Events, Baby Showers, Birthdays, Anniversaries

Alaina Ohr as Poor in Sewickley Academy’s 2022 Senior School Musical “Urinetown” .

Sophomore Alaina Ohr performed in her first senior school musical after a debut in a play last fall. She has previously performed in Sewickley Academy’s middle school musicals and PAC. Alaina’s portrayal of a young mother-to-be is truly adorable.

“Its so hard to choose because you make her so beautiful in every shot! There were a couple from the last shoot that even blew away her headshots she had done by Douglas Tjelmeland! You are quite talented in capturing the best of these kids!”

~ Keri Hall, mother

Ella Tominac-Ural as Poor in Sewickley Academy’s 2022 Senior School Musical “Urinetown” .

Ella, a junior, has previously been part of the tech crew in countless high school, middle school, and lower school musicals. Ella also sings in the senior school choir, plays tennis inside and outside of school and writes poetry.

Ryan Scott as Billy Boy Bill in Sewickley Academy’s 2022 Senior School Musical “Urinetown”.

Ryan, a sophomore, performed in his first musical at Sewickley Academy after his debut in a Sewickley Academy’s fall play 12 Angry Jurors. This is Ryan’s 9th high school show, his favorites have been Children of Eden and Anastasia. Ryan sings everywhere he goes, and he also enjoys competing in robotics and teaching students throughout the community.

Aekam Kaur as UGC Exec #2 in Sewickley Academy’s 2022 Senior School Musical “Urinetown”.

Sophomore Aekam Kaur performed in her first Senior School Musical after 4 Middle School productions at SA. Aekam also plays tennis and lacrosse.

Abby Bojalad as UGC Exec #1 in Sewickley Academy’s 2022 Senior School Musical “Urinetown”.

Abby is a sophomore and this is her second senior school musical after a number of middle school theater productions. Abby is also an incredibly talented pianist and an accomplished tennis player.

“Thank you! They are all amazing as usual.”

~ April Cordle, mother

“Amazing shots for the the show! Avni has a lot of good ones - hard to choose. Thanks for all your hard work.”

~ Luxmi Kathju, mother

Logan Carlson as Joseph "Old Man" Strong & Poor in Sewickley Academy’s 2022 Senior School Musical “Urinetown”.

Logan, a sophomore, takes part in every theater production at Sewickley Academy! His ability to transform into strikingly different characters and the way he moves on stage make him one of the most fascinating actors to watch on stage.

Sarah Grand as Soupy Sue in Sewickley Academy’s 2022 Senior School Musical “Urinetown”.

‌Sarah‌ ‌is a Sophomore‌ ‌and this is ‌her‌ ‌fourth ‌Senior‌ ‌School‌ ‌production as a lead dancer!‌ ‌She has also performed in Middle School ‌musicals, as well as ‌various‌ shows‌ ‌with‌ ‌PAC.‌

Grace Armutat as Ms. McQueen in Sewickley Academy’s 2022 Senior School Musical “Urinetown”.

Grace is a junior and she has been part of the cast and crew for all SA productions, including Spelling Bee, Fiddler on the Roof, and 12 Angry Jurors. Outside of theatre, she participates in field hockey, Polyphony Lit literary editing, and Writing Club.

Avani Venkat as Senator Fipp in Sewickley Academy’s 2022 Senior School Musical “Urinetown”.

Avani is a junior and this was her first Senior School Musical. Avani also performed in SA production Around the World in 80 Days and was an assistant director for the 2021 Winter One-Act Play Retribution. Outside of school, Avani trains with Keystone State Music Theater, Junior Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh Youth Chorus.

Brooke Menzock as Josephine "Ma" Strong in Sewickley Academy’s 2022 Senior School Musical “Urinetown”.

Urinetown is Brooke’s 7th production with SA, and recently she starred in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. She will be participating in theater in college, and enjoys playing varsity soccer and softball.

Max Peluso as Hot Blades Harry in Sewickley Academy’s 2022 Senior School Musical “Urinetown”.

Max, a sophomore, performed in his second SA senior school musical. His previous SA roles include Juror 8 in 12 Angry Jurors, Chip Tolentino in 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Albert Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie. Max also won finalists awards in the 2022 annual international Butler University Vocal Competition for classically trained high schoolers in Indianapolis. Way to go, Max!

Alena Gurevich as Little Becky Two-Shoes in Sewickley Academy’s 2022 Senior School Musical “Urinetown”.

Alena, sophomore, performed in her final show at SA, previously being in Bye Bye Birdie and Annie. She also designed posters for Urinetown, 12 Angry Jurors, and Spelling Bee and has played the violin for 10 years. In fact, she took an ARSM violin diploma exam the day after set strike, where she had to play 30 min of very complicated and diverse pieces. It was a great learning experience having to manage a heavy workload for a prolonged period of time - rehearsing for the musical, designing the poster, and practicing for a violin exam while keeping up with homework and tests.

Shivali Saxena as Little Sally in Sewickley Academy’s 2022 Senior School Musical “Urinetown”.

As a senior, Shivali was beyond excited to have been part of her first (and last) Senior School musical at the Academy. Outside of theater, Shivali enjoys writing, piano, and martial arts.

“Thank you so much for these wonderful pictures!! I am also going to buy some of these as well, I love them!! “

~ Rebecca Schneider, mother

“I can't stop looking at the photos!!  Thank you for taking so many and giving everyone these treasures.”

~Susan Cable, mother

Actor’s portfolio: a headshot and production photos for the musical

~

Ibrahim Khan as Caldwell B. Cladwell in Sewickley Academy’s Senior School Musical “Urinetown” running on March 3rd-5th 2022.

Ibrahim is a junior and this is his fifth high school production! His past credits at Sewickley Academy include Tevye (Fiddler on the Roof,) Juror 3 (12 Angry Jurors,), William Barfee (25th Annual… Spelling Bee and Jean Passepartout (Around the world in 80 days). I’m proud to have photographed all Ibrahim’s performances!

Milla Dobrovolska-Ivanova as Hope Cladwell in Sewickley Academy’s Senior School Musical “Urinetown” running on March 3rd-5th 2022.

Milla is a senior and this is her first high school production. She performed with the Junior Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh in 2019 and Beauty and the Beast and Les Misérables outside of SA.

She will be attending the University of Chicago in the fall to study Biology and Global Studies. Congratulations, Milla!

Actor’s portfolio: a headshot and show action photos.

Sajen Schuchert as Bobby Strong in Sewickley Academy’s Senior School Musical “Urinetown” running on March 3rd-5th 2022.

Sajen is a senior at Sewickley Academy, participating in his 3rd high school production. He will continue performing arts at William & Mary next year. Congratulations, Sajen!

I’ve always wanted to visit Savannah, in fact since childhood when I read about it in a few books, but when we moved to America, there have always been more famous sights to see: New York City, Grand Canyon, the Niagara Falls, California, Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes and so on - a very long list of all the beautiful national parks and cities in the US

The last actor for Sewickley Academy’s ‘Fiddler on the Roof” without whom the whole musical would be lacking its crucial ingredient - the live sounds of a violin. What a performance. Bravo, Mishon!

It feels like yesterday when we produced this headshot for beautiful Brooke for the Sewickley Academy’s Fiddler on the Roof senior school musical that showed just days before the lockdown.

I can’t believe she’s already a senior this year. Stay tuned for a blog with her senior pictures.

I still have 3 headshots to share from before the pandemic. Here’s my favorite portrait of Claire that she selected to represent her in the Fiddler on the Roof musical program at Sewickley Academy.

I finally have time to go through our vacation photos! Here are a few from the city break to Washington, DC, back in October 2021. We just wandered around our favorite spots: the French bakery Paul, the National Mall, and a couple of hidden gardens we keep discovering with every visit.

We visited the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. I think it opened just recently, so we were curious to see what was inside. The Soviet Union/Russian section was really well-represented and we learned something new as we’d hoped. We had a very interesting conversation with one of the volunteers who all but gave us a private tour of the features in the astronaut suit.

And the crown jewel of the Washington, DC, visit was the hockey game at the Capital One Arena. The Washington Capitals played the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Caps lost… at least cameras were allowed and both Dmitry and I clicked away during the pre-game skate and even the game itself.

Tristan needed just one headshot for his theater auditions. We talked about the roles he was aspiring to get and worked to produce the look to match his dream roles.

Day 5, Part Two of photography workshop with Joe McNally in a New York City studio.

I was looking forward to this part of the workshop most of all as this involved photographing a professional dancer in a studio.

Shania Shields is a 2021 graduate of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts and she is a professional dancer, singer and actress who received her BFA studio training in the drama department at Playwrights Horizons, Atlantic Acting School and Stonestreet Studios. @shania.aprill

Shania’s stage experience was greatly appreciated by everyone in our group and it was mostly up to our skills as photographers to work fast enough to capture every graceful pose and elegant move. Anyone who had ever modeled for a photography session would agree that posing is not an easy matter. You are asked to freeze and keep the pose or repeat a movement over and over, maintain precision in your position and perfection in your moves and while doing all that, your face needs to express ease and happiness at all times. Kudos to Shania for being a perfect model.

We really enjoyed the end-of-term Christmas concert organized by Leah Givelber of Center of Young Musicians at Edgeworth Club in Sewickley.

Hearing Alena perform her beautiful and complex musical pieces she’s preparing for an ABRSM diploma exam got us thinking that it’s probably time to upgrade her violin.

So we paid a visit to Phillip Injeian, a master violin maker, one of the many hidden jewels of Pittsburgh. He helped Alena navigate through a variety of instruments and choose the right fit for her and he even performed a short piece for us saying that “you shouldn’t trust a mechanic who doesn't drive a car himself”!

Thank you, Phillip, for this memorable experience.