Cashmere High School drama nominated for Apple Awards

CASHMERE – The Cashmere High School Drama Department has a strong showing for the 2024 Annual Apple Awards, with nominations in every category. 

The Numerica Performing Arts Center recently announced nominees for the Apple Awards, which recognize outstanding achievements in high school theater in the region. The awards recognize excellence in musical and stage play performances.

"We are thrilled with the nominations for the Apple Awards recognizing the talent and hard work of our cast, crew and orchestra for both "Sabrina Fair" and "Mamma Mia!"," CHS drama director Susan Gubsch said.

Nominations for CHS include Best Overall Musical for "Mamma Mia!", Best Overall Play for "Sabrina Fair", Best Ensemble in a Musical for "Mamma Mia!", and Best Ensemble in a Play for "Sabrina Fair".

Ali Moran as Sophie Sheridan and Lily Erdmann as Donna Sheridan were both nominated for Best Lead Performer in a Musical for their performance in "Mamma Mia!".

Gabby Winchester was nominated for Best Supporting Performer in a Musical for her role as Tanya Cresham-Leigh in "Mamma Mia!".

Best Lead Performer in a Play nominees are Ali Moran as Sabrina Fairchild in "Sabrina Fair" and Dylan Cornea as Linus Larrabee Jr in "Sabrina Fair".

Best Supporting Performer in a Play nominees are Gabby Winchester as Aunt Julia in "Sabrina Fair" and Lily Erdmann as Maude Larrabee in "Sabrina Fair".

The awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, May 16, at 7 p.m. at the Numerica Performing Arts Center in Wenatchee.

Brian Higgins will direct the awards ceremony. Higgins is a teacher at Wenatchee High School, a frequent performer in local theater, and a director for Quincy's community theater. 

"The evening will run like a Hollywood awards show," Higgins said. "We'll be handing out awards to winners in each category, and interspersed amongst those awards presentations will be performances from nominees and cast members from each of the high schools."

"We are highlighting nominees in each of those performances, both musical and dramatic scenes, and they will, for the most part, perform scenes and songs from the shows their schools performed this year," he said. 

"We have a few other performances we'll see during the evening, but we're trying to keep some things as a surprise for our audience," he said. "Ultimately, we want to provide our attendees with a show—a meaningful experience and a chance to celebrate and share their gratitude for the hard work these groups have put in across our communities."

"All the nominees will get to perform in an opening number for the event," Gubsch said. "We will also be performing scenes in costume from "Sabrina Fair" and "Mamma Mia!".  

"It is going to be a great night celebrating the outstanding high school theater in all of the valley," she said.

Alex Haley, Director of Programming and Marketing for the Numerica Performing Arts Center, said the nominees were chosen by the Apple Academy, a group of community members, actors, and directors in the Greater Wenatchee Area. 

"Schools nominate two performers in each category (Lead and Supporting), and the evaluators can nominate additional standouts they see during the performances," Haley said. 

Academy members attend each show throughout the school year and provide feedback that gets scored for each award category. After all the scores are tabulated, they reconvene to discuss each production and performer in detail, he said. 

"Finally, they use a ranked voting system to determine the final winners, announced during the ceremony," Haley said. "The Numerica PAC facilitates this entire process but remains neutral throughout. The Apple Academy, presenters, and director of the ceremony are all unaware of the award recipients until they're presented that night."

"My personal goal for the evening, second to celebrating those students, is to connect those students to the people in their communities who are continuing to make the arts a part of their daily life," Higgins said. "To do that, I am inviting people from each of those communities that serve our high schools to be a part of the awards show." 

"Our list of awards presenters includes people from Chelan, Cashmere, Wenatchee, Quincy, East Wenatchee and Leavenworth," Higgins said. "We have representatives from the arts organizations in these communities, including Music Theater Wenatchee and Quincy Valley Allied Arts." 

Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students and can be purchased at NumericaPAC.org or at the Numerica PAC Box Office (123 N. Wenatchee Ave.), which is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The 2024 Apple Awards Nominees

Best Overall Musical

• 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee – Wenatchee High School
• Mamma Mia! – Cashmere High School
• The Addams Family – Quincy High School
• The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson Musical – Eastmont High School

Best Overall Play

• Murder on the Orient Express – Quincy High School
• Radium Girls – Eastmont High School
• Sabrina Fair – Cashmere High School
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – Chelan High School

Best Ensemble in a Musical

• Mamma Mia! – Cashmere High School
• The Addams Family – Quincy High School
• The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson Musical – Eastmont High School

Best Ensemble in a Play

• Murder on the Orient Express – Quincy High School
• Radium Girls – Eastmont High School
• Sabrina Fair – Cashmere High School

Best Lead Performer in a Musical

• Alexi Birrueta Ramos as Gomez Addams in The Addams Family (Quincy High School)
• Ali Moran as Sophie Sheridan in Mamma Mia! (Cashmere High School)
• Emma Banker as Olive Ostrovsky in 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

(Wenatchee High School)

• Grant Chisholm as Percy Jackson in The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson Musical

(Eastmont High School)

• Lily Erdmann as Donna Sheridan in Mamma Mia! (Cashmere High School)
• Maya Scanlon as Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre in 25th Annual Putnam County

Spelling Bee (Wenatchee High School)

• Savannah Webb as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes (Wenatchee High School)

Best Supporting Performer in a Musical

• Allie Manly as Alice Beinecke in The Addams Family (Quincy High School)
• Gabby Winchester as Tanya Cresham-Leigh in Mamma Mia! (Cashmere High School)
• Gavin Hundley as Grover in The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson Musical (Eastmont High

School)

• JazzLynn Padron as Pugsley Addams in The Addams Family (Quincy High School)
• Liam Schmidt as Moonface Martin in Anything Goes (Wenatchee High School)
• Rowan Kappler as Luke Castellan in The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson Musical

(Eastmont High School)

• Savannah Webb as Rona Lisa Peretti in 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

(Wenatchee High School)

Best Lead Performer in a Play

• Ali Moran as Sabrina Fairchild in Sabrina Fair (Cashmere High School)
• Alicia Lasley Pineda as Greta Ohlsson in Murder in the Orient Express (Quincy High

School)

• Annesley Edwards as Grace Fryer in Radium Girls (Eastmont High School)
• Dylan Cornea as Linus Larrabee Jr in Sabrina Fair (Cashmere High School)
• Rowan Kappler as Arthur Roeder in Radium Girls (Eastmont High School)

Best Supporting Performer in a Play

• Allie Manly as Countess Adrenyi in Murder on the Orient Express (Quincy High School)
• Clara Lebow as Diane Roeder in Radium Girls (Eastmont High School)
• David Kelly as Scarecrow in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Chelan High School)
• Gabby Winchester as Aunt Julia in Sabrina Fair (Cashmere High School)
• Lily Erdmann as Maude Larrabee in Sabrina Fair (Cashmere High School)

Quinn Propst: 509-731-3590 or quinn@ward.media.