Last Friday, on April 24, 2026, Amador and Foothill’s drama programs combined efforts to put on the Drama Awards. The yearly event is a celebration of the school’s productions, featuring food, performances, and an award ceremony.
A Memorable Year
The Drama Awards are an awards show for all of drama’s productions. This includes the fall plays at both schools and the joint spring musical. However, the Drama Awards aren’t a conventional awards show. Instead of awards for Best Actor or Best Performance, the Drama Awards include categories such as Dynamic Duo, Theatre Ghost, Most Iconic Line, and Green Room Mom.
“Our entire goal was to make sure it’s not like, ‘Oh, you’re the best, everyone else kinda sucks.’ We aimed to make sure that everyone, winner or loser, felt happy that they were either nominated or won, so we spent a lot of time thinking about what awards we wanted to give out to make sure that everyone, no matter actor or tech, gets to be involved in the Drama Awards,” said Amador Drama Club Vice President Noah Brown (‘27).
This event is especially important to Amador’s drama program this year. This was their last event in the Amador Theater before it is demolished. This also marks the first time that Amador has joined with Foothill to present awards to both schools.
“For every other Drama Awards I’ve been to, it has never been in collaboration with Foothill. Being the first year [to do it with Foothill] was really cool. It’s nice to give Foothill some sort of an awards ceremony because they don’t have one,” said Amador Drama Club Vice President Noah Brown (‘27).
Because the event was a combined effort, the schools did much more with the awards. For one, the schools’ drama teachers announced the tentative spring musical for next year, Legally Blonde. Additionally, Foothill senior Kailani Kodama (‘26) put together a senior video sharing photos of this year’s graduating seniors. The video is posted on the clubs’ Instagram accounts.
“I loved the senior video. It almost got me, but I didn’t cry, like the champion I am. It almost got me,” said Drama Awards performer Erin Villanueva.
What the Event Offers
Between the awards themselves, many students volunteered to perform songs from famous musicals. The performances this year include “Confrontation” from Jekyll & Hyde, performed by Omar Azimi (‘27) and Erin Villanueva (‘27), as well as “A Lovely Night” from La La Land, performed by Ada Krechtov (‘26) and Mason Bona (‘26). These performers choreographed their own performances in a considerably short time.
“[Omar and I] prepared over the course of…I’d say two or three days. While he worked on getting the lighting done with the stage managers, I worked on most of the choreography. We were able to use access periods to practice,” says Erin Villanueva.
The awards put great emphasis on their graduating seniors. Seniors are given special chords at the end of the ceremonies, and special chords are given to those who have taken drama classes or been involved in shows for all four of their years.
“Its crazy to think that I’m going to be a senior next year, which means that, which means that I’m going to be one the people up on that stage getting my chord,” says Villanueva.
To many, the Drama Awards are a way to meet up with their fellow actors and techies one last time at the end of the year.
“I think the Drama Awards are a way to celebrate how far everybody has come. Like, I won an award freshman year that showed how far I came, and that meant a lot to me. Its fun to now be able to put on the awards and to give awards out to people who deserve it and people who really needed some sort of win this year,” said Amador Drama Club Vice President Noah Brown (‘27).
