be presented throughout the evening, punctuated by theatrical performances by several schools.
The CHS Drama Club will not only be in attendance, but will perform “We’re in the Money” at the show, one of six schools invited to have a number featured. The CHS students will also be in the show opening and closing numbers.
The awards will be presented at 5 p.m. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. Tickets will be $10 in advance at landmarktheatre.org and $12 at the door.
For more information, visit shstas.com.
