WSHS Student Nominated for Cappies Lead Actress in a Play

Kaitlyn Rhyne of Woodbridge Senior High
School was nominated for Lead Actress in a Play by fellow students in the Cappies program. Kaitlyn played the large nosed romantic in "Cyrano" and was directed by
theater director, Terri Caretti. 

The Fourteenth Annual Cappies Gala will take place at 7:00 PM on Sunday, June 9, 2013, in the 2400-seat Concert
Hall at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Performers, critics, and tech crews from 56 high schools in Northern Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., will receive 37 prestigious “Cappie” awards, in a glamorous
atmosphere that Cappies (Critics and Awards program) co-founder and Capitol Steps co-founder, Bill Strauss, used to call “part Tonys, part Final Four.” 

Casts of nominated shows and the performers of nominated songs will present musical numbers as well as
sketches from the nominated plays. The photos below will give you a glimpse of the Cappies performers as
photographed by Andrea (Andy) Mays at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, VA.

Throughout the year, the Cappies program is driven by over 380 area high school theater student critics
who attend each others’ shows, write reviews for newspapers and TV, and serve as “Cappies” awards judges. Over the past fourteen years, more than two thousand student-written Cappies reviews have been published by The Washington Post, ShowBizRadio.com, Patch and more than a dozen other area newspapers in both hard copy and online.

On May 11th, approximately 300 student critics voted for Cappie awards, through a digital, student-designed voting process.  A list of nominees (5 for each of the 37 award categories) is available on the NCA Cappies homepage under awards.

Launched in Northern Virginia in 1999,  by Bill Strauss and Judy Bowns, Cappies programs are now underway in 11 U.S. cities, including Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Orlando, and three in Canada, with more cities who are preparing to start up in the fall.

Bill Strauss, who died in 2007, always proudly said: “High School Theater is the real youth culture in America, and someday, these kids are going to revitalize Broadway.  They’re the next great theater generation.”   

Tickets to the gala are only available only through Cappies  high school theater departments.

TO CONTACT THE CAPPIES:  
Judy Bowns, Cappies
Co-founder/Director, Fairfax County Public Schools,  judy.bowns@cappies.com or 571.423.4544

OR:  Andrea (Andy)
Mays, Cappies Program Manager, andy.mays@cappies.com