{"id":99705,"date":"2026-01-29T13:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/99705\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T13:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:17:09","slug":"record-31-high-schools-competing-for-the-freddy-awards-first-shows-only-weeks-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/99705\/","title":{"rendered":"Record 31 high schools competing for the Freddy Awards. First shows only weeks away."},"content":{"rendered":"

A record 31 high schools from Northampton, Lehigh and Warren Counties will participate in the 24th annual Freddy Awards<\/a>, with spring musical performances beginning in less than a month<\/p>\n

The ceremony honoring student theatrical productions will take place Thursday, May 21, and will be broadcast live on WFMZ Channel 69<\/a> and streaming on WFMZ+. The program represents an all-time high for participation in the awards, according to officials at Easton State Theatre<\/a>, which hosts the ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are welcoming an all-time high number of high schools to the program this year,\u201d said Shelley Brown, the theatre\u2019s president and CEO. \u201cThe format will remain the same, but with more schools, the energy in the room will be higher than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kori Lotito, Freddy Awards coordinator, said the record participation reflects the region\u2019s commitment to performing arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing 31 schools participate is a true testament to the importance this area places on the performing arts,\u201d Lotito said. <\/p>\n

Twenty-eight schools participated last year. <\/p>\n

The participating schools will present productions ranging from Disney\u2019s Frozen and The Phantom of the Opera to Something Rotten! and The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical. Performance dates run from late February through late April.<\/p>\n

Award nominations will be announced Thursday, May 7, at noon. The awards ceremony will air live at 7 p.m. on May 21.<\/p>\n

A complete list of participating schools, their productions, performance dates and ticket information is available at the state theatre\u2019s Freddy Awards page<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Up first for this season are Northwestern Lehigh High School\u2019s production of Something Rotten! and Wilson Area High School\u2019s production of Anastasia: The Musical, both premiering on Feb. 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A record 31 high schools from Northampton, Lehigh and Warren Counties will participate in the 24th annual Freddy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-99705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}