The Theatre and Drama Program
The Dearborn High School (DHS) Theatre program is one of the oldest and most highly honored secondary level theatre programs in the state of Michigan, with a tradition of fine theatrical performances dating back to the turn of the 20th century. The oldest continuous theatre program of any kind in the City of Dearborn, DHS is also the home of International Thespian Troupe #586 which was chartered at the school in 1944. The program's most famous alumnus was the actor George Peppard (class of 1946) who co-starred with Audrey Hepburn in the motion picture Breakfast at Tiffany's as well as such films as The Blue Max and The Carpetbaggers, appeared on Broadway in many plays including Barefoot in the Park, and starred in the television series Banacek and The A-team. Other notable graduates of the theatre program include stage and screen actor David Wayne Parker (the film Escanaba in da'Moonlight), film maker Stephen Taylor-Wehr, actor and television and film producer Mike Mosallam, and working professional stage actors Thad Avery, Brent Bradley, Laura Downes, Kira Frabutt, Sarah Leahy, Matios Simonian, Jackie Strez, and Greg Phillip Viscomi, who moved from a career on the stage into theatre education, becoming the DHS Theatre program's director in 1994, a position he continues to hold, making him the longest serving theatre director in the school's history. The program has been honored with 10 consecutive nominations (2000–2010) to perform at the annual American High School Theatre Festival and at the prestigious International Thespian Festival, numerous State of Michigan Thespian theatre competition medalists and scholarship winners, and by far the most Dearborn Press and Guide Newspaper Entertainment (PAGE) Awards of any high school theatre program in the city's history. 3 Theatre Program Alumni have been inducted into the City of Dearborn's Theatre Hall of Fame representing DHS; Peppard, Viscomi, and former director, designer, and teacher Joan Arrick, the current DHS Director of Theatre Emeritus. The program presents an average of three fully staged productions each school year. For more information, go to Dearborn High Theatre: The Fan Page on FACEBOOK.
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Famous quotes containing the words theatre, drama and/or program:
“Our instructed vagrancy, which has hardly time to linger by the hedgerows, but runs away early to the tropics, and is at home with palms and banyans—which is nourished on books of travel, and stretches the theatre of its imagination to the Zambesi.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greeks, play in the open air; the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest their dinner.”
—Eleonora Duse (1859–1924)
“Navajo men and boys have an odd way of showing their friendship. When two young men meet at the trading post, a “Sing”, or a dance they greet each other, inquire about the health of their respective families, then stand silently some ten or fifteen minutes while one feels the other’s arms, shoulders, and chest.”
—Administration in the State of Ariz, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)