West Essex Nominated for a Rising Star Award; Graphic Design Student Receives Honorable Mention

Congratulations to the West Essex Masquers and West Essex High School Culinary program!

The senior citizen tea and spring musical preview of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" School Edition have been nominated for a 2013 Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star "Theater for Everyone" Inclusion and Access Award.

 The awards will be presented at a special ceremony at the Millburn theater on June 5. The Rising Stars recognize excellence in New Jersey High School Musical Theater.

West Essex junior Celina Marzullo also received an honorable mention for the Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design Award for the poster she designed for the show.  Musical Director Christa Sorrentino said she was thrilled for West Essex to be nominated again for the second year in a row! This is the second year West Essex has entered the competition with more than 100 other New Jersey high schools. "We are very lucky to have an amazing outreach opportunity through Caren Maw and WEFE grants. Her students do such a great job preparing the food, executing the breakfast and then serving as ushers."

Sorrentino said she is also thrilled for West Essex visual arts students to be recognized for their talents and thanks Marjorie Jameson for encouaging her classes to participate in the design competition. "Mrs Jameson does an amazing job giving them background and ideas for how to create a visually appealling poster that catches the eye, but doesn't give away the entire show."These areas exemplify why this is truly a whole-school production and it's great the Paper Mill recognizes and celebrates that with these categories!"

 Mrs. Jameson said she was thrilled to hear of Celina's honorable mention. "I think this is a wonderful opportunity for the students to work on real world projects and be given credit such as this for their efforts," she said. "They all got a lot out of the assignments they do for the school projects and the community at large. They have participated in several logo projects for local businesses, poster projects for charities, posters for our sports teams, school-based marketing projects and flyers for school and community events."

More than 190 West Essex senior citizens enjoyed the West Essex Regional High School senior citizen breakfast and spring musical preview at the high school on March 20.

 First, seniors enjoyed a delicious breakfast prepared and served by the high school's talented culinary students. The menu included individual broccoli and red pepper quiches, fresh fruit salad, sour cream coffee cake, blueberry muffin, apple sauce muffins, homemade granola bars and other goodies. Later, the seniors moved to the High School Auditorium where the West Essex Masquers performed the first act from the spring musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" School Edition. The seniors enjoyed the music, the acting and the beautiful scenery, built by the West Essex Masquers tech crew. The show was performed March 21-23.

Mrs. Jameson asked her students to create possible designs for the poster and T-shirt for the show. West Essex High School Choral Director and West Essex Masquers' Director Christa Sorrentino selected the winners."I learned how to deal with deadlines and how to please them (a client).," said Celina, who plans to study graphic design in college. "The design took me two weeks and required a lot of editing."Mrs. Jameson said her graphic design students create designs and logos for many school events and are currently designing possible logos for Drago Landscaping, a local business.