Two recent Iowa high school graduates are leaving this week on an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City after being named the state’s Triple Threat Award winners at last month’s Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards Showcase.
Wrigley Mancha from Davenport Central and Peyton Haacke from Southeast Polk in Pleasant Hill will be in the Big Apple for an 11-day crash course in musical theater. Mancha is over the moon.
“I am so excited to just learn from the industry professionals and to be surrounded by so many young people who are just as passionate about this as I am,” Mancha says. “I cannot wait — to be in the city too. It’s just going to be so exciting.”
Mancha and Haacke were picked from among students at more than 100 Iowa high schools who auditioned for the Triple Threat Award, given for demonstrating excellence in acting, dancing and vocal talents. The two will join students from across the country for intensive individual coaching, master classes, and rehearsals with Broadway professionals.
Their experience will culminate with a performance on Broadway at the Minskoff Theatre on June 22nd.
“Yes, on Broadway. ‘The Lion King’ usually runs in that theater, and they said that we can see the props backstage even for ‘The Lion King,’” Mancha says. “That is so surreal to even know that I’m going to be able to perform on that stage.”
Mancha, who will turn 18 in August, already has about a decade of experience in the Quad Cities’ spotlights.
“I started with dancing when I was little and I loved to sing in music class and my elementary music teacher told me, ‘You should audition for ‘Annie’ at Music Guild.’ It was a community theater in our area, and so I did,” Mancha says. “I was one of the 13 orphans and after that, I just was obsessed and I just kept on doing it. So I started becoming involved in high school and I just fell in love.”
She plans to attend the University of Iowa in the fall to double major in Public Health and Theatre Arts, while Haacke plans to attend The Institute for American Musical Theater in New York to study Musical Theatre.
