St. Luke’s Win Top Statewide Theatre Awards

St. Luke's School came home with two of the top prizes at the Seven Angel's Halo Awards. This brings the number of all-state theatre awards won over the last four years to a total of twelve.

The school was honored to receive the Best Contemporary Play award for its production of Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. In addition, its production of Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves took home the Fearless Award given to a production that was ambitious, pushed boundaries, challenged the audience, and went beyond what you would typically find in a high school production.

The Halo Awards are the equivalent of the Tonys for high school theatre and honors the very best high school productions in Connecticut. This marks the third time in four years when St. Luke's School has taken home the top "Best Play" prize of the evening. St. Luke's School's production of The 39 Steps was a high energy, high tempo comedy that delighted audiences with its zany, over-the-top performances, and The Wolves was only the third licensed high school production of this very ambitious and edgy material.

"Comedy is always difficult to pull off well, and The 39 Steps demanded precision from our entire ensemble. I asked a lot of them, and they delivered," St. Luke’s Director of Theatre Arts Jason Peck commented. "We've always prided ourselves on choosing daring material that challenges both our theatrical artists and our school-wide community. To be celebrated and acknowledged for producing and staging The Wolves was such an honor."
"We are a relatively small school compared to other schools competing but it goes to show that talent, passion, vision, and determination knows no bounds."

St. Luke's also received a Halo Award for "Best Female Standout in an Ensemble Production." Katie Libman ‘19 took home this prize for her role as #7 in The Wolves.

This year, the school received thirteen nominations in total for both productions that were judged. While Peck thinks the awards are such fun he added, "The idea of awards in theatre runs somewhat counter to the purpose of theatre. While many things good have been written about why people go to the theatre, I believe they all center around understanding our humanity and finding places where we can all have mutual respect and agreement with each other. This idea is somewhat antithetical to competition. The Halo Awards were founded to find a place where high school theatre lovers from different backgrounds could come together, find, and celebrate our mutual respect and admiration for each other. I want to make sure in the process of crowning 'winners' we never lose sight of this."

St. Luke’s Upper School Theatre received a total of 13 Halo nominations.

Best Comic Male Performance in a Play
Michael Crispi as Professor Jordan/Sheriff/Mrs. Higgins/ Dunwoody/ Mrs. McGarrigle in The 39 Steps