Asheville, NC– Chris D’Arienzo’s ROCK OF AGES premieres in WNC Thursday, February 4th at The Masonic Temple Theatre, downtown Asheville. Jacob Walas, Asheville Performing Arts Academy Program Director, plays The Mayor and serves as Co-Director and Co-Choreographer. Music Direction is by Asheville Performing Arts Academy Music Director, Lenora Thom.



Asheville Performing Arts Academy received the honor of Excellence in Ensemble at the Junior Theater Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. Over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, 115 student musical theater groups representing 29 states, the District of Columbia and three countries: Australia, South Korea and the United States of America, performed fifteen minute cuttings of musicals for adjudication. In addition, students and teachers attended festival workshops and performances by industry professionals. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Broadway Junior Collection of musicals to be performed by young actors. The Junior Theater Festival is supported by Music Theatre International, Disney Musicals, and Playbill.



New York, NY– Four students from the Asheville Performing Arts Academy will land in New York City a month from today for the iTheatrics Mary Poppins workshop. Ellie Hewitt-Corzine, Hogan McLamb, Cory Silver, and Ceili Taft will join other young actors to rehearse with musical theatre professionals throughout the week. The workshop will culminate with a Friday performance of MARY POPPINS JR.



Atlanta, GA– The Asheville Performing Arts Academy brought home the honor of Excellence in Ensemble work from the 10th Annual Junior Theater Festival. Twenty-four Asheville Performing Arts Academy cast and crew members, ages 6-18, presented selections from Disney’s PETER PAN JR for adjudication at the 2015 Junior Theater Festival in Atlanta, GA this past weekend. These students are members of the audition based conservatory musical theatre training program at the Academy. The Asheville Performing Arts Academy was one of 101 groups to present at the festival. Six countries, 28 states and the District of Columbia were represented.