Play on family violence nets awards for students
Three seniors won acting awards at regionals and Atascocita High School’s production of scenes from “The Angelina Project” was honored recently as alternate to the state finals in 6A University Interscholastic League one-act play competition.
Winning best actress at the Region II meet April 22 at Baylor University’s HooperSchaefer Fine Arts Center was Karen Grentz as Angelina Napolitano, whose murder of her abusive husband, Pietro, in 1911 sparked a public debate on domestic violence.
Frank Canino’s 2000 play imagined a cycle of family violence that continued until Angelina’s granddaughter, Amelia, broke free from a husband, Vinny, who verbally abused her.
Anna Flynn as Amelia and Austin Brady, who portrayed both Pietro and Vinny, received honorable mention all-star cast awards, said theater arts chair Justin Vincent, who co-directed the play with teachers Lisa Henderson and Seth Ramsey.
“We visited The Door, a local shelter for battered women, to gain a bigger understanding of how violence is a cyclical thing that happens in families,” said Grentz, 18.
The daughter of Louis and Silmara Grentz of Atascocita said she based her character’s accent on that of her Panamanian-born mother “and went off it.”
The actress also recalled the accents of Flynn and Brady when they played Italian immigrants in a production last year of Arthur Miller’s “A View
from the Bridge.”
“Ironically, in it, I played another abusive husband, Eddie Carbone,” said Brady, 17.
“Visiting the shelter was a big eye-opener,” said the son of Robert and Stacie Brady of Atascocita.
“We learned that every single day, everywhere, women are abused by husband and boyfriends.
“In Pietro’s case, money got tight and living conditions got hard.
“Vinny raised his voice and abused Amelia with words. He treated her like property and disrespected her.”
“This experience was really special because the message of the story was so important,” said Flynn, 18, whose parents are Bernard Flynn of Kingwood and Jennifer Egenolf of Atascocita.
Grentz added, “The whole company worked so hard, so it was exciting to feel like we earned this for our school and to make Mr. Vincent proud because he has been our head theater teacher since our freshman year.
“This is the first time we made it to regionals.”
Both Brady and Flynn plan to major in theater at Texas A&M University, while Grentz plans to attend Sam Houston State University and seek a bachelor of fine arts in theater.
Other cast and crew members won additional awards as the production advanced through several levels of competition before reaching the regional contest.
More than 14,000 Texas high school students performed more than 1,000 plays in more than 300 contests, en route to the state finals May 23-25 in Austin.
Kelly Lawrence, chair of the theater department at Deer Park High School, explained what an achievement it is to place as alternate to the 6A state meet.
“When you consider how many schools the contest begins, and to go through so many levels of competition to the point where you officially stand as one of the 12 best plays in the state’s most competitive conference, that is pretty amazing,” said Lawrence.
A DVD of the students’ April 26 performance of the play for family and friends is available for purchase by emailing justin.vincent@humble.k12.tx.us.