The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts (NYCDA) created a grant known as ‘Your Start in the Arts’, which it will award annually. The Conservatory announced its first recipients recently, and Bay Shore High School was among them.
The grant supports theater and drama teachers at the high school level who have inspired students to pursue an arts career. Richard Omar, who is the artistic director and president of NYCDA, said the award was designed to honor teacher and drama departments that are enabling their students to pursue their passion for acting and other dramatic endeavors.
He added this is particularly important at the high school level, where support for artistic classes is shrinking, or has been entirely eliminated. Programs like this can be enhanced if organizers use brochure printing to explain the effort and the application process.
Almost 1,000 schools submitted applications for the grant from across the nation, making it difficult to narrow down the selection. In the end, only five schools were selected: Ayden Grifton High School in Ayden, North Carolina; Booker T. Washington Magnet High School in Montgomery, Alabama; La Habra Theater Guild in La Habra, California; Timpview High School in Provo, Utah; and Bay Shore High School. Bay Shore will use the award to buy new lighting for the stage, with the eventual aim of replacing the entire lighting system, which is outdated.