
he Amherst Board of Education is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Michael Molnar as Superintendent of the Amherst Exempted Village School District.
President: Amanda Pastron 22pastron1338@amherstk12.org
Vice President: McKenna Pfeiffer 22pfeiffer2068@amherstk12.org
Secretary and Historian: Bridget McCarthy 22mccarthy0782@amherstk12.org
Business and Publicity: Jacob Frankart 22frankart9803@amherstk12.org
Social: Maren Rhoads 23rhoads1976@amherstk12.org
To nominate an on-stage and offstage Thespian of the Month one must do the following:
Mary Romano-President and Theatre Gear mary_romano@amherstk12.org
Christy Zirker-Secretary christyzirker
Melissa Miller-Treasurer miller409@oh.
Pam Vandersommen-Community Relations pluc3@hotmail.com
Jennifer Ludwig-Theatre Director jennifer_ludwig@amherstk12.org
This year, Drama Camp is a fun, workshop experience for 5th-8th graders interested in theatre. Taught by our very own theatre students, children will be immersed into the world of performing arts. They will not only learn about onstage performance such as acting and movement, but they will also experience the technical aspects of theatre such as costuming, set building, light and sound design, and all the other wonderful activities that go beyond acting.
Exciting News! Every second show of each production is Alumni Night. Alumni, after the show, you will have the opportunity to stay for a Q&A with the actors and crew, catch up with old friends, have a chance to win a basket of goodies and find out how you can support the amazing activities the current MLS Theatre Company is doing! We look forward to welcoming you back!
First Alumni night is November 12, 2021. Get your tickets to Suite Surrender and enjoy this hilarious riot of a love note to the classic farces of the 30's and 40's.
Ticket link is available under TICKETS. See you soon!
Here are some notable Alumni of our theatre company, and where they are now in their careers.
I graduated from Steele and went to Ohio University where I majored in Journalism and minored in several things including Theater. I was really active in Theater there including running the student-run theater group Lost Flamingo Company and founding the improv group Black Sheep Inc. I graduated in 2006 after being named the Outstanding E.W. Scripps School of Journalism Senior in class of 2006.
I moved to NYC right after graduation to start a job with NBC's Page Program, which recently celebrated 80 years. I had several great assignments and then was hired full-time into the NBC News Specials unit and the NBC News Elections unit - both of which I still work in. My current job titles are Producer with the News Specials unit and Deputy Director of Elections.
I work primarily covering breaking news and big planned events. Over the years that has included events like the Royal Wedding, the Pope's Visit to the US, the Boston Bombing, numerous plane crashes, school shootings and terror attacks. It also includes politics - I've worked on multiple debates, conventions, Inaugurations and election nights. It never gets old!
For the past 10 years, Robert Savina has worked as a production designer for feature film. Film projects include: Burning Blue, Blowtorch, Fall To Rise and The Man On Her Mind (New York City), The Rig, Dark Circles and Jules Verne Mysterious Island, My Alien Mother, among others. His professional background has always revolved around the Arts. His formal training included 2 years in Houston as an assistant to scenic designer, Robert Howery. He received his BA/MA in Theater Arts from The State University of New York at Stony Brook and has taught theater at the University of Maine at Machias and University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
He was artistic director of Acadia Annex Theater Company in Maine where he staged Michael Dorn Moody’s The Shortchanged Review, The Fool, and SPILL. Robert also facilitated Liz Lerman’s Hallelujah Project that originated in Eastport, Maine for the millennium, Sarah Pearson and Patrik Widrig’s If Wishes Were Horses at the Portland Museum of Art, and Bates Dance Festival at Bates College. His produced plays include, Four Brothers, Wheels Over Indian Trails and Whiskeyville.
The New York Post called her a madcap mix of Ethel Merman, Lucille Ball and Bette Midler, her father called her a lazy piece of sh*t that would never amount to anything, you decide.
High paying jobs: WICKED, Madame Morrible, Tour; A Catered Affair, Broadway; Mamma Mia – Rosie, Las Vegas; 9 to5 – Roz, 1 st National Tour;
Low paying jobs: Into The Woods, Shakespeare in the Park/Delecort Theatre, NYC, Jack’s Mother; Old Jews Telling Jokes; Tales of the City, The Eugene O’Niell Developmental Program; Roadshow, the Public Theater; Shlemiel The First – Off B’way Skirball Center; Forbidden Broadway: Cleans Up It’s Act (Original Cast) and 20 th Anniversary (Original Cast); Splendora-Sue Ella Lightfoot, Chelsea Playhouse; I Will Come Back - Friend of Barbara, The Players Theater; An Evening with Joan Crawford - Ethel Merman; REGIONAL: Man of La Mancha – Housekeeper, Damn Yankees – Sister, Mae Peterson – Bye, Bye, Birdie all at Goodspeed Opera House; Nine, Papermill Playhouse, Schlemiel The First – Yenta Pesha, OKLAHOMA! - Aunt Eller; Hank Williams Lost Highway –Mamma Lilly; 101 Dalmatians - Cruella DeVil.
I’m paying jobs: Varla Jean Merman is The Bad Seedling - Christine (Lead) Tweed Prods.; Blood Orgy of the Carnival Queens; The Club – Bertie; Cabaret and one person shows: Jackie Hoffman & Kristine Zbornik Joe’s Pub; Holiday Hams Lead; Blow Up World; Ball of Confusion; Serving Mankind; Zbornik In A Trunk.
Created cabaret/one-woman shows for over 25 years throughout the universe.
Laurence graduated from MLS in 1975. Besides working on a few high school acting projects, he appeared in Sandstone Summer Theatre's Bye Bye Birdie and No, No Nanette. He went on to Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio, where he obtained a B.A. in theatre and developed his acting skills in several leading roles including the title roles in Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Tom Sawyer, as well as The Cowardly Lion in Wizard of Oz, El Gallo in The Fantasticks,Tom Wingfield in Glass Menagerie and Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple.
Moving on to grad school, Laurence was awarded a Bush Fellowship to attend the University of Minnesota where he received his M.F.A. and began his professional career with the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. Then he went to New York appearing on Broadway in Amadeus as well as off–Broadway with The New York Shakespeare Festival, Lincoln Center Institute, Equity Library Theatre, and the historic Provincetown Playhouse. He also performed in many regional theatres and on several television soap operas including All My Children, One Life to Live and
Loving. Eventually, he moved to Hollywood, California, and became executive producer of The Writer's Lab, working to develop quality scripts for the entertainment industry.
Laurence has been involved in arts education for over 25 years. He is also an internationally known poet and genealogist and the author of 10 books.
After a wonderful 4 years of theatre at MLS starting with Valerie Jenkins and later Dave Cotton, a show or two at Workshop Players, and 4 summers with Sandstone Summer Theatre, (approximately 18 shows).
I went on to Bowling Green State University my freshmen year as a theatre major. That year I broke the technical theatre professors heart when I told him I was more interested in acting than tech. He had big plans I think for me to go onto becoming a lighting director or a stage manager professionally. I loved both the actors life and that of technician which came from the necessity of having to do both in Amherst. It's always been such a disappointment that the community of my home town would never get behind a proper auditorium and arts complex. The only bright side of having to build a production from the ground up was exactly that...we learned how to create from scratch something that I now do daily in my work. It was at BGSU that I combined my love of theatre and photography and cinema together and put together a degree of Bachelor of Arts in Communication. The bulk of my television learning and experience came from working at the PBS station connected to the university. WBGU-57 (now channel 27) was truly where I learned the craft I make my living doing. I ended up taking more classes in theatre and photography than television because at that time the university's studio and equipment was ancient (alumni Tim Conway operated the cameras they had for us to use!) but the TV station was state of the art. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work for the best station in Ohio.
After graduation I worked in news for a short year, then at another PBS affiliate for another 5 years. After that I moved to Orlando where I began my life as a freelancer and started my company Summer Nights film and video. Next came the move to Michigan where I've lived now since 1992. This is where I call home but my career has not kept me home all that much.
My life on the road has been wonderful. I have been to Japan, Europe, all over North America. You name the subject, I have shot it, produced it or have worked on it in some way. I have worked with actors, athletes, politicians, animals, race cars, TV personalities. I have won an Emmy and numerous other awards. I have witnessed people at their best and worst. I am able to get the best performance out of CEOs, amateurs, professional actors and the man on the street because I have been on the other side of the lens. I am sought after for my ability to adapt, have the right camera and equipment, work with people on both large productions and two person crew where I light, shoot, direct and often do the makeup. That is where I guess not having had the ready made auditorium, creating the show from ground up turned out to be a good thing.
Through it all, I have my humble beginnings at MLS theatre to look back upon that gave me the wonder of the drama of life and the people who upon its stage. The world truly is a stage and we are but players.
Mark is a proud graduate of Marion L. Steele High School - class of 1987. Inducted into MLS Gallery of Success in 2015. NYU Graduate - class of 1991- BFA from Tisch School of the Arts Undergraduate Drama. Member of Actors Equity Association since 1991. He has worked as a professional stage manager for the past 25 years both on and off Broadway, at regional theatres, and on 2 National Tours. Mark is currently the Production Stage Manager of The Illusionists: Turn of the Century, which will begin performances at the Palace Theatre after Thanksgiving and of the upcoming Broadway production of Bandstand which is directed and choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler (Tony Winner as Best Choreography for “Hamilton” and “In The Heights.”) due to open April 2017. Other Broadway productions include: The Illusionists: Live on Broadway (2015), Holler If Ya Hear Me, Machinal (Roundabout Theatre Company), End of the Rainbow, Mary Poppins, Ring of Fire, Thou Shalt Not (Lincoln Center Theater), Miss Saigon, and Phantom of the Opera. Off-Broadway: The Robber Bridegroom and Fiasco Theater’s production of “Into The Woods” at Roundabout Theatre Company. Found at Atlantic Theatre Company. Lincoln Center Theater: Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, In The Summer House. The Public Theatre: Woyzeck. National Tours: Phantom of the Opera, The Producers. Regional: Paper Mill Playhouse: The Bandstand, White Christmas. A Little More Alive (Barrington Stage), End of the Rainbow (The Guthrie Theatre & Center Theatre Group). Ring of Fire (Studio Arena Theatre). Bristol Valley Playhouse. Events: Stephen Sondheim’s 75th Birthday; Into The Woods (10th Anniversary).
Opening Night of Mamma Mia! April 7th
Theatre Banquet in early May
he Amherst Board of Education is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Michael Molnar as Superintendent of the Amherst Exempted Village School District.
Congratulations to the Steele students who received an academic award for the 4th Quarter!
Congratulations to the AJH students who received an academic award for the 4th Quarter!
Please read today's update from Superintendent Steve Sayers!
Please read today's update from Superintendent Steve Sayers!
Second Harvest will distribute food at Steele High School on May 19th from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Please RSVP using the QR code or link below and contact Amherst School Social Workers Jill Maiorca or Katie Krichbaum with any questions.
Please read today's update from Superintendent Steve Sayers!
We have applied for the rights for the following shows this spectacular 2021-2022 season:
Suite Surrender by Michael McKeever (a 1940's comedy farce) Performances this November 11,12,13,19,20! More info to come.
Till Death Do Us Part by Craig Sodero (A Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre Experience) Performances this February 10-12, 2022 More info to come!
"Mamma Mia!" Our Spring Musical Performances are this April 7th, 8th, 9th at 7pm and 10th at 2pm. Tickets at the door or online. Check out our social media -Facebook, Insta and Twitter for more info.
We are pleased to announce that tickets are now on sale for our Spring Musical Sensation MAMMA MIA! Pre-sale tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite and tickets will be available at the door each performance night. Tickets are first come first serve. All employees of Amherst Exempted School District that show their ID will receive a complimentary ticket!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
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