Teacher uses award money, creates theater scholarships
Three thousand dollars in scholarships will help four teenage thespians further develop their talents in musical theater this summer, thanks to a Montrose teacher’s fundraiser that honored his late mother, who was also an educator.
Charles Swan used a $1,000 stipend he was awarded last year by Rotary Club of West U to produce the Mary Gray Swan Musical Theatre Scholarship Cabaret last month at Ovations Night Club in Rice Village.
“We raised roughly $4,000 which we divided between four of the students who sang in the cabaret and put aside some to do this again next year,” he said.
The Rotary Club honored Swan with its 2015 vocational service award for an educator, said member Sharon Williams.
Mary Gray Swan was a Christian educator at First Presbyterian Church of Pasadena when she suf-
fered a massive heart attack and died April 11, 2013 at her home in Pasadena.
“She was standing at the kitchen counter, cutting watermelon,” said her son, who entered the teaching field in the footsteps of his parents.
His father, Tom Swan, is the principal at Community School in Pasadena ISD.
He said, “I thought the cabaret was phenomenal. I was very proud of my son for doing this.”
“Act Two opened with a singalong on ‘Piano Man’ by Billy Joel,” said Swan.
“I told the audience my mom would have really loved to see people singing together in tandem. She raised me on ‘Yentl’ and ‘The Sound of Music.’ ”
Recipients
All four scholarship recipients attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts this year, where Swan oversees the musical theater program.
A committee evaluated the work of each applicant and selected the recipients based on musicality, stage presentation and strength of the summer program each planned to pursue.
“I am so grateful,” said Libby Carr, 17, a junior who lives in Upper Kirby. The daughter of Doug and Patty Carr hopes to use the $1,000 she was awarded to take private voice and talents lessons this summer.
Ashi Porter, a freshman who lives in the Heights, also received $1,000, while graduating seniors Sam Linda of Meyerland and the Museum District’s Savannah Schakett were awarded $500 each.
“We would like to make this a self-sustaining program,” said Swan.
A number of HSPVA students and teachers performed at the cabaret event, where Swan sang “It All Fades Away” from the Broadway musical “The Bridges of Madison County” as a tribute to his mother.
He was accompanied on guitar by HSPVA junior Nathan Richardson.
This summer, Swan will serve as the associate director/choreographer for a production of the Tony Award-winning musical “Grey Gardens” at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.
Its director is former Montrose resident Michael Wilson; it stars Fort Worth native Betty Buckley.
Swan will direct HSPVA students in 2001’s “Urinetown: The Musical” Oct. 6-15. Next spring, Swan is slated to direct and choreograph “Das Barbecü” for Houston Grand Opera.