Laguna Beach High School’s two musicals received 24 individual awards and captured the overall recognition of excellence prize “Le Theatre Libre” at the 41st Annual Childress MACY Awards last Sunday.
In addition, the school’s production of a scene from “Footloose,” won the “Performance of the Day” award, beating out 16 other schools invited to perform.
“Probably the most exciting moment of the day came with our four-minute presentation of a cutting from the show,” said Mark Dressler, director of the LBHS drama program. “Because we performed in front of the best schools in Southern California, we wanted to look really good!”
The event recognizes student performing artists from 27 high schools for their work on stage during the past school year. The event was recently renamed for its inspirational co-founder, 94-year-old Lee Childress.
Two LBHS shows were evaluated by MACY judges, the smaller scale fall musical “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown” and the spring show “Footloose.”
Individual winners from various categories included Katharine Epstein, Natalie Redwitz, Kiki Henderson, Hayley Seitz, Dylan DelPizzo-Howell, Haley Castuera, Brad Barnes, Nicolas Leighton, Elias Cerdas, Karina Parker, Claire LaRose, Kate Stewart, Daniella Crivello, Sarah Busic, Luke Dressler, Jackson Tupy, Makenna Zur Schmiede, Sawyer Pierce, Louis Brown, Conor Ross, and Chandler Davis.
