Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Tryon Little Theater has awarded the Sue Hipps Memorial Performing Arts Scholarship for 2024 to Morgan Madden.  

Sue Hipps is remembered by Tryon audiences for her comic performances, often compared to those of Carol Burnett. She worked at St. Luke’s Hospital, and after she passed from cancer, the TLT board decided to honor her memory by creating a scholarship in her name. Graduating high school seniors, college undergraduates, or graduate students who have actively participated in Tryon Little Theater activities are eligible to apply and audition for this scholarship. The scholarship is awarded for study in some area of performing arts or any other field of specialized interest.

Morgan was in the 2023 Tryon Youth Summer Theater program, when she performed in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.  She credits that experience with inspiring her to study theater in college.  

Morgan has just completed her first year at North Greenville University as a musical theater major, with a minor in Spanish. She plans to change her major to theater education so that she can teach after graduation. Of her future plans, Morgan says, “I want to be able to make a life for myself out of sharing my passion for theater with other people.” She plans to use the scholarship to pay for her college tuition and her private voice lessons.

At North Greenville University, Morgan has already been in the cast of Jane Eyre, the Musical, and has worked tech for Eric Overmyer’s On the Verge. She will be appearing in Legally Blonde, the Musical at Hendersonville Theatre this summer. In the fall, Morgan will appear at North Greenville in an original musical titled Unreal City, a song cycle based on the T.S. Eliot poem “The Wasteland.”

This passion for theater is exactly what the Tryon Youth Summer Theater program was designed to create in young people. TLT board members say they could not be more pleased that someone like Morgan has become part of the area’s creative community, and that she wants to share her love of theater with future students.

 

submitted by Tryon Little Theater