DA Theatre nurtures excellence - 2023-24 accolades

The superlative training our students receive at DA yielded notable recognition and honors during the 2023-24 academic year. Here are just a few highlights.

College showcase had 27 colleges and conservatories show up on campus to vie for our students, resulting in 56 offers being made to various programs.

Applause Awards, our Floridian version of the Tony Awards, were held in Orlando in June 2023. This year we had 48 nominations for "Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812" and 49 nominations for "Once on this Island". In Orlando, our students won a total of 38 Applause Awards for both these musicals. The icing on the cake was winning "Outstanding Musical" for both "Once on this Island" and "Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812".

The highlight of the Applause Awards is the selection of 2 students, one male and one female, as nominees for the Jimmie Awards, which are held in NYC. This year our very own George Eastman and Emma-Cate Davis won these nominations. They did an outstanding job representing our school's musical theatre program!

This year the National YoungArts Foundation winner was our star, Ayviana Singh. She made us proud by also winning the Gold Medal at the National ACT-SO Competition.

Our students won 5 awards at the Disctrict One-Act Festival for our play "I & You" by Lauren Gunderson. These were Best Actor (Jahkobi North), Best Actress (Sofia Marcilese), Best Stage Manager (Delaney Hagist), Best Play and All-Star Performer (Ava Venzon)!

DA set a record at the District Thespian Festival by bagging 11 Critic's Choice and 8 Alternates Awards. In addition to these, we won the following awards: District 2 Representative - Tech - Audrey Dunham, Scenic Design, which is the highest award a tech student can receive; District 2 Representative - Performance - 2nd Runner-up - Blow, Gabriel, Blow from Anything Goes; District 2 Representative - Performance - 1st Runner-up - Lord of the Flies.

Our school also won 3 NAACP Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological, and Scientific Olympics: Samuel Nelson (Vocal: Classical), Ayviana Singh (Dramatics), Micah Webster-Bass (Poetry Performance).

DCPS Seal of Fine Arts was achieved by Kyla Randall, Claire Smith, Olivia De Maio, and Micah Webster-Bass.

Olivia De Maio was one of our graduating seniors whose outstanding achievements in the field of theatre were celebrated through the receipt of the Florida Arts for Life award. She also received top Honors at Florida State Thespian Festival for Solo Musical.

Another graduating senior, Brennan Mitchell's talent and hard work was rewarded by the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with their Kenan Excellency Award.

DA's dedicated faculty are highly skilled and provide an environment where our gifted students can flourish, set ambitious goals, and achieve them!