Back Row (L to R): Becky Paul as Aunt Terry, Will Sanfilippo as Ed; Front Row (L to R): Anna Dimaiuta as Mrs. Anderson, Jack Wolff as Christopher, and Alex Lesnik as Siobhan
Photo by Barbara Heis.
by Hayley Asai from Quince Orchard High School, a Nominated Bill Strauss Graduating Critic
This year, NCA Cappies was back in full swing. On Monday, June 12, students united to celebrate the best of the best in high school theatre across the DMV area.
Cappies is a student organization where critic teams from local high schools visit other schools within the DMV area. Teams of student critics watch and write reviews for high school theatre for the chance to be published in local newspapers. At the end of the year, all the student critics vote to nominate the shows they viewed for awards. The 2022-2023 awards ceremony was held on Monday night, June 12, 2023, at the Kennedy Center, and featured performances from five musicals, six plays, and a host of other dancers, singers, and musicians.
The day before the gala, on Sunday, all performing members got together to rehearse their segments of the ceremony at West Springfield High School.
All schools, nominated or not, were invited to send one performer to partake in an opening number. This group of students, called spotlight performers, rehearsed a new opening number in the week leading up to the gala performance. Tristan Farmer, the performer selected from Fairfax High School, said that he chose to be a spotlight performer because he couldn’t turn down the opportunity to perform on the Kennedy Center stage. Though he expressed discomfort with his sparkly silver nun habit costume, Farmer stated that the rehearsal process for the performance was, “easy, quick, and sufficient.” An avid enjoyer of the process, Farmer said that people should, “Say yes to more things.”
The following evening, Farmer donned the silver habit one last time, gliding and whirling across the stage in sync with the hodgepodge of other eclectic costumes.
Among the performers preparing for a busy Monday was Jack Wolff, who played Christopher in Chantilly High School’s production of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” Wolff first got involved in the production due to the stylistic nature of the work, citing the unique lack of clear-cut transitions and the delivery of the play through Christopher’s point of view. “I thought that was a really cool thing to be able to capture onstage, because that’s something I think about a lot, the way my perspective might be different than someone else’s,” said Wolff. A large part of what spoke to Wolff was the ability to be, “anxious, afraid, and vulnerable” without feeling pressure.
Wolff, a nominee for the Leading Actor in a Male Role in a Play award, said that despite his anxiety about performing, when it came to his award, he was not nervous. “I don’t really hold too much thinking at this point, whatever happens, happens. I’m just hoping I have a nice time with my friends,” said Wolff.
Towards the end of the ceremony, a little over a day later, Wolff sat in the dim audience, waiting patiently while the video of all the nominees for his category played. After a long silent pause, the announcer read Wolff’s own name as the recipient of the award. Through shock and joy, Wolff took to the stage, triumphantly claiming a moment he had every right to stake as his own.
The Cappies organization prides itself most on giving a voice to students in a way that is unlike any other high school awards program. The annual Cappies gala that occurred on Monday, June 12, 2023 was an exemplary example of this; a thrilling night filled with celebration, success, and distinctive performances.
