FSPA senior accepted to prestigious music theater program

The Franklin School for the Performing Arts (FSPA) is excited to announce that FSPA Senior Susana Wickstrom of Wrentham has been accepted to the prestigious School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University to obtain her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music Theater. The Music Theater program at Carnegie Mellon only accepts six female and six male students every year.

For her high school education, Wickstrom attended FSPA Academy, a collaboration with TEC Connections Academy (TECCA), and the Franklin School for the Performing Arts. The FSPA Academy model combines the flexibility of a virtual education while providing warm, welcoming classrooms, supportive learning coaches, and a creative, community-minded school environment. For career-bound students of the arts like Wickstrom, FSPA Academy accommodates professional opportunities, rehearsal, and performance schedules. Partnering with TECCA, a virtual Massachusetts Public School, the curriculum is taught by licensed, certified teachers through a combination of live lessons and individual assignments.

Additionally, Wickstrom trained rigorously in the performing arts at FSPA, taking classes six days a week in singing, acting, and all disciplines of dance. On top of her academic and arts course loads, Wickstrom was cast frequently in productions with the Franklin Performing Arts Company (FPAC), appearing in productions at THE BLACK BOX alongside Broadway stars and working with Broadway choreographers. This past October, she got the chance to star as Miss Honey in FPAC’s production of Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical choreographed by original Broadway cast member Clay Thomson.

Wickstrom spent her last 4 summers touring Europe with the international touring ensemble Electric Youth. With this select group of young performers, she sang and danced her way across the U.K., France, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria performing all genres of music backed by the Boston Show Band, eight of Boston’s most in-demand musicians.

Of her training at FSPA Wickstrom notes, “FSPA has taught me absolutely everything that I know. I owe the world to it. My teachers there taught me why I love the arts, and why I want to pursue it for the rest of my life.”