By Michael Buzzelli
Prime Stage Theatre held it’s fifth annual High School Drama Awards on January 11 in Shady Side Academy’s Hillman Center for Performing Arts.
Emcee Monteze Freeland welcomed local luminaries to present the awards such as Matt Henderson, Wali Jamal, Daina Griffith and Dan Krell, alongside area educators from Point Park, Carnegie Mellon University and more.
Pine-Richard High School won Best Overall Production for “The Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon,” a tongue-in-cheek show about Hallmark Christmas movies.
The top awards went to Jillian Uzelac ( Pine-Richland High School) for Best Actress and Connor Hart (Carlyton High School) for Best Actor.
Callie Dailey (Thomas Jefferson High School) garnered Best Supporting Actress with Jake Pazin (Pine-Richland High School) for Best Supporting Actor.
The Best Student Director was handed out to Jake Miller for Quaker Valley High School’s production of “Almost, Maine.”
Best Student Stage Manager went to the team at Pine-Richland High School for their production of “The Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon.”
Additional awards were handed out for the productions.
Nicole Short won Best Student Program/Poster Design and/or Fabrication (Pine-Richland High School). The team at Carlyton High School won Best Student Sound Design and/or Operation. Chartiers Valley High School won Best Student Onstage Run Crew.
Best Student Scenic Design and/or Fabrication went to Wesley Wright (Pine-Richland High School). Best Student Lighting Design and/or Operation went to Theo Walsh and Tyler Debski (Chartiers Valley High School). Debski also won for Best Student Use of Creative Special Effects.
April Kanai (Carlyton High School) was handed the statuette for Best Prop Design and/or Fabrication.
Lilith Bohin (Fox Chapel High School) won for Best Costume Design and/or Fabrication and Brianna Zoller (Thomas Jefferson High School) won for Best Student Makeup Design and/or Application.
Students performed scenes from their shows which included “12 Angry Jurors” from Avonworth High School, “Sorry, Wrong Show,” from Carlyton High School, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” from Chartiers Valley High School, “The Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon,” and “Almost, Maine” from Quaker Valley High School.
Director John Dolphin said, “As leaders in the Pittsburgh theatre community, we feel it is our duty to bring guidance and recognition to the young people who will soon take our place. They are the future of our community, both theatre and otherwise, and without them, Pittsburgh theatre would not be prospering in the amazing ways we see today.”
For more information about Prime Stage Theatre and their upcoming events, click here.