Mad Cat Theatre Announces 2013 Nine Lives Scholarship Winners

MAD CAT THEATRE COMPANY is pleased to present its second annual Nine Lives Scholarship Awards to Christian Frost (Outstanding High School Senior) and Vanessa Elise (Outstanding College Senior). Each recipient will be awarded a $500 scholarship and presented a commemorative plaque which will be presented on opening night of Mad Cat's next play Blow Me by Jessica Farr at the SandBox at the Miami Theater Center on August 16, 2013.

For 13 years and running, Mad Cat has provided a home for young artists from the South Florida community to hone their skills and exercise their talents. We founded the 9 Lives Scholarship Awards because we needed to do more than just offer someone an opportunity to show their talents. We were compelled to put a little relief in their pockets upon graduation while searching for the next step.

Our outstanding high school senior is Christian Frost who recently graduated from J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs. In his own words Christian told us, "I want to pursue a career in the arts because I can honestly say that I can't imagine doing anything else, and I have come to love it so much that I want the rest of my life to be immersed in it. But that's not just me speaking as an actor, but I have realized that I would really want to branch out and experience more opportunities in the theater world, such as possibly directing, or producing and possibly writing. Theater has become such a passion of mine that I cannot even think of a life without it." Christian has performed in 11 plays to date and recently won a South Florida Cappie Award for Best Lead Actor in a Play, won Best Supporting Actor - District 7 One Act Festival in 2010 and 2012, just to name a few and he is a member of the International Thespian Honor Society. He will be a freshman at Elon University in the Department of Performing Arts in North Carolina. There is no doubt this young man is meant to pursue theatre as a career.

Our outstanding college senior, Vanessa Elisa was an easy choice for us to make. We first became aware of her talents when she delved into the theatre scene as a student at New World School of the Arts, and we became keenly aware this was a young woman that wanted to pursue a career in theatre. She has performed in 15 productions to date of which some were outside her training at New World and include Real Women Have Curves at the Women's Theatre Project and City Theatre's Shorts 4 Kids in 2009. As Kimberly Grant, South Florida Times wrote "Elise is a total chameleon. She has a different type of character from one [Shorts 4 Kids] to the next. So it's no surprise that she was the only actor to perform in all eight of the shorts." We also asked Vanessa to tell us what theatre meant to her and she replied, "The arts gave me a voice, motivation to discover more about myself and the world around me. I feel blessed that the career I've chosen gives me the opportunity express my views and also let audience members, even if it's just one, feel that their story is being told with respect and integrity be it in song or dialogue." We look forward to seeing what she will be doing next.

Mad Cat will next present Blow Me by Jessica Farr and Directed by Paul Tei. Blow Me is an unbridled take on the life of fashion icon, Isabella Blow. Blow, previously fashion editor at Tatler and Vogue, left an indelible mark on the fashion world, having discovered numerous supermodels and designers such as Philip Treacy and Alexander McQueen. Suffering from Bi-Polar disorder, Isabella attempted suicide 7 times before finally succeeding. In Blow Me, we follow Isabella down the rabbit hole as her life comes to an end, which is only just the beginning of the ride. Isabella retells her own story as only she could remember it, through spectacle.

The production runs August 15 to September 1, 2013 - 8:00 performances Thursday to Sunday.

Tickets may be purchased online at www.madcattheatre.org OR https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/32115 OR by calling OvationTix at 866.811.4111.