Announcing our four Scholarship awardees...
Rhonna Smetaniuk, Felicia Barry, Harrison Fillion, President Bev, and Andrew Nordgren
For several years now, we have awarded $500 Scholarships in each of the four disciplines performed by participants in Quesnel Festival of the Perfoming Arts.
This year was no exception and , on behalf of our club, President Bev Haluschak presented our Scholarship awards at QFPA "Celebration of Stars", June 5th, based on these superb recommendations:
Speech Arts Rotary Scholarship...Felicia Barry (Correlieu Secondary School student). Felicia has participated in speech arts for many years and has performed at the Provincial level. Felicia has competed in many categories in speech arts over the years and been an eager participant in numerous adjudicator workshops. Felicia is a keen learner and an enthusiastic competitor.
Piano Rotary Scholarship...Andrew Nordgren. Andrew has been playing piano for 13 years and has been actively teaching for the past 2 years. Andrew graduated from high-school last year and is currently attending post secondary. Andrew is working on his ARCT Performance and is working on getting his ARCT Teaching Certification.
*ARCT: Associate Diploma from The Royal Conservatory
Dance Rotary Scholarship...Rhonna Smetaniuk. Rhonna will be graduating from high-school this year. Rhonna has loved dance since she was a toddler. Rhonna joined ballet at 3 years old and has been dancing ever since. Rhonna is passionate about dance and enjoys teaching and choreographing. This year she choreographed one of her own solos as well as a Jazz solo for a students. Dance has always been such a big part of Rhonna’s journey through life and she is excited to see where her skills will take her.
Vocal/Choral Rotary Scholarship...Harrison Fillion. Harrison went to see his first professional stage performance at 8 years old- it was Les Miserables. He fell in love with acting and Musical performance. His first real opportunity to gain acting experience was in high school. He took high school Drama, Theatre and Musical theatre Grades 11 – 12. He was a member of the cast of A Thousand Paper Cranes which his theatre group took to the BC Interior Theatre Festival where they were awarded a spot in the BC Theatre festival. His high school theatre group performed a couple variety musicals. Harrison was cast as Alexander Hamilton in a Hamilton based variety show and also a part of the ensemble cast of Rent in another. He was awarded best comedic performance at BC Interior Theatre Festival for his performance as Orpheus and Menelaus in the Greek Mythology Olympiaganza. Harrison won the lead Jack Kelly in Newsies his Grade 12 year but unfortunately he didn’t get to perform in front of an audience due to COVID restrictions. In his downtime Harrison enjoys learning new instruments and singing. He recently began taking vocal lessons and dreams of pursuing an education in Acting and Musical Theatre. Harrison graduated from CSS last year.
