Hauppauge High School - Teenys Revisited 2021

The Teenys are back! For 12 years, the Islip Arts Council’s Teeny Awards have celebrated local high school theatre students and given them a platform to show off their tremendous talents. This year’s multi-part virtual celebration, called “Islip Arts Council’s Teenys Revisited,” continues with Hauppauge High School, hosted by former Teenys winner and professional dancer Ryan Rodiño.
This year Hauppauge High School’s theater program put on a ghoulishly comic, full-length production of “The Addams Family” musical.
Vincent, a senior who played Gomez Addams, was excited to be part of the musical.
“Our biggest challenge of putting together ‘The Addams Family’ was combining the theatre and film mediums, which we ended up doing by filming two runs of our show and editing together the best parts,” he explained. “It turned out to be a great production that we were all really proud of.”
Musical theater student Katie, who played Wednesday Addams, felt lucky she was able to be part of a production her senior year. One challenge was integrating online students with in-person students in the final performance.
“[Another challenge was] having to rehearse with masks on and not being able to be very close to our partners, not being able to have physical onstage chemistry,” Katie said, “but we worked through it and got to do a really good show.”
Stage manager Alyssa and stage crew member Dennis agreed that there were struggles, but they overcame them.
Ruthie Pincus is the director of Hauppauge High School’s theatre program, which offers a full-day curriculum of a variety of theatre classes. She and the whole administration were happy to see their students back on stage.
“One thing that I learned from this past year is just how important music, dance, theater, art, and all of our programs are to the community, as well as to the students,” Pincus said. “It really feeds our souls.”
She added, “And when we were finally able to open up and do a production and actually perform in front of a live audience...it was joyful, and we realized just how much we missed it.”
Congratulations, Hauppauge Class of 2021! To see the full Teenys program, including scenes from “The Addams Family” interviews with students, and more, click the video above.
The 2021 Islip Arts Council Teenys Revisited is made possible by the support of Suffolk County, Five Towns College, The Rotary Club of Islip, and from viewers like you. Please visit isliparts.org and make a donation so that we can continue to keep the arts alive in our community.