COMING SOON:

LEVELS TEENS IN THE NEWS:


Brothers DAVID LEVINSON (above, left) & DANIEL LEVINSON (above, right) have written an original musical, Bathory, based on the life of the 16th-century Countess Elizabeth Bathory, which had a staged reading at the 45th Street Theatre in Manhattan and continues to develop toward a full production. More information can be found at http://www.bathorymusical.com. The reading's cast featured Caitlin Kinnunen (Spring Awakening), Frederic Heringes (The Phantom of the Opera), Alyssa Malgeri (Hairspray national tour), Marita Stryker (Sweeney Todd national tour) and fellow Levels alumnus SAMI SKOW (below, left) of Disney's High School Musical 2. To complete the Levels connection, the show was co-conceived by another of our alumni, DANIELLE GARCIA (below, right).





LAURA LANCE (above) co-stars in the independent horror comedy Audie & The Wolf, which also features Rance Howard (Apollo 13) and Richard Riehle (Office Space). She will soon be seen as "Chuchulina" in Hong Kong horror master Fruit Chan's thriller Don't Look Up, alongside Henry Thomas (E.T.: The Extraterrestrial) and Eli Roth (Inglorious Basterds). She appeared on the Levels stage (as Laura Simon) in such roles as Dotty in Noises Off, Dr. Einstein in Arsenic & Old Lace, the TinWoman in The Wiz and Sabina in The Skin of Our Teeth.

PAUL RYDER (above) plays the role of Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman in the feature film Cadillac Records, starring Beyoncé Knowles and Adrien Brody.  Paul is best known as an old-school punk rock frontman and is currently with the band Bloodrunners.  You may have seen him in concert at CBGB, Maxwell’s and the Continental, just to name a few.  Levels folk will remember Paul as the host of our cable TV rock show Straight Ahead, as the male lead in Ava Szilagi’s film Forever, and as the ‘60s rebel Berger in our 2004 production of Hair.



NIKKI BLONSKY (above) was nominated for a Golden Globe Award (Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical) for her role as Tracy Turnblad in the motion picture musical Hairspray. She's since appeared in the films Queen Sized, Harold and Waiting for Forever, and stars in the upcoming ABC Family series Huge. Levels theatre audiences will remember Nikki as Meredith Parker in Bat Boy: The Musical, Margaret Mead in Hair and as the Queen of Hearts and the Dodo Bird (below) in Alice in Wonderland.



ANDREW BLUM's documentary Colorblind won its division at the Boston International Film Festival, and the Long Island Film Festival. Colorblind is an examination of how high school students today interpret the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., featuring music by jazz legend Wynton Marsalis. Andrew (below) has been a mainstay of Levels' video program for years, directed Mirror, the first Levels horror movie, and appeared onstage in Company and Prelude to a Kiss.



ERICA KAYA HILL (below, left) performed in Hope & Anchor, a dance/theatre piece sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and performed at New York City's South Street Seaport. The piece was choreographed by Keely Garfield and Levels' dance coordinator Zach Morris, and featured original music by Levels' music coordinator Kris Bauman (below, right) and a mermaid designed by Levels' resident puppeteer Barry Weil. Erica's career at Levels stretches back to Godspell in 2002. She directed our 2007 Spring Musical, Gypsy, and played the Acid Queen in our 2007 Summer Musical, The Who's Tommy. (Photo by Arthur Donowski).




DID YOU KNOW THAT
THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE
ARE LEVELS ALUMNI?

R.J. CUTLER

Emmy- and Peabody-Award-winning documentary filmmaker and TV producer known for The War Room (Oscar nominee for Best Documentary), American High, Black/White and The September Issue.

JACKIE HOFFMAN

Comic actress acclaimed for her roles in Broadway's Xanadu, Hairspray and The Addams Family, the films Garden State and Kissing Jessica Stein, and TV's Dilbert.

MICHAEL STAROBIN

Tony-Award-winning Broadway orchestrator for Next to Normal, Assassins, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Know of anyone else who belongs on this list? E-mail us!