MKA Acting Alums Get Spotlight in The Star Ledger

Siblings and actors Kristen and Will Connolly, respective members of the MKA Classes of 1998 and 2003, were the subject of a major feature in The Newark Star Ledger on January 9. Entitled "Move over Barrymores, here comes … the Connollys" reporter Ronni Reich profiled the remarkable success of the two, both of whom began their careers with lead roles in MKA Middle and Upper School productions.

Kristen has enjoyed success on both stage and screen, with TV roles in Guiding Light and As the World Turns, film roles in Mona Lisa Smile,Revolutionary Road and as the lead in the upcoming The Cabin in the Woods directed by Joss Whedon, and stage roles including with Shakespeare in the Park, and most recently, as Cordelia to Sam Waterston's King Lear at the Public Theater in New York.

Meanwhile, brother Will is set to debut on Broadway in the musical Once. The show enjoyed a sold-out run off-Broadway and opens at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre next month. His theatrical path has included co-founding a theater company in New Orleans and co-writing a musical Fly By Night that has been performed in California and that he hopes to see staged on the east coast soon.

MKA Middle School theater teacher Christian Ely who worked with both Kristen and Will recalls, "I enjoyed working with them because they approached the theatre with great passion and rigor. I knew early on that they had great things ahead of them."

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