Jason Gotay and Stephanie Gibson to Lead Masterclass at PPAS Tomorrow

By: May. 05, 2015
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On Wednesday, May 6th select eighth grade students at the Professional Performing Arts School (PPAS) will take part in a special song interpretation masterclass. Broadway actors Jason Gotay and Stephanie Gibson will be leading the masterclass. Six students were picked by PPAS voice teacher Brad Siebeking to work one on one with Ms. Gibson and Mr. Gotay.

Middle school students take voice class with Mr. Siebeking each year from 6th to 8th grade. One focus of the class is working on a solo song. Picking from any genre the students are asked to perform a section of the song and are assessed based on vocal and acting metrics. The six students who were selected for the masterclass had some of the highest grades in the class on their solo songs. Those students are Jordan Babbs, Jonah Barricklo, Cali Scolari, Johnny Marx, Katya Urban and Madeleine Le Du.

The Professional Performing Arts School (PPAS) was created in 1990 to meet the needs of two groups of students: those who wanted to pursue professional work in the arts as they earned a junior/senior high school diploma and those who wanted to study the arts as an avocation. It is the special mission of this small, personalized school to develop, refine, and showcase students in dance, drama, and vocal music while also providing them with a rigorous, meaningful academic curriculum. Every student auditions for a performing arts major. Performing arts instruction is delivered by professional dancers, actors and musicians through professional studios. Academic staff give students opportunities for daily study through a rigorous, comprehensive, sequential, fully integrated academic curriculum. The course of study, ending in a New York State Regents endorsed diploma, is centered around an interdisciplinary, multicultural, inquiry based approach to learning which prepares students for college and/or a professional career in the arts.

Mr. Siebeking and Mr. Gotay are also proud alumni of PPAS.

Jason Gotay is a native New Yorker and proud member of Actors Equity. Broadway: Bring It On: The Musical (Randall, Original Broadway/Touring Companies), Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (Peter Parker/Spider-Man). Off Broadway: F#%king Up Everything, The Anthem. Jason has performed in numerous concerts in NYC and can be heard on Jonathan Reid Gealt's album Here For You: Ballads for Broadway Impact and Alexander Sage Oyen's Drafts II and Moment By Moment. Also recently seen in Peter Pan Live! on NBC.

Stephanie Gibson was most recently seen at the Bucks County Playhouse in the new musical production of National Pastime playing Betty Lou. On Broadway she has played step-sister Gabrielle in Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. Other Broadway: Addams Family and Spamalot. National tours: A Chorus Line (Judy) and Happy Days (Lori Beth). Other: Anyone Can Whistle (City Center Encores) and Fingers and Toes (NYMF). Film and Television: "Person of Interest","Up All Night", "The Union", "You Must Be Joking", "All My Children," "As the World Turns," and "Guiding Light,". She co-stars in her original webseries Dates, Mates and Clean Slates. Check it out! www.datesmatesandcleanslates.com

Brad Siebeking was born in upstate NY but at the age of 16 moved to New York City to complete his high school education at PPAS as a musical theatre major. He graduated from PPAS and moved on to a conservatory education at Circle in the Square Theater School where he completed an intense, two-year musical theatre-training program. All the while, Mr. Siebeking was performing, music directing and vocal coaching in and around New York City. He has been seen onstage as Pippin in Pippin, Joseph in Joseph and the... Dreamcoat, Paul in Carnival (at PPAS) and Dr. Brock in Tenderloin. He has musically directed such shows as Little Shop of Horrors, Footloose, Paint Your Wagon, and Baby (at PPAS). He has also been teaching voice and coaching vocalists in New York City for the past ten years, many students moving on to Broadway and Regional Theater jobs. He has been the Elements of Singing teacher for the middle school at the Professional Performing Arts School for the past 7 years. Recent directing/music directing credits include Fame, Guys and Dolls, Thirteen, How to Succeed In Business, Little Shop of Horrors, Footloose, Paint Your Wagon, and Baby.

Photo Credit: Michael Hull



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