Paul VI Student Earns Award for Dream Performance in Wizard of Oz

A local teen who realized her dream of playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz is now being recognized for that portrayal.

Courtney Straub, 16, of Gloucester Township, won the Perry Award for Outstanding Youth Actress in a Musical for her performance.

Straub, a junior at Paul VI in Haddonfield, was the youngest competitor in her division, her mother, Patty said.

“This is such an amazing accomplishment being awarded best in the entire State of New Jersey!!! We are so proud of her,” Straub said in an email.

The New Jersey Association of Community Theaters (NJACT) is an organization dedicated to supporting local theater around the state.

The group’s core mission is to celebrate outstanding achievements by artists of all disciplines involved in the performance and production of New Jersey Community Theater.

It awards the NJACT Perry Awards, New Jersey’s premiere community theater awards program.

The NJACT works to identify the best and the brightest that New Jersey community theater has to offer and celebrate their work with an awards ceremony every fall.

Almost 300 shows are produced by theater companies around the state are submitted each year, which require over 400 reviews by trained NJACT volunteers.

NJACT bestows Perry Awards in 33 performance and technical categories based on NJACT reviewer scores. Candidates with the top seven scores in each category are considered nominees. The nominee with the highest score in each category receives the Perry Award.

In October of last year, Patty Straub told Patch: “She started singing and dancing when she was 4 years old, at school masses and her brother Eric’s baseball and hockey games in Gloucester Township.”

The attached photo was provided by Patty Straub