Wagner Freshman Wins Broadway Walk-On Role

In Dirty Rotten Scoundrels:

WAGNER FRESHMAN WINS BROADWAY WALK-ON ROLE

New York, NY – Appearing on Broadway, the dream of every aspiring actor, will become a reality Tuesday night (6/6) for 18-year old Wagner College freshman Brianna Horne, who was one of two winners of “My Broadway Debut,” in which students from colleges across the country competed on CBS’s “The Early Show” for a cameo role on the Great White Way.

Horne and Andrew Arrington, a senior at the University of Michigan, were voted the best of ten aspiring college-student actors by viewers across the country.  Their duet from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, performed on The Early Show this morning drew rave reviews from the musical’s stars: Jonathan Pryce and Luci Arnaz.  Arrington will also appear in the play Tuesday night.

With admirable range and a stage presence that belies her years, Horne traces her vocal prowess to her grandfather, mother, and cousin.  Though her grandfather’s bass now stands in the corner, Horne says, her mother sang jazz professionally and her cousin is making a go of it as an R & B singer.  Though her surname’s the same, Horne laughs and says she knows of no relation to the legendary Lena Horne.

Tuesday night’s walk-on is not Horne’s first brush with Broadway.  She made it to the last call back for the role of Little Inez in Hairspray.  Since she was a grade-schooler, Horne has had her sights set on a career in musical theatre.  A fellow member of her church’s youth choir won a role in The King and I.

“I can do that,” she thought, borrowing a phrase from Chorus Line, but her mother put her foot down.  “She was concerned about how being a child star might affect me,” Horne said. 

A 2005 graduate of Camden Catholic High School, in Cherry Hill, N.J., which is known for the caliber of its theatre productions, Horne chose the theatre program at Wagner because of its national reputation. Kathy Brier, a 1997 graduate, played the lead role in Hairspray while starring in the ABC drama One Life to Live, for which she was nominated for an Emmy in 2004. 

Horne is a recipient of the Wagner Alumni Achievement and Theatre Award, a scholarship that helps students with high academic and performance potential.  Wagner’s theatre program accepts only one of every 10 applicants and has been ranked best in the country by The Princeton Review for the past two years.

Among other finalists for “My Broadway Debut” chosen by Broadway casting agent Bernie Telsey were students from Northwestern University, University of Michigan, University of Arizona and Florida State University. Also among the finalists was recent Wagner College graduate, Amanda Snarksi.

Wagner is an independent college of 2,000 undergraduate and 350 graduate students located on Staten Island.  Winner of the 2005 TIAA-CREF Hesburgh Award, the college is widely known for the integration of the liberal arts, professional programs, and civic engagement.  Wagner’s signature curriculum, the Wagner Plan for the Practical Liberal Arts is frequently cited by media and higher education associations as a national model.

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For more information and to arrange an interview, contact Laura Coppolino, Communications Associate at Wagner College, 718-420-4504 or laura.coppolino@wagner.edu.