The next generation of Pine Crest’s performing and visual artists would prove to be the most prolific in terms of numbers of students to make it “big.” Most of them performed in musicals and plays at Pine Crest; many received the coveted Founder’s Council Award for Excellence. Jeff Marx ’89 led the pack as co-creator of the Tony Award-winning musical Avenue Q. He starts the list of a handful of Pine Crest alums who sing, dance, write, perform, and create works from Tinseltown to the Big Apple. The Pine Crest troupe includes film producers Mike Lerman ’90 and Alyson Latz ’91, screenwriter Kate Kondell ’91, filmmakers Julian Mark Kheel ’91 and Brett Halsey ’92, theatre actor Jordin Greene ’93, film producer Brie Neimand ’96, television writer and producer Curtis Kheel ’94, Broadway actor Mark Ledbetter ’96, film, stage, and television actor Amir Arison ’96, Emmy Award winner and writer Brian Greene ’97, filmmaker and producer Paul Germaine ’00, Broadway actor Frank Grande-Marchione ’01, and sibling actors David ’97, Lynn ’00 and Daniel Abeles ’03. According to Myrna Feldman, Pine Crest’s Drama Club Director during the late 1980s to early 1990s, many of these actors, directors, producers, and filmmakers were part of the Actors’ Frat. She recalls her memories of those days here...
Cast of Guys & Dolls, 1993
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Compiled by Toni Marshall It all began in the mid 1980s. I had third graders then and was loving every minute of it. The Lower School music teacher wanted to do the Disney version of Cinderella with my class. Why Lynn Feely chose that particular class I’m not sure, but I was certainly glad she did. We had great fun doing it and held several performances in what used to be a small student lounge (about the size of two classrooms ) in order to give every Lower School class a chance to see it. The next year I was teaching fourth-grade math, and Lynn came to me and asked if I wanted to do another. “Would I? Yes!” I exclaimed. This time all third and fourth graders were invited to become members of the Drama Club. Each consecutive year another grade level was added until Drama Club included fourth, fifth, and sixth graders (dropping third due to the size of the group). Rehearsals were after school. We did musical productions for the most part: Robin Hood, Cinderella, Tom Sawyer, Davy Crockett, etc; and often holiday skits for assemblies. One play, Fairy Tale Court, was written by the young thespians themselves. What fun that was - especially when the frog sued the witch! Then, when the sixth graders were ready to move on to seventh grade, Jim Mullen, the Upper School Chorus Director, came to me and suggested I expand Drama Club to seventh and eighth graders as well because there really was no theater for that age group. I had to check it out with Tad Harrington, the Upper School Drama Director. He strongly encouraged me to “go for it.” We also got an “OK” from Kathy Pickrel, my Lower School Principal. Everything was now legal and ready for takeoff.