Written By: Elizabeth Podany

On May 13, the Village Tech Theater Department, performers, supporters, family, friends, and alumni celebrated their first-ever Award Show lovingly called “The Dandies”.  Why “The Dandies”? Years ago Ms. Podany was replying to the question “How are you today?” with the response “I’m fine and dandy”.  Naturally, her students in theater decided that would be a point of harassment by sneaking the word “dandy” into as many scenes as possible.  When it came time to name the award, those same students were adamant it could be non-other than “The Dandies”.  During this show, awards were given such as “Most Outstanding Actor in a Musical” or “Best Ensemble Performer 2022”, “Best Newcomer of the Year 2022”, and more. As it is the first time this award show occurred, the department decided to include all shows and all performers from years past. It’s not surprising that William Addison took home “Overall Best Actor 2017-2022” and that Laine Cooper secured “Overall Best Tech Director 2017-2022” or Mahalia Brantley’s win of the “Overall Best Female Soloist” for her performance in the 2018 Beauty and the Beast show. The night was also complete with performances like Grace Rios stunning everyone with her version of “I wanna be a Rockette”, the dance ensemble performing 24 Karat or the moving performance by Genna Ingram and Noah Hevron’s duet. Towards the end of the evening Cody Stewart, Julie Boane, Grace Horner, Kelly Scheib, and Elizabeth Podany announced the first-ever 2nd Act Scholarship providing Sarah Rocker with a $500 Scholarship, Genna Ingram with a $1500 Scholarship, and a $5000 Scholarship to Noah Hevron. Of course, as with most shows, the ending was quite emotional and remarkable. Ms. Podany was requested to center stage where her students surrounded her and sang the song “For Good” which absolutely broke Ms. Podany leaving her crying (sobbing – ugly crying – hysterical even) then proceeded to add to the emotions with a beautiful farewell framed love note from the Class of 2022. As you can imagine, this left her heart so full of love for these amazing students she has spent time loving, growing, and supporting in VT Theater since 2017. The night was full of laughter, tears, cheers, and joy. You won’t want to miss the future of Village Tech Theater or The Dandies 2023. For more information, check out the VT Theater website.