Lydia Gompper, a student at Falls Church’s George Mason High School, won the Cappies award for Returning Critic at the 17th annual Cappies Awards Gala at the Kennedy Center last night. The Cappies is a program that recognized high school theater programs with participation from 57 public and private high schools in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

Nominees but not winners among other Mason students were Michael Curtin for featured actor, and Sarah Edwards for comic actress in a musical, both for performances in Mason’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” and the Mason High Critics’ Team.

Big winners were Woodrow Wilson High School whose production of “Hair” won for Best Musical and the Duke Ellington School of the Arts whose production of “The Story” won for Best Play.

A capacity crowd filled the concert hall of the Kennedy Center for the event. Among the award presenters were U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly and Falls Church’s School Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones and School Board members Margaret Ward and Lawrence Webb and Falls Church News-Press editor Nicholas Benton.