VSA arts Announces 2009 Williamstown Theatre Festival Apprenticeships

April 27, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. - VSA arts is happy to announce the 2009 VSA arts Williamstown Theatre Festival apprentices, Michael Randazzo and Anton Spivack. Randazzo and Spivack will be learning about the different aspects of professional theater through stage performance classes and hands-on work at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts this summer.

Every summer, the Williamstown Theatre Festival Apprentice Program offers 70 promising students classes in acting, voice, and movement, including discussions and master classes with acclaimed theater professionals. Students learn about the business side of theater through rotating work assignments. VSA arts is committed to providing opportunities for emerging artists with disabilities, and provides financial support every year to two promising theater students to participate in the prestigious program.

“This is the fourth year that VSA arts has worked with Williamstown Theatre Festival to support apprentices with disabilities,” said Soula Antoniou, president of VSA arts. “Our apprentices go through the same rigorous application process as the rest of the participants, and the entire festival community gets the opportunity to see what they can do.”

Originally hailing from Coldenham, N.Y., Randazzo, 22, is currently a senior majoring in theater at the State University of New York at Potsdam. Playing the role of white voice in the one-act play Slave Ship, Randazzo and the production were invited to perform at the Cornerstone Festival at Liverpool Hope University in the United Kingdom. He also played the role of Peter Quince in the SUNY Potsdam production A Midsummer Night’s Dream and has been a sound board operator for the university’s One Act Play Festival. Randazzo, who is legally blind, says, “I learned that theater can take you anywhere. Theater took me somewhere I had never dreamed of going.”

Spivack made his theater debut at age 8 in Jerry Herman Tonight, an AIDS benefit. A 23-year old actor/playwright from New York City, he has a B.A. in Theatre from Bard College at Simon's Rock, where he studied under Karen Beaumont and Karen Allen. Spivack has also been a member of the 2007 Theatre Askew Youth Performance Experience, where he began his first full-length play, Mixed Messages, based mostly on his own experience with Asperger's Syndrome. “Having Asperger’s Syndrome has influenced my life in the sense that I have found it difficult to socialize and communicate with others, so my passion for theater has enabled me to work with others and develop empathy and understanding,” Spivack says. He currently seeks to have his play produced, while taking improvisational comedy training at the People's Improv Theatre in New York City.

About VSA arts
VSA arts is an international nonprofit organization founded 35 years ago by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to create a society where people with disabilities learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts. VSA arts provides educators, parents, and artists with resources and the tools to support arts programming in schools and communities. VSA arts showcases the accomplishments of artists with disabilities and promotes increased access to the arts for people with disabilities. Each year millions of people participate in VSA arts programs through a nationwide network of affiliates and in 55 countries around the world. VSA arts is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. For more information, please visit www.vsarts.org

Media Contact:

Stephanie Taylor/VSA arts
(202) 628-2800 ext. 3883
SKTaylor@vsarts.org

General Information:

(202) 628 -2800
(TTY) 737-0645
www.vsarts.org