By David J. Glenn
It's not very often that a Tony Award-winning actress will visit an elementary school – especially if the school is in Queens and the actress is originally from suburban Detroit.
But Karen Ziemba, who won the 2000 Tony for playing Dolores, the 1950s housewife with a vivid imagination in “Contact,” was there on one of the wooden seats in the auditorium of PS 148 in Elmhurst last Friday morning, visibly enjoying the show as second-graders performed “Broadway Baby” from the musical “Follies,” and the title song from “42nd Street,” which Ziemba had also starred in.
The young thespians were honoring Ziemba for her work with Inside Broadway, the theater industry's organization which brings the performing arts to public elementary schools around the city, including currently about a dozen schools in Queens.
“Do you guys really like doing this?” Ziemba asked the children at the conclusion as she took the stage.
“Yeah!” was the resounding reply.
She told the kids she was impressed how they were “a whole team doing it together,” as she has to do eight times a week at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center.
Ziemba told Qguide that she was not much older than the PS 148 kids when she caught the theater bug. In the late 1970s, her mother took her to Radio City Music Hall, and “I thought of myself up there.”
No one can predict with any certainty, of course, whether any of the PS 148 second-graders belting out show tunes Friday morning will be on the Broadway stage in 15 or 20 years, but that's not the basic goal of Inside Broadway. “it's a confidence -builder,” said Frank Schiro, music director for the non-profit group who also teaches an acting course at New York University. Often kids begin to excel in other endeavors after they've had a taste of getting up on stage, he said.
But “there's always one or two” kids who show promise for being a future star, Schiro said.
Inside Broadway receives funding from “Project Arts” money from individual schools, as well as city grants.
Parents, teachers, or administrators interested in bringing Inside Broadway to their school can call 212-245-0710.
Reach Qguide Editor David Glenn by e-mail at glenn@timesledger.com, or call 229-0300, Ext. 139
