Fordham Preparatory School - Ramview Ramview FALL 2017 | Page 61

Q&A with Steven Thomas ’19
Steven Thomas '19 was recently recognized with a National Youth Arts award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical for HAIRSPRAY!
How did you become
interested in
acting/performing?
I have been preforming since
I was two years old. It was
just something that I have
always had an interest in and
a love for. My mom would
Tell us about "Hairspray" - who did you play and how did you
end up playing that part?
I played the role of Seaweed J. Stubbs. He is one of the supporting
leads in the musical and he was probably my favorite character to
play out of all the ones I have done. I auditioned for the role and got
a callback. The next day after final callbacks I was notified that I had
the part. Seaweed is the character that I have wanted to play for a
very long time! He reminds me a lot of myself.
always tell me to stop singing
in the car as a kid because I
would belt out whatever song
came on the radio.
Did you act or perform before coming to Fordham Prep? If not,
how did you become interested in becoming involved in
productions when you entered high school?
I did preform before entering Fordham Prep. I did a number of
musicals and showcases for my elementary school, Immaculate
Conception in Tuckahoe. I also have done a lot of community
theater along with very minimal professional cabarets and
How did you find out you were nominated and eventually won
the Outstanding Supporting Actor award?
I found out that I was nominated and had won in the same moment,
actually. The performer who played Tracy Turnblad, Lauren
Demartino, who also won an award was the one to tell me. She
called me on Facetime repeatedly and texted me saying she needed
to tell me something. When I eventually answered the phone, she
told me to check my email, and when I did I, saw an email from Mr.
O'Sullivan saying that I and many of my fellow cast mates had been
nominated for multiple awards and I was one to actually win. It was
a crazy moment for me; I was in shock for at least 15 minutes.
showcases.
What Fordham Prep productions have you taken part in? Have
you done any productions outside of school?
I am an incoming junior so I've only had the opportunity to do two
musicals because we do one a year and those two are "All Shook
Up" and "Harispray.”
What are your plans for this school year and beyond?
I plan to participate in the Fordham Prep musical once again this
year, whatever the show may be, and continue working on both my
education and my performance abilities. When I graduate from
Fordham Prep, I plan to move on to a musical theater college and
hopefully one day Broadway. Who knows where God will take me.
Shmolley Turns Ten
by Lou DiGiorno '88, School Historian
The game of shmolleyvall, now commonly
called shmolley, is a game born of true
Maroon ingenuity and adolescent
gumption. In the Fall of 2007, with
ball-playing banned on campus “at all
times and in all circumstances except for
officially sanctioned grueling and utterly
non-entertaining team practices,” a few
enterprising Prepsters sought to create a
onto Mentors’ Court with a spongy stress
ball in hand one fateful day, and in a single
autumn Rose Hill afternoon, the immortal
game of shmolley was born. Among its
first players: Daniel A. Brusco, Michael P.
Alvino and Peter J. LaMacchia (the "Uncles
of Shmolley," as it were), all of that same
heroic and historic 163rd graduating class
of Fordham Preparatory School.
ball-based pastime that was enjoyable,
For the past decade, the boys of Fordham
Prep have been playing shmolley — a
handballish, tennishish, volleyballish game
born right here at the Prep. To mark this
anniversary, we proudly present the
following excerpt from the official
Shmolley handbook, Shmolley: Its History
and Rules.
challenging, and most importantly, could
be mistaken by the Deans as a game of
hackey sack from twenty-five feet away, as
footbag games had not technically been
banned.
Daniel A. Fiorito, Class of ’08, the "Father
of the Fair Fordhamite Sport", stepped out
The appellation of shmolleyvall was
carefully chosen as an alteration of volley,
from the French voler, “to fly,”
to which was affixed the suffix vall, a
cleverly disguised codeword for those
sporting spheres which had been so
mercilessly banned by Dean Pettus and
the rest of the prefecture.
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