Summit celebrates end of school with a gala, by Nathan Weiser

The banquet was held in Summit’s cafeteria. It is a mix of dinner, entertainment and also honors the Summit’s best and brightest art student.

The guest speaker was Aisha Jackson, who is standby for the role of Anna in the musical Frozen. Another honored guest was Kamille Upshaw, who is in the popular Hamilton and Mean Girls musicals.

“Our first year we had Drew Shade, who is the founder of Broadway Black, which is journalism outlet online,” Price said. “Last year we had Bryan Terrell Clark from Hamilton.”

This year, the arts director reached out to Jackson via social media and she was eager to come and speak to the kids at Summit.

“I got Aisha Jackson this year because I sent her a message through Instagram and told her about the program and the event. She warmly said yes,” Price said. “We got Kamille because of the partnership that we have with In Defined Inc.”

In Defined Inc. is an arts advocacy and fashion organization that promotes arts education to young people. They teach youth how to use their voice and their art to combat things in life that hold them down.

Kyrie Hills and Price have changed the awards that they gave this year, as compared to the previous two years.

“We used to give out awards like best actor in a musical and best actor in a play, but I really wanted to highlight the scholars in each grade, so that they get a sense of pride knowing that they are the best artist of their grade, the best actor of their grade, the best dancer of their grade.”

The highlight of the 2017-2018 academic year was their spring production of the Wiz. For the first time, both middle school and high school were merged, enabling everyone to be seen performing at the same time.

Jackson shared personal experiences to the scholars about being ready to step into a big role. Jackson always observes at rehearsal and takes a lot of notes on who the actress who plays Anna, Patti Murin, stands next to at different times.“

I practiced with the music director, I memorized all my lines and I made sure I was prepared, because I never knew when I might be called upon,” Jackson said.

She was overjoyed that she had done so much preparation because she was told that she had to step in for Anna with not much notice.

She took a moment to gather herself, once she found out the good news, she cried a little, and then said to herself, “let’s go, I am ready.”

“The stage manager rehearsed me for a few hours on stage with the full cast before they threw me in front of a full house.” Jackson added. “I put on my makeup, my costume and my wig and performed for 1,700 people.

Jackson always believed in herself, despite being turned down in many Broadway auditions. She is now the first African American to play the role of Anna, on Broadway.

Price envisions many of the current juniors and seniors succeeding in the arts. Price thinks two seniors, Christina Isales and David Estrella, will continue performing in college.

“Isales definitely wants to pursue the arts, and I know that Estrella will definitely continue to dance when the is in college,” Price said. “I think that the ground has been broken in high school so that they can now be more successful in college.”

Jenny Eugene and Gemani Charles performed John Legend’s “Ordinary People” and there was a senior dance performance by Imani Boomer and Estrella. Red Hook Labs presented an photography award.

Isales lives in Red Hook and Estrella lives all the way in East New York. Price estimated that 30 to 40 percent of the scholars that he teaches live in Red Hook.

Price has led shows centered around Hispanic heritage, Christmas, Black History Month, Women’s History Month and an annual spring musical.

Price has been a teacher at Summit Academy for five years

The acting veteran is in a theatre group called after work theatre, and he has been in major productions like West Side Story, Godspell and recently Rag Time. He tries to bring the experiences that he has outside of Summit to the scholars that he teaches.