NYC APAP Convention
While most of you were out enjoying your holiday break, the OPAS Staff and a few OPASites attended the Annual APAP Convention in New York City! This convention serves as a unique opportunity to meet professionals and talent from the Performing Arts Industry in order to help the OPAS Board Members create the anticipated schedule for the following season. The student representatives consisted of 6 Student Executive Team members (Katy Gray, Kristin Janecek, Kalyn Clark, Michelle Kratofil, Anna Pendergrass, and Bradley D'Souza) and 2 outstanding OPASite Managers (Amanda Ibarra and Jacob de Jongh).
OPAS Gala
We wrapped up the month of January with dancing the night away at the annual OPAS Gala: Around the World in Eighty Days. This is one of the most anticipated events in the Bryan/College Station community for the Winter season and it always puts the "fun" in fundraising! A huge thanks to OPAS Encore, Megan Kim (Student Director of Funds), and her manager team (Macy Hicks and Cody Harding) for all of their effort in organizing the event! (The majority of Gala event pictures are available on the OPAS Facebook page)
OPASite of the Month: Nathan Seago
As a way to recognize the amazing members that OPAS is lucky to have, we have decided to start a new recurring feature called OPASite of the Month. Picking the first subject for this feature came surprisingly easy to the Staff and the Executive team because his story is so deeply ingrained in OPAS history...
Nathan Seago joined OPAS in the Fall of 2015, but his connection to our organization began much earlier than that. As a Byran/College Station native and resident for a major portion of his life, Nathan grew up attending OPAS performances with his family and especially his grandparents for as long as he could remember. However, a childhood of OPAS performances only scrapes the surface for Nathan's history with this organization:
"Walter
Parsons, my great grandfather, was the first President on the OPAS Board of
Directors. He helped start the OPAS student committee and even organize the
first Gala. He just started as a faculty member with the University when he was asked to help with the newly built Rudder Theater Complex and bring entertainment to campus." - Nathan
As a sophomore Geophysics major in the Corps of Cadets, Nathan joined OPAS as "a way to engage with
students who have the same interest/passion [for the performing arts]" as him and as an organization where he can gain leadership skills. Though he hasn't been with us for very long, he's continuing a rich family tradition and has already been positively impacted by the student committee:
"OPAS has been a place
where I’ve quickly made friends and every time there is an event, it’s
something I look forward to. Like our [Season 43] slogan says, it’s "Positively Enchanting" -
not only enchanting the audiences, but also the members. There’s never a dull
moment; the OPASites have such a spark that they’re always bringing to people –
its magic." - Nathan
