3 EF students nominated for Gene Kelly Awards
By CHRISTINE HAINES
chaines@yourmvi.com
Nominees for this year’s Gene Kelly Awards for Excellence in High School Musical Theater have been announced, with three of the 24 nominations going to students at Elizabeth Forward High School.
The announcements came on a day when the high school was virtual, but English teacher and theater director Elana Wieclaw and her students gathered in a Zoom session to watch the event together on the Pittsburgh CLO’s YouTube channel. Wieclaw said she was screaming and crying as the announcement was made.
“They’re all like my kids,” Wieclaw said. “I saw how hard they had worked. All three of these students are very versatile in their acting abilities.”
Senior Angelina Guadalupe had been nominated for best supporting actress twice before and was nominated this year for best actress. Senior Caedon Vogel and freshman Tyler Guinto-Brody were both nominated this year for best actor. It is the first time either student has been nominated for an individual award in the competition.
This year’s competition only includes four individual categories. Past years offered a number of categories, including best show, and nominees performed live at the Benedum during the awards presentation.
“I’ve performed at the Benedum when we were nominated for ‘Mama Mia’ and ‘Legally Blonde,’” Vogel said.
Vogel will attend California University of Pennsylvania in the fall, as will Guadalupe. He sees musical theater as part of his future.
“If it goes great, I see no reason not to try to be on Broadway,” Vogel said. “I’m hoping to be on stage at Cal U and in the choir.”
Guadalupe will also be attending Cal U in the fall, majoring in secondary education to become an English teacher, with a minor in musical theater. Guadalupe said the pandemic canceled last year’s contest and changed the way the process worked this year.
“We did virtual auditions. We had to send them in before we did our show,” Guadalupe said. “There were technical difficulties and I had to do it three times.”
To read the rest of the story, please see a copy of Saturday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at http://monvalleyindependent.com.
