Geauga County actors get ‘Ovations!’ | Young Thespians

Not to be outdone by their Lake County peers who received recognition for the past school year at the Mentor-Painesville Rotary Drama Awards program earlier this month, Geauga County young thespians got honors of their own as the annual “Ovations!” program was at the beginning of May.

Unlike the Lake County program, which has acting categories evaluated among all the schools, the “Ovations!” program — at the Geauga Lyric Theater Guild in Chardon and sponsored by the Geauga Council for Arts and Culture — “Ovations!” honors each school with awards for acting, vocals, tech and a “wild card” that allows evaluators to honor any aspect of a production that they found noteworthy.

Read on for the participating schools and the honors their students earned. Congratulations to all of our area young thespians for another great year of high school theatre!

• Berkshire High School (“The Addams Family” directed by Jim Lester)

Aiden Burkley (Wednesday) — Acting Award

Skylar Nettles (Morticia) — Vocal Award

Set pieces/details — Tech Award

Josiah Cheung (Gomez) — Wild Card, Acting & Vocals

• Cardinal High School (“Seussical, the Musical” directed by Josh Esenwein)

Faith Peters (Gertrude McFuzz) — Acting Award

Maddie Schultz (The Boy/JoJo) — Vocal Award

Stage crew (set design/stage crew) — Tech Award

Mike McNish (Cat in the Hat – conducting) — Wild Card

• Chardon High School (“Evita” directed by Fritz Streiff and Lisa Marie French)

Kirstin Henry (Evita) — Acting Award

Connor Prusha (Che) — Vocal Award

Props crew — Tech Award

Ensemble (“The Money Keeps Rollin’ In”) — Wild Card

• Kenston High School (“The Addams Family” directed by Julie Green & Emily Leone)

Colin Montville (Uncle Fester) — Acting Award

Nathan Wasinski (Gomez) — Vocal Award

Pit orchestra — Tech Award

Ensemble/Ancestors — Wild Card, Vocals

• Newbury High School (“Annie” directed by Jack Tayek)

Rebecca Harrison (Miss Hannigan) — Acting Award

Niamh Field (Annie) — Vocal Award

Set projections (lighting/sound crew) — Tech Award

Ryan Brown (Rooster) — Wild Card, acting

• Notre Dame Cathedral Latin (“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” directed by Shirley Ivancic Stall)

Elena Dahlhausen (Lucy) — Acting Award

Thaddeus Brennan (Schroeder) — Vocal Award

Set construction crew — Tech Award

Zachary Smith (Snoopy) — Wild Card, acting

Young Thespians is a regular column that focuses on youth in theater. Do you have a production you wish to see featured? E-mail stevecouch@windstream.net, follow me @StevenRCouch on Twitter or join our “Young Thespians” Facebook group and post your show information.