Emily Gibbs and Nick Craft play Mrs. Potts and her son Chip in Northeastern High School s production of Beauty and the Beast. (Submitted photos)

Forget the Oscars, the Grammys and the Emmy awards.

This weekend, the eighth annual Rosies are being held in downtown York.

Tickets are already sold out for the high school theater awards show, being held Sunday at the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center.

"There's this awesome energy in the air when you can bring all the performance-minded talent of York County youth that love theater into one room at the Strand," said Eric Thiegs, theater director at Red Lion Area High School. "There's really nothing like it out there."

"We've got a Facebook group set up for all my high school actors, and it's been a flurry of crazy activity with the kids posting about the Rosies," said Thiegs.

Red Lion

Michael Mathy and Rebecca Feveryear dance for Kennard-Dale High School s production of The Pajama Game. The school, along with a dozen others, will participate in the York County high school theater awards show Sunday. (Submitted photo)

performance of an excerpt from its latest show.

"They can't even wait for the Rosies rehearsal," Thiegs said. "We had our performance back in early March, so more than two months have gone by, so it's a good reconnection, all the kids get to come back together before summer. We always look at it as a fun wrap-up and sendoff."

Final number: On Friday, students from all of the schools -- selected by their directors -- will rehearse for a collaborative finale performance at the Rosies.

Lyn Bergdoll has been choreographing the finale performance and producing the Rosies since they began.

"It has now grown to be just an incredible event here in the county," said Bergdoll. "It is a huge celebration of the talented youth here in our community."

Bergdoll attends every high school performance in the county and hears students talking about the Rosies at every school.

"The Rosies is like the Tony Awards of York County," said Bergdoll.

John Marrs, director of dramatics at Northeastern High School, said there's another reason he and his colleagues look forward to the show.

"Because all of the shows happen in the same season, it's difficult for us to see other shows, so this way it provides us an opportunity to see what other schools are doing as well," he said.

"The competition is important, and everybody wants to win, but it's more about having the students have the opportunity to perform in a professional setting," Marrs added.

The awards: Three judges present the Rosie awards at the end of the evening for best male and female performers, best production number with dance, most creative or original performance, best overall performance, best small ensemble performance and the judges' award.

Each high school director gives a Rosie award to one student from his or her school as well. The name for the Rosies came from Bryan Tate of the York Community Foundation, in recognition of York being the White Rose City.

Matt Belanger of WGAL-8 will serve as the master of ceremonies for the event.

-- Reach Chelsea Shank at 505-5432 or cshank@yorkdispatch.com.