Professional Children's School
| Professional Children's School (PCS) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Address | |
|
132 West 60th Street New York, New York United States | |
| Coordinates | 40°46′14″N 73°59′10″W / 40.770463°N 73.986076°WCoordinates: 40°46′14″N 73°59′10″W / 40.770463°N 73.986076°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Coeducational independent day school[1] |
| Established | 1914[2] |
| Chairman | Eileen Dieck |
| Headmaster | James Dawson |
| Teaching staff | 26[3] |
| Grades | 6-12 |
| Enrollment | 200[1] |
| Campus | Urban |
| Accreditation | NYSAIS |
| Website |
www |
Professional Children's School is a not-for-profit, college preparatory school enrolling 200 students (mostly working or aspiring child actors or dancers) in grades 6-12. The school was founded in New York City in 1914 to provide an academic education to young people working on the New York stage, in Vaudeville, or "on the road".
History
Professional Children's School was founded by two reform-minded New Yorkers, Jane Harris Hall and Jean Greer Robinson. Ardent theatre-goers, the women learned of the plight of the city's professional children - young people working on the New York stage. Public and private schools of the day did not accommodate the schedules of stage children and, more often than not, children were simply skipping school to work on the stage. Some reformers talked of banning children from the stage entirely. Determined to help these "unknown friends on the other side of the footlights," as Mrs. Robinson would later write, the women decided to found a school especially for New York's professional children. On January 6, 1914, PCS admitted its first two students in borrowed quarters in the Theater District. An immediate success, the school enrolled over 100 students within its first year.[2]
After moving into a series of temporary spaces, in 1927 PCS settled into three floors of 1860 Broadway, a 17-story commercial building at 61st Street. With enrollment approaching 300 students by the 1930s, the Associated Press wrote, "you would never dream the stern-faced skyscraper was Broadway's little red schoolhouse." Children were now respected members of "the profession" and roles for children were commonplace on Broadway. "One suspects that the chief reason for this general excellence is the existence of an organization known as the Professional Children's School," wrote Playbill Magazine in 1949. Just a few of the major Broadway productions which featured PCS students included Annie Get Your Gun, Carousel, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Children's Hour, The Innocents, The King and I, I Remember Mama, Life With Father, Member of the Wedding, South Pacific, and The Sound of Music.
In 1956, PCS acquired its own 7-story building on West 60th Street, across the street from the proposed Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. By the late 1960s, with the School of American Ballet and The Juilliard School now just a few blocks away, PCS students studying ballet and classical music outnumbered actors and entertainers.
In 2004, PCS undertook a $9-million renovation and expansion which included the addition of the Peter Glenville Theatre on the ground floor and a gymnasium on a new eighth floor. The work was designed by Steven Harris Architects.[4]
Distinguished alumni
Dance
- Jerry Ames[5]
- Jared Angle[5]
- Tyler Angle[5]
- Alexandra Ansanelli[5]
- Merrill Ashley[5]
- Debra Austin[5]
- Peter Boal[5]
- Ruthanna Boris[6]
- Ashley Bouder[5]
- Leslie Browne[5]
- Fernando Bujones[5]
- Emily Coates[5]
- Daniel Duell[5]
- Megan Fairchild[5]
- Robert Fairchild[5]
- Suzanne Farrell[5]
- Eliot Feld[5]
- Savion Glover[5]
- Susan Hendl[5]
- Adam Hendrickson[5]
- Darla Hoover[5]
- Sterling Hyltin[5]
- Allegra Kent[5]
- Gelsey Kirkland[5]
- Darci Kistler[5]
- Maria Kowroski[5]
- Carla Körbes[5]
- Rebecca Krohn[5]
- Lourdes Lopez[5]
- Savannah Lowery[5]
- Nilas Martins[5]
- Steven Melendez[5]
- Colleen Neary[5]
- Kyra Nichols[5]
- Tiler Peck[5]
- Susan Pilarre[5]
- Teresa Reichlen[5]
- Nancy Reynolds[5]
- Carrie Lee Riggins[5]
- Jenifer Ringer[5]
- John Selya[5]
- Jennie Somogyi[5]
- Ethan Stiefel[5]
- Marianna Tcherkassky[5]
- Ashley Tuttle[5]
- Sheryl Ware[5]
- Heather Watts[5]
- Wendy Whelan[5]
- Deborah Wingert[5]
Music
- Loni Ackerman[5]
- Anastacia[5]
- Jack Antonoff[5]
- Emanuel Ax[5]
- Jessie Baylin[5]
- Vanessa Carlton[5]
- Kyung Wha Chung[5]
- Dana Dawson[5]
- Marvin Hamlisch[5]
- Lorin Hollander[5]
- Ida Kavafian[5]
- Cho-Liang Lin[5]
- Frankie Lymon[5]
- Yo-Yo Ma[5]
- Midori Gotō[5]
- Buddy Rich[5]
- Beverly Sills[5][7]
- Arlene Smith[5]
- Martha Strongin Katz[5]
- Pinchas Zukerman[5]
Theater, film, and television
- Shim Eun-kyung[5]
- Brooke Adams[5]
- Trini Alvarado[5]
- Adam Arkin[5]
- Essence Atkins[5]
- Kaye Ballard[5]
- Mischa Barton[8]
- Bonnie Bedelia[5]
- Milton Berle[5]
- Zina Bethune[5]
- Nadia Bjorlin[5]
- Tempestt Bledsoe[5]
- Joan Blondell[5]
- Ann Blyth[5]
- Laura Bell Bundy[5]
- Eddie Bracken[5]
- Irene Cara[5]
- Phoebe Cates[5]
- Miles Chapin[5]
- Holly Marie Combs[5]
- Kieran Culkin[5]
- Macaulay Culkin[5]
- Rory Culkin[5]
- Charlotte d'Amboise[5]
- Sandra Dee[5]
- Brandon deWilde[5]
- Giancarlo Esposito[5]
- Donald Faison[5]
- Carrie Fisher[5]
- Anne Francis[5]
- Rebecca Gayheart[5]
- Helen Gallagher[5]
- Sarah Michelle Gellar[5]
- Elliott Gould[5]
- Todd Graff[5]
- Karron Graves[5]
- Lukas Haas[5]
- Albert Hackett[5]
- Anthony Michael Hall[5]
- Huntz Hall[5]
- Patti Hansen[5]
- Melissa Joan Hart[5]
- Amy Irving[5]
- Scarlett Johansson[5][9][10]
- Brad Caleb Kane[5]
- Carol Kane[5]
- Ruby Keeler[5]
- Jean Louisa Kelly[5]
- Patsy Kelly[5]
- Jane Krakowski[5]
- Ricki Lake[5]
- Diane Lane[5]
- Peggy Lipton[5]
- Lorna Luft[5]
- Sidney Lumet[5]
- Ida Lupino[5]
- Helen Mack[5]
- Jena Malone[5]
- Nancy Malone[5]
- Daniel Mann[5]
- Patty McCormack[5]
- Leighton Meester[5]
- Lisa Mordente[5]
- Rita Moreno[5]
- Phyllis Newman[5]
- Jerry O'Connell[5]
- Donald O'Connor[5]
- Jennifer O'Neill[5]
- Sarah Jessica Parker[5]
- Martha Plimpton[5]
- Laura Prepon[5]
- Martha Raye[5]
- Tara Reid[5]
- Rosemary Rice[5]
- Christina Ricci[5]
- Eden Riegel[5]
- Tanya Rivero[5]
- Christy Carlson Romano[5]
- Rose Marie[5]
- Sara Rue[5]
- Michael Rupert[5]
- Rebecca Schaeffer[11]
- Jonathan Silverman[5]
- Penny Singleton[5]
- Christian Slater[5]
- John Spencer[5]
- Julia Stiles[5]
- Susan Strasberg[5]
- Eddie Kaye Thomas[6]
- Uma Thurman[5]
- Rachel Ticotin[5]
- Ashley Tisdale[5]
- Janine Turner[5]
- Leslie Uggams[5]
- Dick Van Patten[5]
- Joyce Van Patten[5]
- Christopher Walken[5]
- Nancy Walker[5]
- Malcolm-Jamal Warner[5]
- Lesley Ann Warren[5]
- Tuesday Weld[5]
- Nat Wolff[5]
- Lee Thompson Young[5]
Sports
Literature
Fashion
References
- 1 2 About us
- 1 2 History
- ↑ Administration, Faculty & Staff
- ↑ http://www.interiordesign.net/article/477384-Bios.php
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 Professional Children's School (September 23, 2012). "PCS' own "Distinguished Alumni" page". Retrieved September 23, 2012.
- 1 2 "DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI". Professional Children's School. Retrieved September 14, 2014.
- ↑ Tommasini, Anthony. "Beverly Sills, All-American Diva With Brooklyn Roots, Is Dead at 78". The New York Times. July 4, 2007. "But her father put an end to her child-star career when she was 12 so that she could concentrate on her education at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn and the Professional Children's School in Manhattan."
- ↑ http://us.hellomagazine.com/profiles/mischa-barton/
- ↑ "Scarlett Johansson Biography". Biography.com. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
- ↑ "Scarlett Johansson". Yahoo! TV. Retrieved August 26, 2012
- ↑ Braun, Stephen; Jones, Charrise (July 24, 1989). "Murder suspect seems determined as victim". Eugene Register-Guard. p. 5A. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
- ↑ "Ashima Shiraishi: A Strong Mind". 30 November 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
- 1 2 3 "Professional Children's School : Alumni : Distinguished Alumni". pcs-nyc.org. Retrieved 2016-01-28.