I was active in theater all through high school, not only because I wasn’t really good at sports and wanted to be active in something. But the theater club was where the girls were. Momma didn’t raise no fool.



I not only fell in love time and again with those female actor types but fell in love with acting itself during those years.



Staging productions at Lakes High School those many years ago are some of the best memories I have of my childhood.



I have to say that the quality of theater in high schools in the South Sound has risen quite a bit since those days. 



And frankly, Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre has a role to play in that since it hosts a Puget Sound version of the Tony Awards to honor high school productions and individual performances.



South Sound high schools generally fair well when awards night comes around. This year is no exception. Here is a roster of the local winners:



The Outstanding Overall Musical Production award went to Olympia High School, Bye Bye Birdie.


An Outstanding Direction award went to Bellarmine Preparatory School, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which also won the Outstanding Music Direction, Outstanding Costume Design and Outstanding Orchestra awards.



An Outstanding Choreography honor went to Curtis High School’s School House Rock Live!



Outstanding Stage Crew honors went to River Ridge High School’s Little Women.

An Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role honor went to Faith Higgins as Ruth Sherwood in Peninsula High School’s Wonderful Town.



An Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role honor went to Henry Nettleton as Joseph in Bellarmine’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

An Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role award went to  Gabriella Guilfoil as Marmee in Capital High School’s Little Women.


An Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Featured Ensemble Role honor went to Stephanie Kroschel as Ursula Merkle in Olympia High School’s Bye Bye Birdie.



Special Honors for an Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast went to Olympic High School’s Godspell, while Special Honors for Student Achievement went to Capital High School’s Kristina Hess.

On stage

On the community theater front, Paradise Theatre is staging The Miss Firecracker Contest by Beth Henley.



This story follows the life of Carnelle, an irrepressible young woman who thinks that winning the local beauty contest is the end-all, beat-all of her world and make her somebody in her small Mississippi community after she gained a less than upright reputation.



[Paradise Theatre, through July 5, 7:30 p.m. Fri-Sat, 3 p.m. Sun, $8-$15, 9911 Burnham Dr. N.W., Gig Harbor, 253.851.PLAY

Still playing

Harlequin Productions promises to make it all look so easy by staging Sixties Chicks, a look at the founding mothers of rock and roll. The show traces the passage of the 1960s American Girl from naive romantic to social activist: from the sounds of girl groups like The Chiffons, The Crystals, The Ronettes and The Shirelles, through soloists like Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin, to singer-songwriters like Carole King, Grace Slick and Joni Mitchell. — SD

[State Theater, through July 19, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $12-$20, 202 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, 360.786.0151]