WINNERS’ NEWS

Award for Excellence in the Arts Students

Begin Ballet Apprenticeships

Two students from the Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington, DC begin their ballet apprenticeships.

Patricia Zhou, Dong Woo Kim, Megan Amanda Ehrlich

Megan Amanda Ehrlich, a Certificate of Merit recipient in 2010, will begin her professional career in July 2011 as an Apprentice dancer with the San Francisco Ballet. 

Megan Amanda is a 15 year old honor student who first began dancing at the age of two.  By the time she was eight years old, she had been invited to join the Kirov Academy of Ballet on a full scholarship. She is an American Ballet Theatre National Training Scholar and a nominee for the Princess Grace Award.  Last month she was selected to perform at the Horatio Alger Induction Awards Ceremony here in Washington.

Patricia Zhou, a 2010 Award for Excellence in the Arts winner, began dancing rather late at the age of thirteen.  Four remarkable years later, she is preparing to join the Royal Ballet of London in the fall of 2011 as an Apprentice.  Patricia was one of the seven medal winners of the prestigious 2011 Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland.  She was the only dancer in the Senior Division to win two medals, a gold in ballet, and a silver in Contemporary Dance, at the Youth America Grand Prix in Paris, France.

Featured in publications including Pointe, Dance, and Dance Spirit magazines, Patricia made her television debut performance in May 2011 on the ABC television show Dancing with the Stars.

Both Patricia and Megan Amanda were selected to perform, along with Dong Woo Kim of the Kirov Academy, at the 8^th Annual Award for Excellence in the Arts Ceremony at The Kennedy Center on May 15, 2011. 

Award for Excellence in the Arts Student

Kimberly Thompson Joins

Suzanne Farrell Ballet as Junior Company Member

Kimberly Thompson

Poolesville High School Senior Kimberly Thompson has been chosen to perform as a junior member of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet housed at The Kennedy Center.  Kimberly has studied classical ballet for 13 years.  For the past two years, she has participated in The Kennedy Center's Ballet Master Class Series and Modern Dance programs. Kimberly performed solo as the “Flower Queen” in The Nutcracker for The Maryland Youth Ballet where she is currently studying with Tensia Fonseca and Michele Lees.  She also represented MYB in the prestigious Youth American Grand Prix.  Kimberly will attend The Orlando Ballet School Summer Intensive on scholarship. 

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MEMBERS’ NEWS

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

10:00 am to 11:50 am

Playwright, Director, and NSAL Member Edgar Russell III

will present

A Celebration of Abraham Lincoln

 from the Golden Age of Radio

As part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)

at

The Katzen Arts Center at American University

4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW

Washington DC 20016-8001

The event is open to the public so please join us!

Program description: Our 16th President Abraham Lincoln has continued to fascinate us through the years.  Using selections from some of the greatest shows heard during the Golden Age of Radio, this presentation at the Katzen Arts Center will offer a depiction of many important events and people in Lincoln’s life.  Among the dramatic voices you will hear are Orson Welles, Agnes Moorehead, Gregory Peck, and Henry Fonda.  Our speaker, Edgar Farr Russell III, is a playwright whose work has appeared on National Public Radio and stage.  He is President of The Metropolitan Washington Old Time Radio Club and Immediate Past President of The Lincoln Group of DC.

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Some of our NSAL members may also be aware of the

recent live presentation of a play by Edgar as described below:

Edgar Russell  holding cast-signed script of his original play

Radio Goes to War which he directed in New Jersey.

On October 24, 2011, the Washington Times newspaper ran an article and photo which described the original live radio play Edgar wrote and directed at the most recent Friends of Old Time Radio Convention held from October 20-23, 2011.  The play entitled Radio Goes To War was a dramatic story of courage and sacrifice set during World War II.  It featured real-life individuals like Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and news broadcaster Edward R. Murrow along with nearly 40 popular characters from the Golden Age of Radio. These included Sherlock Holmes, Dick Tracy, Doctor Kildare, Superman, and many others.  Edgar’s large cast of 22 actors came from the worlds of Broadway, movies, radio, and television (including a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre). The show was well-received by the audience and by the actors themselves!  It was filmed by Satellite Media Production and is now available for purchase from that company.

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CHAPTERS’ NEWS

The Washington Chapter

of the

National Society of Arts and Letters

is pleased to offer for sale the artwork of Frank Wright

Washington National Cathedral

Giclee print on paper

Image size: 10” x 7” for $20.00

 Ice on the Potomac

Limited edition offset lithograph

from the painting in the collection of the law firm

Wilkes, Artis, Hedrick & Lane

Edition of 500 (limited number remaining) Image size: 15" x 30"; paper size: 20" x 35"

Printed on 100 lb Karma Cover which is neutral pH

Lithograph signed and numbered by the artist: $250.00

Lithograph signed, numbered and remarqued by the artist: $350.00

 To purchase a print or lithograph or for more information,

please contact Jane Taylor at

janeharp@cox.net

Frank Wright won an award from The Washington Chapter of The National Society of Arts and Letters in 1950 with renewals in 1952 and 1953. The Chapter's faith in his ability has been well rewarded. Frank Wright is now a prominent Washington, D.C. artist and Professor of Fine Arts at George Washington University. His works are in many public and private collections, including the Winton Blount Collection in Montgomery, Alabama; Perpetual Bank; Kiplinger Washington Editors; Charles E. Smith Companies; and Oliver T. Carr Company, all of Washington, D.C. Mr. Wright has exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the country, including the Kennedy Galleries, New York; the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which gave him a retrospective exhibition in 1981, the IMF Visitors' Center which hosted a retrospective exhibition in 1986, and The Library of Congress (1991-1992), all in Washington, D.C. His work also can be seen in the Old Ebbitt Grill restaurant on 15th Street, NW in Washington, DC For more information, visit his website at http://www.gwu.edu/~fwright/

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Please join the Washington Chapter of NSAL’s Facebook page by clicking on:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=174152951631&v=info

The National Web Site for NSAL can be found at: 

www.arts-nsal.org