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WORD ON THE PLAYGROUND

It would be impossible to give a complete list of all the students’ accomplishments. In the past, Lloyd Clay Brown played Jimmy Hurley, one of the leads in the acclaimed John Patrick Shanley feature film Doubt, which was based on his Tony and Pulitzer Prized winning play. Elijah Boothe played Young Simba in Broadway’s The Lion King. Mike Figueroa was featured in Brian DePalma’s Redacted and HBO’s Generation Kill. John D’Leo appeared in The Wrestler, Cop Out, Brooklyn’s Finest and Wanderlust, as well as many prime time television roles. As far as television is concerned, Playground students have been in a vast array of major and cable network programming. Including: The Late Show with David Letterman, Saturday Night Live, The Sopranos, Grey’s Anatomy, all of the Law & Orders, American Idol, Glee Project, the Today Show, Mercy, Man v. Food, Life on Mars, As the World Turns, Blues Clues, The Naked Brothers, and various Nickelodeon and MTV programming, not to mention countless national commercials.

Mike Figueroa was cast as a lead in the new HBO series Criminal Justice, as well as fighting Liam Neeson in the upcoming feature A Walk Among the Tombstones. Ashley Anzevino’s Cheerios commercial just went national across America. Shane Nepveu was featured in two episodes of Boardwalk Empire this season. Brett Kaminsky just finished shooting a Nick at Night commercial, as well as a featured role in the upcoming Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy film St. Vincent De Van Nuys. Sawyer Barth filmed with Animal Houses’s Peter Riegert in the new independent film The Walk and was cast as Ed Burns' son on TNT's Public Morals. He is also featured in an episode of The Following with Kevin Bacon and Blackbox. We had three students - Julia Barnett, Taylor Duggan, and Shane Nepveu - make an appearance in ABC’s What Would You Do?. Stefan Olaguera appeared on a segment of The Late Show with Jimmy Fallon. Jordanna Drazin’s film Damsels in Distress was released earlier this year. Justine Aguiar appeared on 30 Rock with Tina Fey.

Luc Besson’s major motion picture The Family was released worldwide this past fall. The Playground’s student John D’Leo starred in the film receiving rave reviews, alongside Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones, and Dianna Agron. John recently finished filming Unbroken directed by Angelina Jolie.

There are countless independent films and commercials starring Actors Playground students, far too many to name. 

The Playground’s acceptance rate getting into this countries major college conservatory programs, performing arts high schools, and other theater curriculums is staggering. In the past five years alone, our students have been accepted into Yale University, Princeton University, University of Southern California, Carnegie Mellon, Emerson College, Marymount Manhattan, Pace University, Fordham, University of Vermont, Catholic University, Davidson, Temple University, NYU Tisch and Mason Gross School of the Arts.