Grace McPhillips ’03 was featured in the Oct. 23 issue of the Montgomery (Ala.) Independent. A theater at Montgomery’s Saint James school will be dedicated in her name Thursday, Nov. 6. The full text of the article appears below:
“The theater in the Saint James School Performing Arts Building will be dedicated in November in honor of alumna Grace McPhillips.
A 1999 (St. James) graduate, Miss McPhillips is now a professional actor, singer, and choreographer based in Chicago.
The dedication will be held during a ceremony with the Saint James Middle School on Thursday, November 6, at 10:30 a.m. in the Performing Arts Building, and a reception will be held following the ceremony in the school’s Blue-Gold room.
During the presentation ceremonies, Miss McPhillips will perform four Broadway tunes, and school officials will unveil a bronze plaque designating the theater as The Grace McPhillips Theater and Auditorium. Special guests will include her family: Julian and Leslie McPhillips, her sister Rachel, a 1995 (Saint James) graduate, and her brother David, a seventh grade student at Saint James.
Miss McPhillips is a 2003 graduate of Elon University where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Music Theatre with minors in dance and Spanish. While at Elon, she appeared as Rachel in Rags, Alma Hix in The Music Man, and Mrs. Johnson in How to Succeed a Business Without Really Trying. She was also a student choreographer for the Elon Faculty Dance Concert for two years. ‘When you’re multi-talented, you multi-task and try to do as much in the performing arts world as you can-from stage, to film, and to dance,’ Miss McPhillips said.
Two of her favorite roles while at Saint James include Peggy Sawyer in 42nd Street and Tess in Crazy for You.
Professionally, she has worked in new musicals by one of Broadway’s leading composers, David Freidman. She has also appeared in summer stock productions, as a back-up dancer for Amy Grant and Vince Gill, and in professional regional theatres.”