T. Carter Fussell Award Winners, 2011-2012

Congratulations to the winners of the 2011-2012 T. Carter Fussell Awards! We saw a lot of outstanding work this year and are so honored to be able to recognize it! Awards will be presented on June 7th. Contact our Box Office for more details.

Central High School
	Guys and Dolls	Anna Everhart	as Harry the Horse	Outstanding Characterization
		Carie Heishman	as Miss Adelaide	Outstanding Performance
		Joshua Shelor	as Sky Masterson	Outstanding Acting
Chelsea Academy
	The Sound of Music	Claudia Elias	as Mother Abbess	Outstanding Acting
		Suzannah Evans	as Maria Rainer	Outstanding Acting
		Kieran O'Donnell	as Captain Georg von Trapp	Outstanding Acting
		Bethany Buono	as Gretl von Trapp	Outstanding Acting
		Anna Schaffer	as Elsa Schrader	Outstanding Acting
		Jack Evans	as Max Detweiller	Outstanding Acting
		Jack Evans	Set Designer	Outstanding Set Design
	Pride and Predjudice	Cameron DeLaFleur	Composer	Outstanding Original Music
		Tony Bergida	as Mr. Bennet	Outstanding Acting
		Winfield Turner	as Hill	Outstanding Presence in a Small Role
		Sarah Bouchie	as Charlotte Lucas	Outstanding Presence in a Small Role
		Peter Lee	as Mr. Darcy	Outstanding Acting
		Kieran O'Donnell	as Mr. Collins	Outstanding Physicalization
		Anna Schaffer	as Jane Bennet	Outstanding Acting
Clarke County High School
	12 Angry Jurors	Danny McGrath	as Juror 8	Outstanding Acting
		Samantha Schneeman	as Juror 11	Outstanding Accent
		Addison Peacock	as Juror 3	Outstanding Acting
	Into the Woods	Addison Peacock	as Cinderella	Outstanding Performance
		Josh Coumes	as The Baker	Outstanding Performance
		Sydney Wilkins	as The Baker's Wife	Outstanding Acting
		Logan Williams	as Little Red Ridinghood	Outstanding Performance
		Tony Shipman	as Jack	Outstanding Performance
James Wood High School
	Curtains	Josh Keller	as Lieutenant Frank Cioffi	Outstanding Comedic Performance
		Margot Cramer	as Nikki Harris	Outstanding Acting
		Katie Salata	as Bambi	Outstanding Triple Threat
		Chad Magaw	as Christopher Belling	Outstanding Characterization
John Handley High School
	Annie	Mark Sfeir	as Rooster Hannigan	Oustanding Acting
		Mikayla Balio, Erin Foster, Emma Foster, Cherith Pilong, Lauren Mason & Haley Deal	as the Orphans	Outstanding Ensemble
Millbrook High School
	Bye Bye Birdie	Barbie Sinnathamby	as Rose Alvarez	Outstanding Triple Threat
		Ryan Duffin	as Albert Peterson	Outstanding Performance
		Erin Roberts	as Kim MacAfee	Outstanding Musical Performance
		Alex Bennett	as Harry McAfee	Outstanding Performance
		Logan Groll	as Conrad Birdie	Outstanding Physicalization
		Entire Company		Outstanding Vocals
		Nick Hurst, Mitch Beauregard, Blake Heflin, Shaun Wilson, Ryan Duffin	in Baby, Talk to Me	Outstanding Vocals
		Nick Hurst, Cassie Maines, Kelsey Harris, Michele Federico, Hope DeCanio, Austin Breshears, Melissa Morgan, John Edward Dayrit	as Stage Management and Crew	Outstanding Set Changes
Skyline High School
	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Wyatt Karnes	as Theseus	Outstanding Acting
		Carter Robertson Rebecca Morrison	as Starveling/Moonshine as Titania	Outstanding Comic Performance Outstanding Acting
	The Importance of Being Earnest	Branden Klingenberg	as Algernon Moncrief	Outstanding Acting
		Sarah Burroughs	as Gwendolyn Fairfax	Outstanding Acting
		Tiffany Waters	as Cecily Cardew	Outstanding Acting
	All I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarted	Wyatt Karnes Justin Thorne Reno Vaughan	as Ensemble Member as Ensemble Member as Ensemble Member	Outstanding Presence in a Small Role Outstanding Vocals in "Reflect the Light" Outstanding Presence in a Small Role
Sherando High School
	A Tiny Miracle with a Fiberoptic Unicorn	Nathan Selove	as Louis	Outstanding Acting
		Jessie Kraemer	as Grandma Jacobs	Outstanding Characterization
		Sam Lacaria &                        Tara Asare	as George and Emily	Outstanding Arguments
		Full Cast		Outstanding Ensemble
St. John's Teen Drama Club
	It's a Wonderful Life	John Paul Alger	as George Bailey	Outstanding Acting
		Tim D'Andrea	as Clarence	Outstanding Acting
		Sam Shanley	as Young George	Outstanding Acting
		Mary Pesta	as Mother Bailey	Outstanding Acting
		Julia Clark	as Violet Peterson	Outstanding Acting
		Michael Clark	as Henry F. Potter	Oustanding Acting
Warren County High School
	The Odyssey	Stephanie Blakely	as Circe	Outstanding Acting
		Seumus O'Reilly	as Alcinous	Outstanding Acting
	Legally Blond	Sarah Kramer	as Elle Woods	Outstanding Lead in a Musical
		Jessi Platter	as Paulette	Oustanding Vocal Performance
		James Blankenship	as Kyle	Outstanding Characterization
		Kelsey Hurley	as Margot	Oustanding Performance
		Brian Carter	as Warner	Outstanding Vocal Performance
	Candyland	Tyler Peterson	as Candy Pirate Captain, Sugar Daddy "Pimp", Skittles Guy and Laffy Taffy	Outstanding Differentiation of Characters

Registration opens for Summer Playwriting Intensive offered by Wayside Theatre

Registration opens for Summer Playwriting Intensive offered by Wayside Theatre

Education in Action is offering a Summer Playwriting Intensive for high school aged students (rising freshmen through rising seniors).  Details below.  If you know a young playwright who might benefit, encourage him or her to sign up!  It promises to be a great time, but it may be a one-time-only offering, so register today!

24-Hour Play Festival performance is tonight at 6:00. Don't miss it!

The 24-Hour Play Festival Continues

It’s 8:17am, and the 24-Hour Play Fest participants are hard at work.  Some of them are re-writing and editing their scripts.  Some of them have started to rehearse.  Prop lists and technical elements are being fleshed out before our designer and stage manager (YAG secretary Libby Powell!) gets into the space.  A lot is going on!

Overnight, our three groups of playwrights received their lines (written by the family, friends, and members of the Wayside staff) and started writing.  We have Baptist Bakin’, the heartwarming story of a southern couple rushing to save “dear ol’ Betsy”; Prank’d: Restaurant Edition, about a woman trying to get her friend to live life to the fullest; and Wal-Mart, Bread, and the Meaning of Life, which follows an elderly woman on her quest for groceries.

The writers worked into the night, but around 2am, some of our teens started to crash, and by 3:53am (exactly), only one was still awake and kicking.  At 7:00am this morning Joette, the costuming intern from Season 50, brought us breakfast and the students were at it again by 7:30.  As I write this, one of the groups is rehearsing on the stage, one of them is outside staging, and one is still polishing their script. 

I hope you won’t miss the performance tonight (May 12^th) at 6:00pm!  Tickets are $5, and proceeds will benefit the Education in Action programs here at Wayside.

24-Hour Play Festival is tonight!

24-Hour Play Festival is tonight!

At 6:00 tonight, area teens will be meeting at Wayside Theatre to spend 24 hours writing, rehearsing, and ultimately performing original works.

It’s sure to be a great time, so keep an eye out for photos and updates, and join us at 6:00pm on Saturday for the performance.  Tickets are $5.00 each, and we would love to have you in our audience!

Meet Molly

Wayside Theatre is headed into Season 51, and with a new season come changes.  I consider some of them to be pretty exciting, because one of the changes is that I have joined the Wayside family as the education director!

Megan has decided to pursue her master's degree, which she can't do from the education office at the theatre, so she'll be moving on.  My name is Molly MacLagan, and I wanted to introduce myself and give you a sense of  who I am.  I just moved to Middletown from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I was doing freelance work at a number of theatres in the area.  Most recently I was the directing apprentice at City Theatre for their production of Tigers Be Still by Kim Rosenstock.  I really love the Pittsburgh area, and have family and friends who I'll miss dearly, but I just felt like I wasn't having the impact I wanted to have.

I should pause for a moment to fill you in on some of my philosophies about theatre:  I believe wholehearted that theatre is powerful, and has the potential to touch people in very real and unexpected ways.  If it didn't, I wouldn't be nearly as passionate about it as I am.  Whether people are onstage, backstage, offstage, or in the audience, they are changed by their involvement in a production; people learn new things, engage with each other in new ways, find that they had abilities they never knew they possessed, and generally come away feeling refreshed, inspired, and confident.  The impact I was hoping to have in Pittsburgh was to provide that experience (and to take part in it) as often as possible, but I found that in a city where so much is happening in the theatre scene, the experience tends to get lost in the bustle.

So I'm excited to be here, to have the opportunity to witness and partake in the theatre-making magic that I know happens at Wayside.  I am also delighted to be meeting new people, and anxious to integrate myself into such a unique and enjoyable community.  

Other things you might like to know about me: I am originally from Ohio, and have a unique connection to and will always love the Northeast Ohio area.  My family is mostly located on the east coast, from Massachusetts on up through Maine, and the beach is a home-away-from home.  I love pizza and if I turn it down, you should probably question the status of my health.  I enjoy animals, I'm pretty uncoordinated (but really enjoy some physical activities - like rock climbing or ice skating), always have a great time at karaoke, and drink more coffee than I probably should.

I love classical theatre.  My favorites are the plays of Euripides, Shakespeare, and Shaw.  For my senior Honors thesis I directed a play out of the Chester Cycle, and traveled with it to Toronto for part of an international festival.  It was one of the hardest and also the best projects I've ever undertaken.  (Here is a link to read more about it on the Kent State University website if you're interested: http://www.kent.edu/news/announcements/success/honorsplay.cfm)

Of course there's plenty more to know about me, but that is a more-than-ample start.  I look forward to getting to know all of you better!  I'll meet you all soon enough !  (Maybe at the 24-Hour Play Festival that happens tomorrow night!  If you're interested in taking part, send an e-mail to eia@waysidetheatre.org and I'll get you the information you need)