I don’t like the argument that we shouldn’t clump Cappies articles with other articles of interest to community theaters. I could see professional theaters making a similar argument that their news and reviews shouldn’t be clumped in with “community theater” information.

A couple people have suggested moving Cappies coverage to another site or sub-site. I’m not thrilled with that idea, as it makes a bit more work on us on maintaining the site(s). The next logical step to doing that would be to set up another site for adult professional coverage, which I definitely would not want to do.

I do believe providing additional outlets for publication of worthy CAPPIES runners-up is commendable. But I stand by my stated opinion in my survey submission that clumping local high school productions with those of the highly regarded independent amateur/community producing groups does a disservice to the latter groups. Many of these productions are performed/staffed by individuals with extensive legitimate theatrical training and/or experience, a good number of whom could have pursued working careers in the professional theatre industry had not financial, family or other concerns prevented such as a viable option.

I’ve always found it jarring to access your page to see your take on a production that may involve friends or colleagues of mine, only to have to scroll through a page of high school reviews. Could you not continue to provide alternate Cappies coverage on a separate page or under a separate banner to delineate between youth productions and adult amateur productions?

Judy Bowns, Cappies Co-founder/Director