|
The group of performers who you will see in the show is a mixture of Rochester high school students, and Rochester-based college students attending some of the most prestigious theatre training programs in the Northeast and in the country. High schools represented in “Fight With Love" include School of the Arts, Aquinas Institute, McQuaid Jesuit, Our Lady of Mercy High School, Allendale Columbia, Pittsford-Mendon High School, Pittsford-Sutherland High School, East Irondequoit High School, Webster Schroeder High School, Brighton High School and more. Students from such prestigious schools as New York University, Syracuse University, Boston Conservatory, SUNY Purchase, SUNY Fredonia, Eastman School of Music, Nazareth College and more are performers in the production. We are the most talented young singers and actors in the Rochester area, and are already performing in the professional theatre spaces in Rochester, such as Geva Theatre, Blackfriars Theatre, Downstairs Cabaret Theatre and with the Mercury Opera. You will not be disappointed with the talent in our production.
|
Jessica created Fight With Love in summer 2007 and has almost singlehandedly directed, publicized and managed the production during its first two years of existence. She is ecstatic to see its growth in its third year. She will be entering her senior year at SUNY Plattsburgh in fall ’09 with a 3.98 GPA, where she is pursuing a bachelor’s in newspaper journalism and a minor in English. In her second year of college, she was appointed to the position of Managing Editor of Cardinal Points, SUNY Plattsburgh’s award-winning student-run newspaper, which was recently recognized as one of the top 55 college newspapers in North America. As a freshman, she served as Fuse Editor, managing the arts/entertainment section. She completed a page design internship at The Press-Republican daily newspaper in Plattsburgh, N.Y., and was then hired at the paper as a free-lance designer. She also worked as an editorial intern at City Newspaper in Rochester, N.Y. She has been involved in theatrical and musical performances for her entire life, including professional experience in Geva Theatre Center’s A Christmas Carol in 2006. In high school, she performed in five productions per year, including some leading roles; her favorites include the Witch in Into the Woods and Gertrude in Hamlet, both at the Aquinas Institute of Rochester. She is delighted to be partnered with the organizations that have made the production possible: Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Time Warner Cable, Geva Theatre Center and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Rochester. She wants to thank her family who supported her to the ends of the earth when this dream was only still a dream, and who continue to make the planning of this benefit a family affair. 
Teri is a recent graduate of Our Lady of Mercy High School. Teri owes much of her theatrical growth to Geva Theatre. Recent Geva credits include Sweeney Todd (swing), Frost/Nixon (makeup artist/stewardess), and two seasons of A Christmas Carol (Miss Fezziwig, Baker’s assistant). Recent high school performances include Godspell (Joanne), Into the Woods (the Witch), and Little Shop of Horrors (Audrey). Teri plans on attending school for theatre and physics in the fall, and is ecstatic to be participating in Fight with Love again this year.
Anna is a sophomore vocal performance major at the Eastman School of Music, and is thrilled to be a part of Fight With Love for the third summer in a row. A graduate of Aquinas Institute, Anna participated in many of her high school’s productions. Favorite roles include the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Cinderella in Into the Woods, Miss Dorothy in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Sister Hubert in Nunsense. Her senior year, she was awarded the opportunity to sing with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the RPO Search for a Star Competition. Although she is primarily a singer, Anna is also a pianist, organist, and conductor, and hopes to pursue a degree in choral conducting at the graduate level.
Marlena is a junior theatre arts major at Nazareth College with a concentration in Acting. This past school year she was seen in Nazareth College’s productions of Sweet Charity at the German House, as well as The Vagina Monologues. Marlena also portrayed the role of Helen in the Method Machine Lab’s production of Fat Pig this past winter. She has also worked with the Black Sheep Theatre Coalition on their production of The Philadelphia Story as Liz Imbrie, and in two staged readings for their annual NEXTFEST, one of which was reprised at the Valley Manor this past September. Last season, Marlena portrayed Jan in Grease with TYKEs (Theatre Young Kids Enjoy). She graduated from the School of the Arts in her hometown of Rochester, N.Y., where she was a Drama major and performed in many shows, favorites including Dorothy in The Wiz, Emily in Our Town, and Penny in You Can’t Take It With You. This is Marlena’s second summer performing in Fight With Love.
Meg is a senior music theatre major at Nazareth College. Previous productions at Nazareth include Sweet Charity (Elaine), L'Enfant et les Sortileges (L'Enfant), Hamlet (Osric), Falsettos (assistant director/dramaturg) and Where's Charley? (understudy/swing). Last summer, she appeared as Julie Jordan in Carousel with The Belfast Maskers of Belfast, Maine. This is Meg’s second summer with Fight With Love, having first performed the inaugural year in the summer of 2007. She is proud to be supporting as wonderful a cause as Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
