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Michaela was recognized as the up and coming student actress for the 2016-17 school year.
Bay Shore High School student actor Michaela DeJoseph was treated to a day of expert advice and coaching from Broadway talent in NYC on Saturday.
It was all part of the annual Roger Rees Awards for Excellence in Student Performance contest.
When she was done performing before the judges, Michaela was recognized as the up and coming student actress for the 2016-17 school year.
The honor was the second best among the other female actors on Saturday.
The Best Actress award in the statewide competition went to Maddie Rubin of NYC’s Professional Performing Arts School. Maddie now moves onto the national contest, also in NYC.
However, if for some reason Maddie can’t make it, Michaela will take her place.
The awards were based solely on the students’ performances Saturday.
Michaela was joined in Manhattan’s Pearl Studios on Eighth Avenue with fellow Bay Shore senior Christian Negron.
Michaela was nominated in the 2016-17 contest for her depiction of Olive Ostrovsky, the female lead role in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Christian was nominated for his Gomez Addams performance in The Addams Family.
Michaela said performing and receiving positive feedback from Broadway talent “meant everything” to her and the others.
“They were all so great in telling us that if we stick with this, then we can go far; that we have what it takes and with hard work we’re going to get better and better,” she said.
She will be studying musical theater at Marymount Manhattan College in the fall.
But it’s not Broadway or bust for this aspiring actress.
“It doesn’t have to be on Broadway, off Broadway, regional, wherever it is, just doing a show that has an inspiring message to it,” would be enough for her, Michaela said. “I would love to be a part of a musical that touches people, has a message and deals with real topics.”
She specifically mentioned Dear Evan Hansen as an example of such a show.
Her mother, Stephanie DeJoseph, said she’s always admired her daughter’s displays of maturity throughout a student acting career that began in the third grade in Bay Shore.
“She’s never complained about a part; she’s never cried over not getting a lead,” she said “She has a really good attitude and thick skin, which is what I really think you need to go far in this businesses. And I think she is going to go far, in whatever capacity she wants.”
“She doesn’t want to be famous,” DeJoseph added. “She just wants to be on stage.”
