Bill Nunn & Point Park Univ. Reach Out To Schools, Create A Play About Choices

The Bill Nunn Theatre Outreach Project and Point Park University's Conservatory of Performing Arts are partnering for the second year to take theatre into local schools. Nunn is working with a cast of six Conservatory students to develop a play about choices. John Amplas, an associate professor in the Conservatory, is producing the project. During the last two weeks of May, the show will be performed at the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA), West Mifflin High School, Westinghouse High School, and Arsenal Middle School, among others. Following the performance, Nunn and the cast will give workshops that discuss the process of writing the play, how actors communicate with one another and the subject matter of the various choices the students will make in their lives.

As part of the rehearsal process, Nunn is working with the Conservatory students in improvisational exercises as they write the play together. The cast includes seniors Rachel Pfenningwerth and Kory Grant; sophomores Maggie Carr, Brent Morrison and Connie Castanzo; and freshman Scotland Newton,. The set and costumes are also designed by Conservatory students; costumes are by junior Cassandra Bass and the set is by sophomore Amber Shuman; freshman Alexis Schwartz is the stage manager.

Nunn is best known for his film roles in projects such as Raisin in the Sun, Spiderman (the series), Sister Act and Do the Right Thing. The project is being funded by the Multicultural Arts Initiative and the Pittsburgh Foundation.

Nunn, along with Amplas, also led the Pittsburgh debut of the August Wilson Monologue Competition this past March at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, the performing arts center of Point Park University. Three Pittsburgh area students will be competing in the August Wilson Monologue Competition Finals in New York City April 24-27 against finalists from Atlanta and New York City. The Pittsburgh finalists include two students from the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA): junior Laneece Patterson and senior Carter Redwood, and Imari Payne from West Mifflin. The competition will be held in the August Wilson Theater in New York City on Monday, April 27 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The students will perform monologues from Wilson's Century Cycle. The winners will receive annual scholarships to Point Park University's Conservatory of Performing Arts acting program, with the first place winner receiving $10,000; the second place winner receiving $7,000; and the third place winner receiving $5,000. The evening will also include special performances by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Phylicia Rashad and other celebrities.

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