Breaking News: Curtains Blue Star Nominations

The critique of East’s winter musical, “Curtains” was uploaded by English teacher and director Brian Cappello to the Curtains Google Classroom Thursday, Apr. 19. During the week to follow, the cast, crew, and pit of “Curtains” was excitedly and nervously waiting to hear which of their fellow thespians had been nominated for a Blue Star Award.

The Blue Star Awards, modeled after the Tony awards, were founded by Kansas City Starlight in 2003. The award is recognized as one of the largest and highly admired theatre awards in the nation.

Each year, the red-carpet Blue Star award show is where the winners of each award will be announced and honored. This year, the ceremony will be held May 17, with the performances set to begin at 7:30 p.m.

At 8:50 a.m. on the next Thursday, Apr. 26, the students involved in the production were excused to room 213 to hear who had stuck out to the Blue Star judges.

The nominations were:

Outstanding Overall Production

Outstanding Ensemble

Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role – Grace Chisholm (12) as Carmen Bernstein

Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role – Savanna Worthington (12) as Georgia Hendricks

Outstanding Actor in a Featured Role – Luke Knopke (11) as Christopher Belling

Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role – Maggie Mulligan (11) as Bambi Bernet

Outstanding Male Ensemble Member – Reilly Kenney (9) as Dance Company

Rising Star Scholarship – Savanna Worthington (12)

Senior Savanna Worthington, the only cast member of “Curtains” to receive two separate award nominations, said she feels honored and excited to be nominated.

“There are always so many amazing candidates for these nominations,” Worthington said. “I’m so happy for everyone else who got them.”

Cappello was pleased with the outcome as well.

“I was really beyond happy for all the kids who were nominated,” Cappello said. “I was also pleased to see that we got a nomination for outstanding overall production because everyone in the cast, crew, and pit all were given a nod.”

According to freshman Reilly Kenney, nominated for Outstanding Male Ensemble Member, he along with other cast members had an uneasy approach to the musical, but became more and more confident in their performances and the show as a whole.

“Through the process, the cast worked together as one unit,” Kenney said. “I know that the hard work paid off.”

Each high school production that is nominated for Outstanding Overall Production is told by the heads of the Blue Star program to stage an ensemble number from their respective show to perform at the ceremony.