And the Freddy nominees are...

Emmaus and Parkland .... there's a shocker! It's a shame that schools with much less funding than these two Giants are put in the same slot as them. How can a small school possibly compete against these Rich Schools? Each year it caters to the rich schools. But whatever, you'll have this I guess.

The Freddy's offer an award for Best production for small school productions along with one for the larger schools (Emmaus, Parkland, Freedom). Of you look closer at the nominations you will see a large contingent of small schools represented (Central Catholic, Becahi, Warren, Blair, Notre Dame) in the acting catagories. The larger schools may "look" better only because they are "larger than life". However, talent is not a result of a look, but only how the student actor becomes a character in the show. Congratulations to all the nominees and to the State Theater and Channel 69 for bringing the Freddy's to the Lehigh Valley each year. To the nominees I say Ignore the ignorant and the jealous. Enjoy the ride.

Nothing like watching self-congratulatory (yet mediocre) high school theatre productions. Shame on you all.

I have my own issues with the Freddy's, but this quote really ups the ignorance factor typical on these boards. You've surely not seen any of these productions if you call them mediocre. And there is nothing self-congratulatory about it, the Freddy's are judged by adults who typically have nothing to do with the schools themselves.
Shame on YOU for denigrating the hard work of these kids. They put in hours upon hours of hard work, without the acclaim that your typical football or basketball player would get. Then some ignorant person from their lounger at home has to tear down the one bit of recognition they did get. Please crawl back into your hole.

The Truth wrote:

Nothing like watching self-congratulatory (yet mediocre) high school theatre productions. Shame on you all.

I posted this under another article, but I would like to repeat myself here as it is relevant.

The freddy awards are a conspiracy! The way they are judged, the way some of the talent is overlooked... It's extremely unfair and it makes the students feel inadequate about the work they did. Unfortunately, this documentary being made has really diminished the quality of the nominees. Why else do three schools have 16 nominations each? Basically, if your school performed well at the Freddys last year, this documentary company came to your school to film your rehearsals and interview your casts. After taking all that footage of the show-making process, the nominations had to represent these schools that were filmed. That means any performer from a school that didn't fair well last year was IGNORED and will be when the winners are announced. How is this fair to the number of students that deserve to be nominated? That spent hours making sets and costumes, choreographing and learning to sing, just to catch notice of these judges that won't bother to look at them no matter how well they perform? How fair is it to the schools that can't rent sets from national touring companies, rent expensive costumes, or have orchestras full of college musicians? The Freddys have lost sight to what is important- the joy of putting together a show. It is now all about who has the biggest budget and who can take that money and put it where it counts. I have seen many performances of shows in the lehigh valley over the years, and I have seen terrible performers get nominated (and even win) and I've seen great performances fail to receive one. I have seen people who can't sing in tune win awards for singing. I have seen actors who cannot emote win awards for acting. Here's another thing- all the judges don't even see all the shows! How can you decide who wins an award if not every judge watched all the performances? So basically, the judge who comes home with the best story about the show they liked will get their way. And then there's the way the nominations don't even make sense. Two productions of Les Miserable got nominated for choreography? There's dancing in Les Miserables? I saw the production on broadway- there's hardly any dancing at all, maybe the waltz at the end and that's IT. It wasn't even nominated for best choreography on Broadway and you think a show like les miserables would get a choreography nomination, for the show being what it is.

You can call me a sore loser but that's not even true. I'm not a high school student. I am a "graduate" of the Freddy program. I even racked up 2 nominations myself and was a part of opening number once. Luckily, the years I was nominated, the judges actually watched my show and gave me my due. I know for a fact that this doesn't happen to everyone and it isn't right. There should be parameters for what these schools can and cannot do. The judges should be screened and should have some qualifications to evaluate dramatic performances, and EVERY JUDGE should see EVERY SHOW. Furthermore, the State Theatre shouldn't let a movie documentary get in the way of giving the true talent in the Lehigh Valley its just due.

The Freddy Awards are an atrocity. Case closed.