Singer Alicia Keys and her record label are donating $60,000 to a fundraiser started by a seventh grader whose local school theater program is at risk of shutting down, a rep for her record label Roc Nation confirmed.
For 13 years, the Professional Performing Arts School in Hell’s Kitchen, which Keys attended, has partnered with a professional theater company for up to two hours of conservatory-style theater classes during the school day. But the arts partner, Waterwell, this week warned families that the school could not pay for this year’s programming after April 12.
Actor Jeremy Allen White of “The Bear,” another PPAS alum, said on social media Wednesday he donated to an online fundraiser. As of Saturday night, middle schooler Tennyson Artigliere and the PTA had raised close to $53,000 on the platform.
CJ Rivera/Invision/AP
Alicia Keys poses during a “Hell’s Kitchen” Broadway musical press event at Sony Hall on March 5 in New York.
With the addition of Keys and her label’s donation, the school has raised well over the $102,000 Waterwell said it needed to finish the year as scripted.
“I wanted to save my school, I wanted to make a difference,” Tennyson said.
“The day I received the email that the performing arts program would be cut, I immediately messaged my school group chat,” she added. “We brainstormed about what we could do. We wouldn’t let the program that brought so many students so much happiness and brought us together be cut short.”
The student said she has been in contact with Keys, who on top of the donation pledged to help raise money until the city can sufficiently fund the program.
“When I told my class, people couldn’t believe it,” Tennyson said.
Still, students and teachers worry funding is not the only barrier to the show going on. Spokespeople for the public schools revealed in the press for the first time to many families that other arts partners are under consideration. Parents will vote in the coming weeks on how to allocate the money but do not have the final say on who leads the theater program.
“It will be up to the PTA and parent body of the school to decide how to channel those funds,” read a statement from Waterwell on Friday. “Regardless, Waterwell is willing and ready to step back in and provide programming through the remainder of the year should those funds be made available to us to do so.”
PPAS’ budget was reduced by $40,000 midyear because of enrollment changes, but remains tens of thousands of dollars higher than last year, Education Department data show.
“The price of the services changed during the school year,” Manhattan high school Superintendent Gary Beidleman told reporters at a Thursday media briefing. “It wasn’t a budget cut that occurred.”
“I appreciate the alumni of the school, who reached out, who stepped up,” he said. “There is a plan in place” replacing the professional theater company with school teachers, “and students will continue to receive those services. And we’ll see some Oscar winners in the next 10 years.”
Heather Lanza, Waterwell’s education director, told parents that the program planned for a $531,000 budget this school year, about 20% of which PPAS confirmed Feb. 29 it could no longer pay. Waterwell denied that they changed their budget midyear or knew from the school that they were looking for a new theater program provider.
“All of this is categorically not true,” read the statement, “and we are astounded that statements were made by the DOE that perpetuated such falsehoods.”
High school seniors met with the principal on Friday afternoon as the program remained in flux, despite the high-profile donation.
“It’s been really hard, especially for me and my classmates,” said PPAS theater student Fae Leonard-Mann. “I’m a senior this year, I’m graduating, and it’s hard to deal with the fact there’s going to be even more change in the next few months for me, and I don’t get to finish out the projects I’ve been looking forward to.”
