Ready for the Limelight

This year’s Lee Strasberg Scholarship winners are cool, confident, and talented.

This year’s Lee Strasberg Scholarship winners are cool, confident, and talented.

They said they were nervous, but when this year’s winners of the 34th Annual Lee Strasberg NYCHA Scholarship Competition for Actors and Actresses took to the stage, they commanded the room and transported the audience to other worlds. Each winner will receive a full scholarship to the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute’s prestigious 12-week “method acting” program. Some of the Institute’s graduates include John Leguizamo, Al Pacino, Sidney Poitier, Jesse L. Martin, James Baldwin, and Scarlett Johansson. 

Adult Category: 

Deidra Ephraim, 36

Seth Low Houses 

Stay-at-home mother of three children

Performance: “Sabotage,” a monologue she wrote, and “If I Ain’t Got You”
by Alicia Keys

Excerpt from Sabotage: 

”I thought after being divorced for four years I was ready for a relationship. Something new and real! I told myself this time things are gonna be so different. After dating only three months and he asked me to be his lady, things started to change for me. I started thinking all kinds of thoughts, checking his phone whenever he left the room! Maybe I wasn’t ready for a relationship.” —Deidra M. Ephraim

Favorite Actors: Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, and Whoopi Goldberg

“I’m stunned and shocked. This is a big step. I’m trying to take this to the highest level. I put my dreams on hold 10 years ago because I got married, had children, lost my mother, and got divorced. This is growth; I’m not who I was 10 years ago and I am loving this journey.”

Teen Category: 

Tyanna Patten, 13 

Marcy Houses

Seventh grader

Performance: A monologue she wrote, Adele’s “Someone Like You,” and a dance 

Favorite Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio

“It felt very good to win, but even if I didn’t win I knew I did the best I could. All the people who auditioned were really great.”

Youth Category: 

Avondre Beverley, 11 

Riis Houses

Sixth grader

Performed a monologue from
“Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

Favorite Actor: Samuel L. Jackson 

“Winning the scholarship was very surprising and exciting!”