Professional Children's School
| Professional Children's School | |
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| Established | 1914 [1] |
| Type | Coeducational independent day school[2] |
| Chairman | Dr. James Dawson |
| Teaching staff | 26[3] |
| Students | 200[4] |
| Grades | 6-12 |
| Location | 132 West 60th Street, New York City, New York, USA |
| 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 |
| Campus | Urban |
| Website | Official website |
Professional Children's School is a not for profit, college preparatory school that was founded in New York City in 1914 to provide an education to young people working on the New York stage, in Vaudeville, or "on the road."
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[edit] 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 6 January 1914 PCS admitted its first two students in a rented room in the theatre district. An immediate success, the school enrolled over 100 students within its first year.[5]
[edit] Broadway's Little Red School House
By the 1930s PCS was renting 3 floors in a commercial building at 1860 Broadway at 61st Street. "You would never dream the stern-faced skyscraper was Broadway's little red schoolhouse," wrote the Associated Press. 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. Some major Broadway productions which featured PCS students included Annie Get Your Gun, Carousel, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Children's Hour, I Remember Mama, The King and I, Life With Father, Member of the Wedding, South Pacific, Peter Pan and The Sound of Music.
[edit] A Room of One's Own
After 42 years of renting space, PCS acquired its own 7-story building on West 60th Street in 1956, across the street from the proposed Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The school's new neighbor had a profound effect on PCS, and its founding launched a nationwide interest in the performing arts. By the late 1960s PCS students studying ballet and classical music outnumbered actors and entertainers. PCS students continued to make theatre history in Annie, Beauty and the Beast, Camelot, Fiddler on the Roof, Into the Woods, Les Misérables, The Lion King, Ragtime, The Secret Garden, and Gossip Girl.
[edit] Present day
While today's students also include classical and popular musicians, television and movie actors, ballet dancers and athletes, the school's mission remains the same: to provide a college preparatory education especially designed for young people pursuing challenging goals that may require time away from school to attend a competition, shoot a movie, or prepare for a recital. PCS is an independent day school currently enrolling 200 students in grades 6-12 from 17 states and 11 foreign countries. PCS values the importance of classroom learning, and regularly scheduled classes meet weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Students are required to attend class, and most PCS students are present on school days. Should the need arise, students are excused from class for valid professional reasons.
[edit] Notable alumni
[edit] Actors/actresses
[edit] Dance
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[edit] Music
[edit] Sports and other
- Kristie Ahn - tennis professional
- Carol Heiss - figure skater, actress
- Sonya Klopfer - figure skater
- Yvonne Sherman (Yvonne Sherman Tutt) - figure skater
- Linn Ullmann - author
- Josh Waitzkin - chess master, author, martial arts instructor
- Vera Wang - fashion designer
- Sarah Ward
- Brianne Goutal - horse jumping rider
[edit] See also
- Professional Performing Arts School
- Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts
[edit] References
- ^ History
- ^ About us
- ^ Administration, Faculty & Staff
- ^ About us
- ^ History
- ^ Ryzik, Melena. "So Odd, but Lately in Classic Fashion", The New York Times, 25 November 2007 "On a break from rehearsals for “Cymbeline” at Lincoln Center Martha Plimpton dashed outside for a cigarette and immediately ran into a classmate from her alma mater, the nearby Professional Children’s School."
- ^ Tommasini, Anthony. "Beverly Sills, All-American Diva With Brooklyn Roots, Is Dead at 78", The New York Times, 4 July 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."
