Alumni Highlights

Michael Wideburg – Class of 2007:

Post Prairie. Michael attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, beginning as a guitar major and graduating in songwriting and music business.  Michael’s songs can be found on Sound Cloud (free on the internet) under the name Oscar Adams, his recording name.  Check out “Golden Bell” and “Wisconsin Line.”  He reports that he recalls his Prairie connections fondly and appreciates all the skills he began to learn at Prairie – music, acting, creativity, and production – in his professional life.

Click below to link to Michael’s website:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/972821483/oscar-adams-single-and-music-video

 

Chelsea Franklin – Class of 2010:

Designed this dress for Missy Franklin, her cousin, to wear to the Golden Goggle’s, USA Swimming’s annual awards banquet. Missy won four gold medals in London, and was awarded female athlete of the year honors, along with top relay performance at the banquet. Chelsea also attended the event.

Chelsea is currently a student at Rhode Island School of Design.

Matt Broulliard – Class of 2013:

Casted as one of the two male leads in [title of show]. Matt attended Prairie since Early School but left after his junior year to attend Interlochen Arts Academy. The musical received a Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical in 2009. The Interlochen cast was able to work with the original Broadway writer and lyricist. After performing at Interlochen the cast performed in New York to an invitation only audience of key influencers of Broadway and attended workshops and master classes.

Andrea Ryan – Class of 2005:

Andrea is a proud Canadian who’s not afraid say “out,” “about,” and “sorry” freely in public. At age 5, she discovered her love for singing while acting out scenes from Phantom of the Opera with her father. After graduating as a vocal major from Berklee College of Music, she migrated to NYC to pursue a career in music business. Two years later she landed her dream job producing and micro-managing the boys at Antfood. Andrea knows the words to nearly every 60s song, loves Sriracha and has dreamt of attending a Celine Dion concert her entire life.

Alex Janiuk – Class of 2010:

Alex Janiuk graduated from DePaul University, studying screenwriting and documentary production. Alex currently runs an independent commercial and documentary production company based in Chicago, IL, Poor Yorick Productions [www.pyorick.com].

While at DePaul, Alex won the Bluelight Screenwriting Award to fund a short film he wrote and produced based around his experiences at and dedicated to The Prairie School, Happy Birthday Jenny Waters. He was also recognized as a DePaul Emeritus Scholar, and twice as a Leo Burnett Scholar for Excellence in Producing. His first feature documentary, Futures Past, premiered in competition at the prestigious IDFA film festival 2012. The film follows the director and his father, the Chairman Emeritus of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, battle through their life decisions and damaged relationship, while the Open Outcry pits are closing due to  the invention of electronic trading, an idea invented by the father. Since then, Alex has been hired to as a production and story consultant on documentary features in development with Atlantic Records and Major League Baseball.

Alex is currently is developing Os Ultra-Terrestres, a Sci-fi Hybrid documentary on the architecture of Brasília and the new religious movements it has inspired; and he is directing a collection of fiction short films about a documentary filmmaker making a film about a painter, entitled Work in Progress: Anna Vanderlay.

Bobby Schuessler – Class of 2006:

It’s the dream of every self proclaimed fashionista to grow up, live in the big city, and work at one of the top magazine publications (Carrie Bradshaw set the bar, we’re just following). Bobby Schuessler, a Lucky Magazine style editor, is living that dream. Read on to hear about the typical (or not so typical) day.  “No day is the same! One day I could be attending market appointments around the city meeting with various brands to see what’s coming up for the next season, the next I could be writing blog posts for luckymag.com and then I could be putting together designer giveaways for our Lucky Breaks section. My favorite part is definitely working with the most creative people in the business to put together one of the most relevant publications on the market.”