Wheatley senior and musical actress Christina Ames has been selected to participate next week as one of 150 finalists in a week-long series of performances and workshops as part of a YoungArts Week in Miami sponsored by the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts.
Ames was selected to participate in the event from a pool of applicants from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. There are three levels of winners in the competition that runs from Jan. 10 to 15, with gold winners taking home a $10,000 prize, silver winners receiving $5,000 and winners at the third level receiving from $1,000 to $3,000.
Ames, who plans to attend Brown University and pursue a double major that will include theater, said she expects the event will be an “incredible experience,” which will include acting workshops with Uma Thurman. The multi-talented Wheatley senior has been performing since she was as young as she can remember, landing TV commercial work and a role in ‘A Christmas Carol” on Broadway eight years ago.
Ames has acted in eight theater productions while at Wheatley, where she’s also the lead vocalist in the high school’s jazz ensemble. She also performs in the invitation-only Nassau-Suffolk Jazz Ensemble and has spent several summers performing in the French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts.
“It’s my passion,” Ames said. “It’s what I’ve been following since I was a little kid and I see no sense in giving it up.”
She credits her parents with encouraging her to pursue that passion. She performs with her father, guitarist Mitchell Ames in his R&B band, Johnny Volume, noting that he helped her produce the song and the monologue for the videotape she prepared for her application to YoungArts Week.
“He knows what people like and what sounds good,” Ames said. “I don’t think I would be as dedicated or motivated without their support.”
Her mother, Dorothy, has tirelessly driven her to auditions in Manhattan that have helped her gain both acting experience and practical exposure as an actress. She has gained acting experience in the five-week Stella Adler Summer Acting Intensive Program in Manhattan – a more “intense” program than any she said she’s been in before – and improved her dancing technique in the Steps on Broadway American Theatre Dance Workshop.
Steve Fitzko, director of the Wheatley Jazz Band, who first saw her perform as a freshman, said that band would not be the same without her.
“She’s been a main centerpiece of the Jazz Band for the past few years. She’s able to transcend all vocal styles and give a polished performance,” Fitzko said. “She lends a lot of credibility to the jazz band. People come out to see it knowing she’s going to perform.”
Ultimately, Ames hopes to perform in musical theater and movies, but acknowledging the highly competitive nature of her chosen field, said she’s also intends to major in mathematics or economics at Brown. (She’s won math and science research awards in middle school and high school as well.)
An AP scholar and a member of the National Honor Society, the National French Honor Society and the All-State Vocal Jazz Ensemble and the All-State Women’s Chorus, Ames finds time to explore different facets of life to expand her own horizons. She’s also president of her class at Wheatley and in past years, she’s performed community service in the Summer Children’s Reading Program and the children’s volunteer program of the east Williston Recreation Committee.
“That’s definitely been a big thing in my life, balancing my craft and my school work,” Ames said.
Next Tuesday, she’ll be performing three songs for one of the most elite audiences she’s ever faced, delivering a climactic performance of one of those tunes in Miami’s Gussman’s Theater. And maybe she’ll be one of the several outstanding artists who will bring home an award for her efforts.
