With the spread of COVID-19 itself and the concerns related to it, many high schools across the country have been shut down. That means many of the planned activities for these schools will not be happening - senior prom, sports seasons and annual theatre productions. It’s understandable, especially for seniors, how painful of a reality it must be to know they will never grace their school's stages again.

While there is nothing anyone could do about this, it shouldn’t be a time to rub salt into these wounds. And according to some, this is exactly what is happening with the ArtsBridge Foundation’s decision to hold their annual theatre awards, The Shuler Awads, and disqualify the schools who closed before their students were able to perform.

This past week the organization announced that despite widespread closures, they would announce the winners in an online presentation in May. Executive Director Jennifer Dobbs said in a statement,

"While we are disappointed that international events and public safety mandates prevent us from gathering in celebration of this year's outstanding students and school performances, the ArtsBridge team worked tirelessly with its partners to make an awards announcement possible in a scaled-back format that keeps everyone safe.”

However, the statement also made it clear that the schools that had closed before their productions had opened, would be disqualified from the competition.

Ms. Dobbs continued,

"We acknowledge with regret that an array of circumstances - mostly timing of cancelled performances from March 12 through March 15- caused a handful of schools to sadly lose their eligibility to compete. Though they are out of the competition, we are working to find a creative and meaningful way to honor the impacted schools' and students' hard work completed before their performances got canceled.”

According to BroadwayWorld, “ArtsBridge engaged with 75 Georgia high schools chosen to compete through an online enrollment process that took place in August. Of the original 75 schools, 67 were able to remain in competition before individual school districts announced school closures, many taking affect by March 13.”

Not surprising, many associated with those schools aren’t happy with the decision. Outraged parents, students and teachers posed on social media and on ArtsBridge’s Facebook page. However many of those comments were apparently deleted.

I spoke to one teacher of the disqualified schools who told me how disappointed their students are and the lack of communication they received from ArtsBridge.

“This really came out of the blue,” they said. “We never were given an opportunity to submit solutions.”

I also spoke to woman whose daughter attends a school that was adjudicated.

“I’m sure it’s unfair to those other schools, but what about the majority of schools that did perform?”, she asked. “Wouldn’t it be more unfair to them?”

It should be noted that state high school theatre awards all over the country as being canceled due to school closures. The Broadway San Diego Awards in CA, The Discovery Awards in Tulsa, OK, The 2020 Jerry Herman Awards in Fl - just to name a few that have been canceled. Even the Jimmy Awards, the national competition which the winners of the Shuler Awards would have gone on to, have been cancelled.

Other states have either postponed their awards or are tentatively holding dates in case schools are opened again.

According to ArtsBridge, the final stages of score tabulation are underway this week, and finalists from participating schools - as well as scholarship winners - will be announced online on April 3. The organization typically awards scholarships of $500-$1,000 to individual winners.

That last fact is what stings some of these schools the most.

"I just don’t understand how you can hold a competition when a number of your entries never got the chance to compete,” a teacher told me. “Those scholarships could have really helped some of our students.”