CLO An ensemble from Winchester Thurston perfroms "Hot Mikado" at the Kelly Awards ceremony. Click photo for larger image

By Philip A. Stephenson
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

	2006 Gene Kelly Award Winners Reviews, Kelly Critic reports and multimedia from the 2006 season at our High School Musical section

Drenching rains couldn't keep the sold-out throng away from The Benedum Center on Saturday for the 16th annual Gene Kelly Awards. Even an overflow crowd of three dozen or so was able to watch the evening's events on the Lightboard at Theater Square in Katz Plaza.

Pittsburgh CLO, host of the annual awards program that salutes the year's best high school performers in the technical and performing arts, thanked its patrons and sponsors, of course, but this year also extended the scope of the Kelly Awards to include four new $2,750 Gene Kelly Scholarships.

South Fayette Elementary School was singled out for its support of early arts education, receiving the Charles Gray Award for Special Achievement in the Arts, but most of the night was reserved for the high school performance awards.

	CLO Best Supporting Actor Jeff Hahn Jr. performs a scene from "Guys and Dolls" with his castmates from North Allegheny. Click photo for larger image.

Thirty-one schools participated this year, vying for honors in 15 categories. Three schools received three awards each: Pine-Richland won Best Scenic Design, All-Student Orchestra and Budget Level III Best Musical; Winchester-Thurston won Costume Design, Direction and Budget Level I Best Musical; and North Allegheny earned awards in the Best Actor, Supporting Actor and Ensemble categories.

Patricia Ward Kelly, widow of Gene Kelly, an East Liberty native and iconic star of many film musicals, gave a particularly impassioned vote of confidence to the performers while sharing an anecdote just before presenting the night's final award. She recalled sitting on a dance-on-film panel with another panelist who claimed "hyperactivity" was a necessity in reaching today's youth market -- a market he said that "has been bombarded by so many images [it has] no attention span and therefore no ability to appreciate the classics."

On the contrary, Ms. Kelly said, "Instead of a lack of attention, I see real curiosity and devotion." She then want on to warn the high school performers against a passive consumption of media.

"You have the power to change that, the right to say 'no,' that you will not accept second-rate things because someone somewhere has decided they can make a lot of money over your willingness to go along with less. Demand quality, demand integrity and, even better, push the boundaries and create something of value yourselves. You've done it here tonight. Go out and do it again."

	CLO Pine-Richland students take the stage to perform a scene from "Pirates of Penzance" during the Kelly Awards ceremony. Click photo for larger image