Community Connection for
Hunting-Tony Award
Ellen Fleury just can't get the Huntington High School drama club program out of her system. A year after her daughter graduated from the school, Mrs. Fleury is still pitching in and volunteering. She designed the Little Women playbill that won a Hunting-Tony Award during a recent star-studded night at the John W. Engeman Theater in Northport.
The playbill is an impressive publication, with profiles of the cast members and senior drama club members, an overview of the show and even "shout outs" from family members. Katherine Gerdes created the cover art.
Mrs. Fleury's daughter is Anna Harris, a member of Huntington's Class of 2012. Ms. Harris was an integral member of the high school drama club program. She played "Nettie Fowler" in last year's production of Carousel. She just completed her freshman year at the University of Maryland where she is studying music education.
Back home in Huntington, Mrs. Fleury and her husband, Matt Harris, have stayed involved in the high school drama program. This marks the second consecutive year that one of the playbills created by Mrs. Fleury has won a Hunting-Tony Award.
The Huntington drama club program has a way of eliciting deep loyalty from its student-actors and stagehands and their parents. Mr. Harris has helped with sound and lighting during productions and has expertly filmed the shows and created clips that have been posted on the district's website.
Mr. Harris and his wife met in 1977. "She was soliciting ads for a local theater group in Oyster Bay, the Oyster Bay Players, and walked into the TV repair shop in town where I worked," he said. "My boss was not interested in placing an ad, but I was interested in her and asked if they needed any tech help and the rest is history." The couple's first date on July 3, 1977 included a viewing of the first "Star Wars" movie in Hicksville.
The May 1977 Oyster Bay Players' production of "The Miracle Worker" saw Mr. Harris provide lighting from scratch inside Christ Church for what amounted to "theater in the round." Looking back today, Mr. Harris admits the job was "not an easy task." His theater tech sound and lighting experience dates back to his days as a Sewanhaka High School student.
Mrs. Fleury grew up in East Norwich while Mr. Harris was raised in Franklin Square. Mrs. Fleury earned a bachelor's degree in art at SUNY College at Geneseo in 1976. She started her own graphic design business in 1988 after the group she worked for split up after losing a contract. She's been on her own ever since.
The couple bought a house in Huntington Station in 1981. Their daughter was born in 1993. She performed in every Huntington High School drama club production over her four years in the building. While home during breaks from college this year, Ms. Harris observed music classes at J. Taylor Finley Middle School and the high school.
Mrs. Fleury's award-winning playbill is posted on the Huntington School District's website at www.hufsd.edu.