On Monday, April 28, the nominations for the 2025 Stephen Sondheim Awards were announced, with Old Saybrook Drama Club’s Director of Sound, Maxx Schaum, receiving a nomination for Achievement in Sound Design! This is the second time he has received the nomination in his high school career.
Every year, the OSHS Drama Club submits its spring musical production for consideration at the Stephen Sondheim Awards, an awards show produced by the Black Rock Theater Company of Fairfield, Connecticut. The Sondheim Awards accepts submissions from schools across Connecticut and Massachusetts, serving as their regional awards program in coordination with the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, better known as the Jimmy Awards, which recognizes musical theater performances by high school students from the entire country.
In the beginning of March, the Drama Club performed their spring musical, which this year was Mean Girls, a high school romance-comedy. Three adjudicators for the Sondheim Awards came for two nights of the production, leading them to award OSHS Senior Maxx Schaum with a nomination for Achievement in Sound Design for the second year in a row. According to the adjudication rubrics available at the Sondheim Awards website, a superior execution of sound in a production is, “always executed without issue or any distortion. Cues were always picked up and performers were always heard” among other parameters for the functionality, technical execution, balance, and artistry.
