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Community Corner

Whiz Kid: Samantha Steele, Award Winning Actress

Moravian Academy senior won Freddy for featured performance, playing a role written for a man.

At last week’s Freddys, Samantha Steele was awarded “Outstanding Featured Performance by an Actress” for her portrayal of “The Cat” in Moravian Academy’s Musical Production “HONK!” 

This well-deserved accomplishment comes from years of hard work and preparation. Her father, Tom Steele said of watching the Freddy Awards on TV, “It felt like watching your favorite team win the Super Bowl — I was so happy I jumped up and down.”

Samantha said that she is usually cast in the “quarky, girl roles,” admittedly because she is a quarky girl who is both outgoing and funny. The role of “The Cat” though was challenging said Steele, “I’ve never gotten to do something that challenging because not only was I playing a villain but I was playing a man.”

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Actually, “The Cat” is a bit of a reprisal for Sam who played the same part in the Philipsburg Youth Theatre’s production of “HONK! Jr.” when she was in 6th grade. 

“It was a little different, HONK! Jr. cuts a lot out,” Samantha said. “It takes away the more difficult music repertoire and takes out the relationship The Cat has with Queenie.”

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At the age of 17, Steele is not novice to theater or Freddy nominations.

Samantha was nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role last year for the role of “Princess Winnefred” in Once Upon a Mattress in Moravian Academy’s winter 2010. “It was really awesome to be nominated because all the nominees got to perform live at the Freddy Awards on stage at the State Theatre," Samantha said.

In fact, she has been working at it quite hard since she was five, starting with ballet at Twin Rivers Dance Academy in Easton. She moved on to dance, tap and jazz, continuing will lessons three times a week. In addition to dance, she takes private voice lessons weekly with Nancy Moser Collins.

Since she was 6, Samantha has participated in the Philipsburg Summer Youth Theatre, where she attended day camps every summer until the age of 12 when she moved on to the adult programs. 

In the adult Philipsburg Summer theatre, last summer, Samantha played “Sister” in their production of Damn Yankees a role she said was “another funny comedic role for a girl.” The previous year she played “Taylor McKessie” in the stage version of High School Musical which was a bit more a stretch playing a “nerdy book worm.”

Coming from Moravian Academy, “we are all a bit book wormy” said Samantha, who will graduate Saturday with an unweighted GPA of 3.5. This “quarky girl” is also the Student Council Vice President. At Moravian Academy, Steele also participates in the chorus, the a capella group “Coda Red,” and the chamber singers. 

“My parents have always supported me,” Samantha said, “it takes some teenagers a long time to find where they fit and I got lucky because my parents introduced me to theater at an early age.”  Her key to awesomeness, Samantha said, is “continuing to work at something with passion that I really love.”

“I am immensely proud of Sam,” said her father, “one of the things that I am really proud of is what she did with her role … She worked against the grain to play not only the villain but the role written for a man as a female.”

Next, it is on to Drew University, where she received the Dean’s Award Scholarship. She plans to major in theater. As this week’s whiz kid, Sam certainly steals the show for her “Outstanding Performance” nod.

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