A Bright Light On Teens With Talent

On the night that three youngsters won Tony Awards for best actor in "Billy Elliot," 10 times as many teenagers were receiving accolades for theater performances right here at home. I'll match the talent shown by youngsters at our own Cappie Awards, held Sunday at the Kennedy Center, with anything you might have seen at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Sure, "Elliot" is a charming London import, no doubt worthy of 10 Tony Awards. But Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax won seven Cappies for a production of "Fiddler on the Roof" that was second to none. The competition included 60 Washington area high school theater companies; winners were selected by 277 high school theater critics.

Forget for a moment our common misperceptions of Generation Next and its virtual world of voyeurism, teenage texting and twittering. You'll find in these youthful performers a passionate desire to create worlds in which they participate fully -- not just navigate and manipulate from the outside as, say, video gamers do.

And by walking in the shoes of such characters as Romeo and Juliet and by acting in such productions as "To Kill A Mockingbird," they discover much about themselves.

"We had a wonderful cast with very diverse backgrounds," said Nabila Mangum, 16, who performed in "Ragtime" at Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in the District. "We had our issues. But we worked hard, and in the end, we all came together."

That kind of coming together and solving problems was a goal that Bill Strauss and Judy Bowns had in mind when they founded the Cappies 10 years ago. At the time, the nation was in shock after the massacre at Columbine High in Colorado. There had to be a place for youngsters who felt like outsiders to fit in. The stage was such a place.

"Kids love being weird and unique, and yet they yearn to be a part of something -- an ensemble, if you will," said Bowns, a theater arts and resource teacher with Fairfax County public schools. "Bill and I thought that we'd create a space that was all-inclusive." Strauss, a founder of the political satire group Capitol Steps, died two years ago. His wife, Janie, helps carry on his work.

Starting in 1999 with just 13 high schools from Virginia, Maryland and the District, the Cappies (Critics and Awards Program) has been duplicated by hundreds of schools throughout the United States and Canada. In the Washington area alone, more than 5,000 students were involved this year as theater critics, cast members, musicians and stagehands.

To see the winners of this year's Cappies and learn more about the program, go to http://www.cappies.com.

A year of hard work culminated at one of the nation's grandest venues for the performing arts. But rather than serve merely as a stage, the Kennedy Center became an elegant backdrop as hundreds of high school performers turned the gala itself into a kind of play. Call it "Scream," with the excitement of 60 high school graduations and homecomings rolled into one.

"Teenagers live at a very raw, emotional level with passions on their sleeves," said Douglas "Chip" Rome, director of the Cappies gala and theater director at Robinson. "The performing arts, which are designed to communicate on an emotional level, offer a perfect opportunity for them to focus where they live, regardless of what range of emotions a particular piece may offer."

And, of course, there's the bonding and the forging of lasting friendships.