Cortland Rep's Pavilion Awards Ceremony Held Tonight, 6/11

Cortland Repertory Theatre has announced the nominees for their tenth annual "Pavilion Awards" which recognize Outstanding Achievement in local high school theatre. The ceremony takes place tonight, June 11. For the sixth year, First Niagara Bank serves as the Corporate Sponsor for this program, which allows for many categories within the musical and non-musical genres. Musicals in consideration were held at the Cortland, Dryden, Groton, Homer, McGraw and Tully High Schools. Non-musical plays were also presented at Cortland, Homer and Tully.

The nominees are as following:

Musical: Seussical the Musical (Cortland), Beauty and the Beast (Dryden), The King and I (Groton), Anything Goes (Homer), Annie (McGraw) and Jekyll and Hyde (Tully).

Play: To See the Stars (Cortland), Inherit the Wind (Homer), and Romeo and Juliet (Tully).

Ensemble (musical): Seussical the Musical (Cortland), Beauty and the Beast (Dryden), The King and I (Groton), Anything Goes (Homer), Annie (McGraw) and Jekyll and Hyde (Tully).

Ensemble (play): To See the Stars (Cortland), Inherit the Wind (Homer), and Romeo and Juliet (Tully).

Leading Actor in a Musical: Elias Rivera (Cortland), Gabe Petrella (Groton), Anthony Urda (Homer), Wyatt Buerkle (McGraw) and TRoy Brown (Tully).

Leading Actress in a Musical: Sarah Pristach (Cortland), Rebecca Woods (Dryden), Jordan Twitchell (Groton), Lucia Helgren (Homer), Ziabeth Perez (McGraw) and Mary Burgett (Tully).

Leading Actor in a Play: Alex Klaes (Cortland), Nigel Vanderwoude (Cortland), Tom Horton (Homer), Anthony Urda (Homer) and Drew Deal (Tully).

Leading Actress in a Play: Katylyn Adams (Cortland), Kira Hyde (Homer), Hannah Lundeen (Homer) and Lauren Ralbovsky (Tully).

Supporting Actor in a Musical: Austin Brecht (Dryden), Ian Bateman (Dryden), Josh Apker (Homer), and Drew Deal (Tully).

Supporting Actress in a Musical: Caitlin Troy (Cortland), Carolyn Crawford (Dryden), Hannah Roos (Homer), Sara Dougherty (McGraw) and Lauren Ralbovsky (Tully).

Supporting Actor in a Play: Alex Reynolds (Cortland), Richie Howell (Homer), Jacob Elikins (Homer) and Dustin Draper (Tully).

Supporting Actress in a Play: Caitlin Troy (Cortland), Brooke Campbell (Cortland), Lucia Helgren (Homer), Isabella Puente (Tully) and Emily Papini (Tully).

Featured Actor in a Musical: Blake Pace (Cortland), Will Hanson (Dryden), Joel Twitchell (Groton), Liam Whalen (Homer) and Benjamin Ackley (McGraw).

Featured Actress in a Musical: Katylyn Adams (Cortland), Allie Young (Dryden), Bethany Welgoss (Dryden), Samantha Ackley (McGraw) and Jess Mohn (Tully).

Featured Actor in a Play: Matt Porter (Cortland), John Ruquet (Cortland), and Jimmy McLorn (Homer).

Featured Actress in a Play: Michaela Pace (Cortland), Caitlin Little (Cortland), Amy Grantham (Cortland) and Jenn Redenback (Homer).

Student Written One-Act Play: "What Could Happen?" by Elyssa Gerchak, "The Wolf" by Elizabeth Maxwell, "The Dead Authors" by Hannah Zhang, and "Does It End?" by Molly Wagner and Rachel Pallassino. All nominees are from Cortland High.

Technical Achievement: Kaitlin Carpenter (Dryden), Josh Faulkner (Dryden), Alison Schug (Dryden), Dallas Butler (Homer), and Trevor Dewey (Tully).

Theatre-As-Education: The King and I (Groton), Anything Goes (Homer) and Annie (McGraw).

Also the students themselves will pick a "Most Valuable Player" from each production. This award is chosen for the person involved in the production who went above and beyond the call of duty for their show. This recognition is voted on and chosen by the cast and crews themselves; no outside judges are involved.

Scholarships are also available for graduating seniors who are pursuing higher education in the theatre arts. Members of the CRT Board of Directors Youth Programming Committee decide the recipients of these scholarships.

For the productions and acting awards, volunteer judges attended the shows. All are involved with Central New York theatre in some way, whether as a performer, technician, within the educational system or as an avid theatre-goer. In each category, the nominees who received the most votes have been selected as finalists. In the event that a judge is unable to attend a performance, the total number of points each nominee receives is divided by the number of judges attending to determine ranking. Factors such as the size of the role, number of songs, time on stage, etc. determine the category in which each actor is placed

"The point of these awards is to build a sense of a theatre community within the high school in and near Cortland" CRT Producing Director Kerby Thompson explains. "We try to focus on the terrific high school theatre being presented in our area, and not on making this a 'cut-throat' competition. These students have been involved in something they will remember for the rest of the lives, and this award ceremony should be a fun way to end the school year."

The Pavilion Award Ceremony will be held tonight, June 11th at 7:00 pm at the Little York Pavilion, home to CRT. The awards will be presented on the set for CRT's first show "The Ladies Man" and each school will perform a musical number from their show at the ceremony. Presenters will include actors, administration and staff of the 2012 CRT summer season, as well as representatives from First Niagara Bank. The CRT Board of Directors will host a reception afterwards. Call 607-756-2627 for more information.