From a Station Theatre press release:
Celebration Company Awards Three Scholarships to Local Actors
Annual scholarships awarded to multifaceted, motivated young talent
(Urbana, IL) – The Celebration Company at the Station Theatre announced the recipients of three scholarship awards at their annual banquet, held in August at The Great Impasta. The Virginia Roesch Scholarships are established by her family in loving memory of Virginia Roesch, a regular patron of the Station Theatre for many years. The $500 scholarships were awarded to Stefanie Senior and Max Keagle.
Stefanie is a University Laboratory High School graduate who is now pursuing a degree in arts administration at Illinois State University. She worked on many shows at Uni and Parkland Theatre and now, both onstage and off, at the Station. She was last seen onstage as Cheryl in last season’s Good Boys and True and offstage as the assistant director for Orphans.
Max Keagle grew up coming to see shows at the Station and is the son and grandson of Company members. Like Stefanie, Max began doing theatre in earnest in high school, under the direction of LaDonna Wilson at Champaign Central. Max was a member of the cast of the Station’s world premiere production of My Ántonia and a part of the Celebration Company ensemble performances of Mark Twain’s My Books Are Like Water. He then gained admission to the theatre and dance programs at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, where he was awarded a scholarship as the outstanding incoming freshmen in acting.
The 2014 Danny Sullivan scholarship was awarded to Sydney Germaine Hastings in honor of the late Danny Sullivan, a beloved company member who passed away in 2010. Sydney is a student who studies theatre at the University of Illinois, but pursues a variety of other artistic pursuits in tandem, such as creating art and training in trapeze and aerial silks, studying different languages, and pursuing volunteer work that fights “isms”, such as racism, sexism, and ableism. Sydney currently works as a curator and barista and is an intern at the LGBT RC on campus. They will appear in Krannert’s upcoming production of Oh What a Lovely War and will travel to Indonesia to study Balinese dance, culture, and mask-carving in January 2015.
The Celebration Company at the Station Theatre embarks on Season 43 with a production of A Kid Like Jake by Daniel Pearle, directed by Katie Baldwin Prosise. The production will run October 2 through 18, 2014. For more information about the Celebration Company or their upcoming season, visit stationtheatre.com.