All-School Showcase Highlights
From Showcase 2019 at The Athenaeum Theatre. Showcase 2023 is February 10!
“When Academy students test the limits of their potential, they’re not doing it for the peripheral benefits, the superficial successes. They’re doing it because they need to, and because they know how deeply the work matters. They are transformed in the making of art, and we, the audience, are transformed in experiencing it.”
-Jason Patera
Head of School
Excerpts from Kettentanz
Choreography by Gerald Arpino
Music by Johann Strauss, Sr & Johann Mayer Costumes on loan from NYCDP
Staged by Patrick Simoniello
Rights to Kettentanz: The Gerald Arpino Foundation
Dancers featured: Briley Boersma, Selina Costabile, Alyssa Crowley, Jaylin Denwood, Julia Foley, Lillian Yokom, Jackson Bradford, Isaiah Day, Amari Frazier, Colin Heino, Aden Hurst, Zachary Jeppsen
Visual Arts Showcase 2019
“The way I draw is almost always based in observation, but within that, I work as a whole more abstract. This drawing is what is visible outside the window as well as the window itself. I focused on the effect that light has on what can be seen, and how opaque or transparent the window pane is at different times of day. Lighting inside causes glares on the glass, while the natural lighting outside affects how well detail can be seen causing interior and exterior space to overlap. The drawing became a collage of views from different observational points and perspectives.”
Prelude in G minor, Op. 23, No. 5
Music by Sergei Rachmaninoff
Performed by Adam Chlebek
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
A play by Simon Stephens based on the novel by the same name by Mark Haddon
Actors featured: Gabe Delli, Avery Ferguson, Jacob Flores, Piper Kilman, Mark Cristofanilli, Olivia Leger, Grania McKirdie, Claudia Mead, Natalee Hapaniewski, Ella Henning-Sepkoski, Nick Spallone, Gabbie Cannon, Mia Nadborne, Lila Napientek, Elena Quandt, Sigi Shure, and Jacob Smith
Media Arts
Cole Porter Medley
Featured Songs: “Night and Day”, “Begin the Beguine”, and “I Get a Kick Out of You”, arranged by Patricia Rusk
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
Actors featured: Emerson Hart, Leo Ritterhoff, Grey Sercl, and Simone Sowell
The Academy Jazz Quartet
Music by Robert Glasper
Musicians featured: Adam Chlebek (piano), Joseph Dockery (guitar),
Declan Beyer (drums), Matthew Jazwinski (bass)
Faculty Legacy Award Recipient
Randy Duncan
Mayor Emanuel Proclaims February 9
“Randy Duncan Day"
“To my family, the parents, current students, alumni, administration, Jason Patera, and to all those who continue to buy into a little boy’s dream of becoming a professional dance artist and maker of dance, I thank you for this most distinguished honor. I am humbled by this award. It is truly a blessing to be able to do what I love every single day.””
Stand By Me
Choreography by Randy Duncan
Costumes by Jeff Hancock
Lighting Design by Margaret Nelson
Rehearsal Direction by Jonathan Alsberry
Special Dance Coaching by Harriet Ross
Music composed and arranged by Ira Antelis
Produced by Ira Antelis and Rick Fritz
Original Lyrics Inspired by Ben E. King
Mixed and Engineered by Rick Fritz
Poem performed and written by Dominic Pettis
Dancers featured: Briley Boersma, Jackson Bradford, Mary Campbell, Selina Costabile, Alyssa Crowley, Isaiah Day, Jaylin Denwood, Kyia Dickerson, Lucia Faust, Julia Foley, Amari Frazier, Dyani Gandarilla, Colin Heino, Aden Hurst, Zachary Jeppsen, Isabella Sivercase, Lillian Yokom
Proudly Presented by Dominique Leonardi
Honoring Andy Robinson
Recipient of the 2023 Faculty Legacy Award
Friday, February 10, 2023 • 7:30 p.m.
Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture
The annual Academy Showcase is a community-wide celebration featuring top work from each of our arts departments, and we hope you — students, parents, alumni families, faculty and staff, prospective parents, supporters, and friends of any kind — will spend this special evening with us.
Each Showcase, The Academy recognizes a long-serving faculty member for their enormous contribution to our community and culture with the “Faculty Legacy Award.” This year, we are delighted to announce that Musical Theatre Chair Andy Robinson will accept our fifth annual award. Andy has been a fixture in the Academy community since 2007, and has led the Musical Theatre Department since 2011. We look forward to honoring him at this year’s event. Read more about Andy Robinson below.
Andy Robinson
Andrew Robinson graduated cum laude from Rhodes College with an Interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts in English and Religious Studies in 1989, where he received awards for outstanding religious studies student and the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for service to the college. He received his Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University in 1996, winning the Travelers’ Fellowship for outstanding future educator. He received his Master of Science in Educational Theatre from New York University in 2006.
While in New York City he taught at the Cornelia Connelly Center for Education and the Village Community School—in both cases teaching humanities and theatre.
While at NYU he was a founding member of the company Shakespeare-to-Go, which brought free Shakespeare to school children all over the five boroughs, with the company traveling on subways with two trunks of props and costumes to get to gigs. In 2006 he moved to Chicago, where his credits have included work with Porchlight Music Theatre, Timeline Theatre, the House Theatre, Red Tape Theatre, and the Chicago Humanities Festival. For nearly twenty years he’s been an artistic associate at the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts, one of the country’s longest-running summer stock theatres, where he has acted in dozens of shows, created youth programs, and directed productions.
