On Monday night, 2,400 high school students, teachers and parents from across Washington state packed Benaroya Hall in Seattle for the ninth annual 5th Avenue Awards which honor high school musical theater.

Mercer Island High School senior Clara Flaherty was named the winner of the outstanding performance by an actress in a featured ensemble role. She won for her portrayal as Lucy Brown in the Threepenny Opera, which was done by MIHS drama this year.

The event was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The high school’s production of The Threepenny Opera also won the outstanding hair and make-up design award. The nominees, some dressed in their production costumes and the rest in their best party clothes, shook the walls of the theater with their cheering and applause, celebrating a variety of exceptional musical theater productions presented during the 2010-11 school year.

Of the total 23 awards given out, Hanford High School captured the greatest number with four, including outstanding overall musical production for its presentation of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Kentridge High School and Mercer Island High School each brought home two awards.