Critics and Awards Program for High School Students

The Cappies (Critics and Awards Program) is an international program for recognizing, celebrating, and providing learning experiences for high school theater and journalism students and teenage playwrights. There are currently 13 Cappies programs in the U.S. and Canada, ranging in size from five to fifty-five participating high schools. Within each program, every participating high school selects three to nine students for a critic team. After receiving extensive training in theater criticism and review writing, they attend plays and musicals at other high schools in their area. They write reviews (of roughly 400 words) on deadline. Volunteer teacher-mentors lead discussions and select the critic-written reviews that are later published by area newspapers, with student bylines. The programs operate in and around Baltimore, Maryland (see "the Cappies in Baltimore, Maryland"); Cincinnati, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; El Paso, Texas; Ft. Lauderdale – Palm Beach, Florida; Houston, Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; Melbourne, Florida; Northern New Jersey; Orange County, California; Orlando, Florida; Philadelphia, PA; St. Louis, Missouri; Salt Lake City, Utah; Springfield, Missouri; Washington, DC; Edmonton, Canada; and Ottawa, Canada. To start a Cappies program, you must organize a small local meeting, with students, parents, and teachers. There will need to be at least four schools willing to participate for your application to be approved. From there you form a steering committee (including a Program Director, Chair, Treasurer, and two other members) and apply for a charter application. While waiting for approval, it's best to find local newspapers/media outlets that are willing to publish 1-2 reviews on a weekly basis. Once approved, there is a $300 annual application fee paid to Cappies, plus a $5–10 per-critic fee that is assessed in November based on critic training sessions and enrollments in the online information services. Each regional steering committee determines the per school fee requirements.

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