Apple Awards celebrates high school theater across North Central Washington

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An apple award stands in the Numerica Performing Arts Center while the 2025 award nominees rehearse a number for the ceremony in May 2025.

For five years, the Numerica Performing Arts Center has transformed one spring evening into something between a Tony Awards telecast and a regional family reunion.

There are spotlights and sequins, opening numbers and acceptance speeches. Teenagers in suits and stage makeup spill through the lobby. Directors trade costume pieces and lighting advice like recipes. Somewhere backstage, inevitably, "tree number three" is stealing the show.

The Apple Awards return at 7 p.m. May 14 with what producer and PAC technical supervisor Kylee Boggs calls a "passion project" that has grown faster than anyone expected.

"We're in year five," Boggs said, laughing in disbelief. "I was telling everyone, it's like a year 11, but it's only year five."

Created to celebrate and strengthen high school theater programs across North Central Washington, the Apple Awards now include schools from Wenatchee, Eastmont, Cashmere, Chelan, Quincy, Moses Lake and Ephrata. Volunteer adjudicators, local directors, musicians, producers and technical theater professionals, attend productions throughout the school year, offering feedback and selecting nominees.

But the awards themselves are only part of the story.

On the day of the ceremony, students spend hours at the PAC in workshops covering dance, acting and technical theater. Teachers gather separately for roundtable discussions about funding, costumes, staging and sustaining arts programs in districts large and small.

"It can feel like you're an island when you're the director in a high school," Boggs said. "So it's really nice for them to build and foster those relationships."

Those relationships, she said, already have had tangible effects. Schools have secured lighting and sound upgrades. Directors share costumes and set pieces. Programs that once operated independently have begun collaborating.

"It made better productions," Boggs said.

The Apple Awards also have expanded their focus behind the curtain. In recent years, technical theater categories were added to recognize students working in lighting, sound and stagecraft.

"Drama programs everywhere are doing really well bringing their actors up," Boggs said. "But there's no production staff to follow. As an industry, we're suffering for not having a full platter."

That philosophy also shapes the judging process. Awards are based on creativity and student achievement rather than production budgets or institutional advantages.

"People think Wenatchee's just going to sweep every category because they have all this history and all this stuff behind them," Boggs said. "But we don't look at production value. It is fully this student and how they present their character."

Directors initially nominate students to watch, but adjudicators also can recognize unexpected standouts.

Boggs jokingly refers to them as the "tree number three" performers, students in seemingly small roles who somehow walk away with the audience's attention.

"When you go to see a production and you're just floored by tree number three," she said, "they stole the show for you."

The ceremony blends performances and awards, with each participating school presenting a number from one of its productions. Students also rehearse large opening and closing numbers together, choreographed this year by Broadway and off-Broadway choreographer Greer Gisey, a Wenatchee native returning home for the event.

Meanwhile, technical theater students will participate in workshops and "Tech Olympics" led in part by Music Theatre of Wenatchee staff and regional educators.

The program also continues connecting students with scholarships. During the ceremony, Music Theatre of Wenatchee presents its annual scholarship awards for graduating seniors pursuing theater and arts education.

Participation in the Apple Awards is free for schools and funded through sponsorships and the PAC's Every Kid at the PAC initiative. Sponsors frequently purchase blocks of tickets so students can attend at no cost.

This year, Boggs said, Moses Lake is bringing roughly 50 students in its first year participating in the program.

"The seats get eaten up fast," she said.

And that, perhaps, is the clearest sign of what the Apple Awards have become: not simply a ceremony, but a gathering point for a growing regional theater community, one built as much on collaboration as applause.

"It's very much a passion project," Boggs said. "I personally believe it's really helping build our theater community up."

Nominees for this year's Apple Awards include students and productions from participating high schools throughout North Central Washington. Categories include lead performer, supporting performer, ensemble, technical theater and overall production honors.

A full list of nominees and ticket information is available at numericapac.org/apple-awards.

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