THE LEAD CRITIC

This is a basic introduction to the Cappies for a Lead Critic. 

Getting Started

As your school’s Lead Critic, you are responsible for helping your school’s Cappies Advisor make sure your school follows the rules.  Specifically, you are responsible for:

• Attending Lead Critics meetings
• Assisting in training
• Making sure everyone at your school follows all rules
• Keeping your database current.
• Maintaining your roster and schedule
• Helping yourMentorand your Mentor and Show Director
• Assisting at year end
• Using—and Helping Others Use—C.I.S.
• Maintaining contact with program officials

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You must attend the Lead Critics Training and Schedule Meeting.  If you cannot attend that, for any reason, it is your responsibility to make sure another Critics from your school attends in your place. 

For all other critic responsibilities, please see the Critic Manual

Attending Lead Critics Training and Meetings

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If your Program Director schedules any additional Lead Critics meetings, you must either attend it personally or, if you cannot, make sure another Critic from your school attends in your place.  You (or a designee) must attend every Lead Critics meeting.  Your program’s Steering Committee may impose a sanction—adding to your school’s minimum review requirement—if your school is not represented at a Lead Critics meeting.

Assisting in Training

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Binders

As Lead Critic, one of your first responsibilities—on the next school day after your training—is to explain to your school’s Critics, Advisor, Show Director, andMentorhow and Mentor how to download their binders from the Cappies website through CIS.

Please contact your school’s Booster, and make arrangements for him/her to pick up the Booster Binder that you should run off for him/her.  (You might be able to leave it at your school’s front desk.)    

MEETING WITH ADVISOR, SHOW DIRECTOR, AND MENTORS

Meeting with Advisor, Show Director, and Mentors

Your school may have more than one Mentor or Show Director (for two Your school may have more than oneMentoror Show Director (for two Cappies Shows), in which case each one should have a binder.  Your Program Director can supply you with these, as needed.

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If anyone at your school is a newMentornew Mentor, they are required to attend a training session led by Cappies officials.  Please make sure they   Check with your chapter to see if there is a mandatory meeting requirement for returning mentors.  Please make sure they get their binders before that session, so they can have a chance to look through it. 

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• Review the materials in their binder.  Point out what needs to be read carefully, and what can be scanned more quickly.  (See the “Binder” section for a list.)
• If they are new to the Cappies, go through the “The Cappies Advisor” section. 
• Go over the “Glossary” section, very quickly.
• If they are familiar with the Cappies, go through the “New Rules” section.
• Go through the “Consequences” section. 
• For everyone who is a Show Director orMentoror Mentor, go through the Award Category Guide, page by page, and the Award Category Eligibility form.  Take as much time as needed to review the basics.
• Try to answer any questions.  If you can’t answer something, please email your Program Director, and he or she will try to help.
• Make sure your Advisor knows how to log into and use C.I.S.

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• Decide whether you will ask Critics to take part in a writing exercise, like the one suggested in the “Review Writing” section, before their first Cappies Show—and, if so, how this will be done.
• Discuss how you and the Advisor will together oversee Critic attendance and review writing performance over the year.
• Schedule an initial meeting with Critics, at which you and the Advisor can both be present.

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Meeting with Critics

After all Critics (including Regional Critics) at your school have been trained, please schedule a meeting with them, with your school’s Cappies Advisor present.  If necessary, the Advisor can help schedule this and impress on everyone the importance of attending this meeting.

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• Be able to receive emails and submit reviews online.  (If any critics do not havehome have home email, please ask your Advisor to help find a way to do this—at school or somewhere else.  Remember that critics generally need to write reviews on weekends.
• Check their emails at least once every other day.
• Use C.I.S. to volunteer for, or decline shows.
• Whenever they decline a Cappies Show, they must (at the same time) volunteer for a replacement show.
• Alert you, as Lead Critic, when they decline a Cappies Show assigned to your Team, so you can make sure your Team has at least half its members attending that show.

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• Treat Mentors with the respect appropriate to a teacher in a school setting.
• Respect other critics like they would other students in a school setting.
• Refrain from side conversations during discussions, and stop talking when shushed.
• Raise a hand to speak, speak only when called on, and stand when speaking.
• Make points briefly, allowing time for others to speak.
• Listen courteously and attentively to comments from others.
• Respect opinions that may be different from their own.
• Don’t make comments that are sarcastic or unduly harsh.
• Discard any personal trash, and help clean up the Cappies Room.
• Be courteous to parent boosters who provide refreshments.
• Leave the host school promptly, after turning in their forms.
• Alert aMentorif a Mentor if they need to wait for a pick-up, after a show.

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IMPORTANT:  If you are aware of persistent or substantial Critic misbehavior at Cappies Shows, or in writing reviews, please inform your Advisor immediately.  If you don’t, you run the risk that your school’s own Cappies Show could be disqualified from awards.

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Speaking with the Booster

Please speak briefly with your school’s Cappies Booster about the need for Critics to get to and from Cappies Shows safely, and about what is required for your school’s own Cappies Show.

Keeping Your Database Current

Please help your Advisor keep your school’s Cappies database current.  It is especially important that everyone be reachable by C.I.S. emails.

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Early in the year, make a quick check to make sure all persons are getting Cappies emails.  If they are not, either there is an error in the database, or that person’s spam blocker may be blocking Cappies emails.  If the latter, please help them fix this.  If you don’t know how to do this, please find another student who knows how to adjust spam blockers, and they can teach you how to do that.

Maintaining Your Roster

Critics must be students in grades 9 through 12 who are currently enrolled in your school, and who has not been prohibited by school authorities from participating in extracurricular activities. 

If any Critic fails twice to submit a review for an attended show, that Critic will be removed from the roster.

REGIONAL TEAM CRITICS

Your school can select an additional three Critics (beyond the six on your Team) if they are willing to be Regional Team Critics. 

Regional Team Critics are assigned to the same number of shows as other Critics.  What’s important is that they will be assigned by the Program Director, and will be assigned to Cappies Shows during weeks when many schools have shows.   They can be reassigned, not later than 14 days prior to a Cappies Show, to provide extra Critics where needed.

It’s best to have Regional Team Critics be students who will not be in your school’s major plays and musicals, especially if your school’s shows are performed during weeks when many other schools put on their shows.  They will probably be assigned to attend shows during those busy weeks.  Some schools assign freshmen and sophomores to be Regional Team Critics, for this reason.

Regional Team Critics qualify for Critic awards, just like all other Critics.  If your school’s Critics Team is nominated for an award (or wins the Cappie), it will be shared by the six highest-scoring Critics from your school, whether they were on your school’s own Critics Team or on a Regional Team.

Regional Team Critics may volunteer for shows to which your school’s Critics Team is assigned, but they must also review their own assigned shows.  A Regional Team Critic may decline no more than two assigned shows.  If more shows than that are declined, the Program Director may ask the Advisor to replace that Critic on the roster.

You and your Advisor will need to supervise the work of Regional Team Critics just as much as you do other Critics.  That could pose a special challenge, since they often will be attending shows apart from your Critics Teamthat Critic will be removed from the roster.

Maintaining Your Schedule

You are responsible for setting, and if necessary updating, the assignment schedule for your school’s Critics Team. 

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Team Attendance at Assigned Shows

You need to manage the Critics Team to be sure every one of your assigned shows is covered.  For each show, the team must submit at least half as many reviews as there are members of the team.  If your team has 3 or 4 Critics, then the team must submit at least 2 reviews.  If 5 or 6 Critics, then 3 reviews.   ( If you have additional Regional Team Critics, the required minimum is still 3.)7 or 8 critics, then 4 reviews and if you have 9 critics, 5 reviews.

There is a clear sanction for failure to do this.  For every review the team is short, one review gets added to the team’s yearly minimum.  If the school fails to submit any reviews twice, the Steering Committee can impose additional sanctions, including disqualification of your school’s own Cappies Show.  Please work with team to make sure this does not happen.

Your Advisor will see the same Critic attendance and review record you will, so he or she can help you make sure all Critics are on path to meeting their required minimum number of reviews—which will prevent your school’s own Cappies Show from being disqualified. 

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Changes in Team Assignments

If your team needs to request a change in show assignments, you should be the one to email your Program Director.  This must be done not later than 14 days before the assigned show, and the request must be accompanied by a list of at least three acceptable replacement dates.

Leading Your Team at Cappies Shows

One key responsibility of a Lead Critic is to make sure all critics from your school show good decorum at Cappies Shows.  You cannot control what other Critics from your school may do, but they will take cues from you, especially if you’re sitting together in a Cappies Room, and again in the theater.  As Lead Critic, you have a responsibility to set a high standard for decorum. 

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In case of serious critic misbehavior, Mentors are authorized to reprimand a Critic, request the Critic’s name and school name, and make a report to the Program Director.  AMentorcan A Mentor can order a Critic to leave the Cappies Room, and/orPerformingSchoolor Performing School, in case of disruptive misbehavior.

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Critic safety and security is very important.  You should help your Advisor (and Booster) to keep an eye on how Critics from your school are planning to travel to and from Cappies Shows. 

Helping Your Mentor

Several months may pass between the time you first meet with your school’sMentorand your school’s Mentor and his or her first assignment.  Sometime during the week before that assignment, please check in with theMentorand ask if he or she has any questions about the role of Discussion or Editor Mentor, any rules, and C.I.S.

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Emergency Critic-

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Mentor

Every Lead Critic must be capable of being an emergency Critic-Mentor, if for some reason no Mentors attend a Cappies Show.  (This has only happened once in the history of the Cappies, but it could happen again at any show.)  Here’s what to do, in such a case.

At any Cappies Show at which both Mentors are absent, for any reason, and if there is no member of the Steering Committee present (who, if so, would be the Mentor), the Lead Critics who are present will select two among them—preferably volunteers, selected (if need by) by a vote of all critics who are present.  The Critic-Mentors will lead discussions, collect pre-show and post-show forms.  Upon returning home, both Critic-Mentors will notify the Program Director, who will give them additional instructions.  The Critic-Mentors should each write a review of that show, and may later vote for that show, but they may not select their own reviews for publication.

Helping Your Show Director

As your school’s Cappies Show nears, check in with your school’s Show Director, to make sure he or she knows what to do.  Make sure your Show Director completes the Award Category Eligibility form.  Alternatively, you can complete it, and the Show Director can approve it.  However it’s prepared, this form must be given to the Editor Mentor not later than 30 minutes before curtain.

Help your Show Director and Tech Theatre Students with the requirements for the tech boards (Costumes, Sets, Make-up, Lighting, Sound, Stage Management, Stage Crew, Marketing and Publicity) and help them get set up in the Cappies Room.

Help your Show Director prepare other materials that may be useful for the Critics—for example, something about the history of the show, or anything unusual in your production.

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As the Cappies Gala nears, make sure the Show Director, and nominees from your school, know what to do.

Assisting at Year End

As Award Voting nears, you should keep close track of the review writing performance of Critics from your school, to make sure you are together submitting enough reviews to qualify your own school’s Cappies Show for awards.  If your program requires each Critic to submit five reviews, then all Critics from your school must together submit at least 15 reviews, and have two voting Critics, to qualify your show for awards.  (If your program requires four reviews per critic, your minimum i is 12—if three per critic, then the minimum is 9.)

Your minimum number may be higher—if, at any of your Team’s assigned shows, your Team failed to submit the required number of reviews, or if you failed to attend a Lead Critics meeting (or send a designee).

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Awards Voting

Make sure all Critics know the date of Award Voting.  All Critics must vote at the same place on the same day, and no exceptions are allowed (except for religious observance).  Make sure all Critics at your school know that date and plan to be there.

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Nominations are announced within one to two days after the voting.  Most Cappies programs post the nominations online.  Per the cliché, the chips fall where they may.  Your school may receive several nominations, or not many.  (In large programs, some schools receive no nominations.) 

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Cappies Gala

Tickets for the year-end Cappies Gala, tickets will be made available for your school.  The number of available tickets, per school, will depend on the size of your Cappies program and the size of the Gala venue.  Your school’s Show Director will be in charge of this.

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No matter where the awards go, students at your school will have a wonderful time at the Cappies Gala—and all year long, whether a student is reviewing Cappies shows, putting them on, or both. 

Using (and Helping Others Use) C.I.S.

The Cappies is a web-based organization, with a web site (www.cappies.com) and “C.I.S.,” the password-accessible Cappies Information Services.  Nearly all the email you’ll receive from the Cappies will come via C.I.S.

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Make sure your spam blocker does not block out emails from any Cappies address.  If you do not know how to do this, please ask another student  student who knows about these things.

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Please read the instructions for C.I.S.  Spend some time with your school’s Lead Critic to make sure you understand how to log-in, and how to use it.  C.I.S. may seem daunting, when you first encounter it, but it’s simpler than it looks. 

Maintaining Contact with Cappies Officials

Through the year, you and your Advisor will be your school’s main point of contact with Cappies Officials.

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