Moravian Academy Wins 2 Freddy Awards

Tiny won two Freddy Awards Thursday night at Easton’s State Theatre, which was as good a night as any school not named Parkland had at the annual celebration and awards ceremony for Lehigh Valley high school theater.

Moravian’s Sam Steele won the award for “Outstanding Featured Performance by an Actress,” for her portrayal of Cat, the villain in “HONK!”

The Moravian production, which was of a musical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s "The Ugly Duckling," also won the award for “Outstanding Achievement in Lighting.”

’s Nicholas Acampora won the award for “Outstanding Performance by a Featured Dancer,” for his work in Half a Sixpence.

Lauren Albers of shared an award with Emmaus High School’s Kayleigh Jardine for “Outstanding Performance by a Featured Female Ensemble Member.” Albers played Grandma Rosie in Notre Dame’s production of The Wedding Singer.

, which began the evening with 15 award nominations for Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – tied for the second most of any participating school – left the theater empty-handed. , which had one nomination, was also shut out.

Whitehall High School’s production of L’il Abner won the award for “Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical,” an honor that Freedom was also up for. Whitehall, like Freedom, had been shut out until the culminating award of the evening.

Freedom’s production and cast still played a large role in the three-plus hour ceremony, which some have likened to a Tony Awards for the local scholastic theater set. It was broadcast regionally by WFMZ-TV, Channel 69, and on the Web at www.wfmz.com.

As a nominee for best musical, the cast got to perform two numbers from the show. And Daniel Youngelman, the show’s lead, got to perform separately in a medley of best lead actor nominees.

It was a big night for small school participants in the Freddy Awards. Moravian was joined by Pius X; Southern Lehigh; Northern Lehigh; and Hackettstown High School in New Jersey as winners of two awards.

The only schools to do as well or better were Allentown’s Dieruff, which also won two awards, and Parkland, which led the pack with four for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Sarah Klingel of Pius X and Ben Mays of Parkland won the best lead actress and actor roles, respectively. That makes them both nominees for the National High School Theater Awards, which will take place in New York on June 27, said Shelley Brown, president and chief executive officer of The State Theatre, who co-emceed the event with Ed Hanna of WFMZ-TV.