The Cappies (Critics and Awards Program) is an international program for recognizing, celebrating, and providing learning experiences for high school level theater and journalism students and teenage playwrights. The program prides itself on being a completely student-driven organization that gives a platform to teen voices.
There are currently 12 active Cappies programs in the U.S. and Canada, which range in size from five to 55 participating high school level institutions. Within each program, every participating school selects three to nine students for a critic team. After receiving training in theater criticism and review writing, they attend plays and musicals at other high schools in their area. They write reviews—of roughly 400 words—on a short turnaround deadline. Volunteer teacher-mentors lead discussions and select the critic-written reviews that are later published by regional newspapers and other publications, with student bylines.