This Thanksgiving, two area teenagers have a lot to be thankful for. Alexandria Strully, 17, of Howell, and Lianah Sta. Ana, 11, of Freehold Township, have both been chosen to appear on different floats at the 84th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.
Alexandria, who attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in Loch Sheldrake, N.Y., in 2010, will join fellow Stagedoor students on OfficeMax’s “Elves Raise the Roof” float.
Stagedoor Manor is a summer theater program for young actors, singers and dancers. More than 400 Stagedoor singers and dancers auditioned for the Macy’s performance this year, and the troupe boasts 80 children ages 10-18 from 23 states, Bermuda, the Dominican Republic, Canada and Italy.
Alexandria, a senior at Howell High School, has attended Stagedoor Manor for three years. She has performed in productions locally at the Fine and Performing Arts Center at Howell High School and at the Actors Center in Philadelphia.
Lianah will be riding on the Apollo Theater’s float, “Top Hat,” a 12-foot-tall top hat making its debut in the parade to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the world famous Apollo Theater in Harlem.
As the Apollo Theater’s “Star of Tomorrow” grand-prize winner of the Amateur Night at the Apollo competition, Lianah earned the privilege of riding on the float in the parade with the competition’s adult winners, Ayanna Witter-Johnson and Nathan Foley, who tied for first place, and singer Gladys Knight.
The Apollo has hosted Amateur Night, its signature talent contest, nearly every Wednesday night since 1934.
In addition to winning the Apollo Theater’sAmateur Night competition, Lianah, a sixth-grader at the Barkalow Middle School, Freehold Township, has steadily garnered attention by winning many talent competitions and accepting every performance opportunity in what has been the young vocalist’s very first year of performing publicly.
Most notably, as a member of Team USA in the 2010 World Championships of Performing Arts competition held in Hollywood, Calif., Lianah was awarded the competition’s top two titles: Junior Grand Champion Vocalist and Junior Grand Champion Performer of the World.
She was also the grand-prize winner of the Kidz Bop Sportz Jamz Talent Search, held at Madison Square Garden, N.Y., and the overall grand-prize winner of the Rock’n Music Idol competition held in Middletown.
The 84th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade airs nationwide on NBC-TV Nov. 25 from 9 a.m. to noon.