Rutgers University, officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States, the second-oldest in New Jersey, and one of nine colonial colleges that were chartered before the American Revolution.
Sparta is a township in Sussex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 19,600, a decrease of 122 (−0.6%) from the 2010 census count of 19,722, which in turn reflected an increase of 1,642 (+9.1%) from the 18,080 counted in the 2000 census.
Billy Elliot is a 2000 British coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Lee Hall. Set in County Durham in North East England during the 1984–1985 miners' strike, the film is about a working-class boy who has a passion for ballet. His father objects, based on negative stereotypes of male ballet dancers. The film stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, Gary Lewis as his father, Jamie Draven as Billy's older brother, and Julie Walters as his ballet teacher.
Lee Hall is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the film Billy Elliot (2000) and the book and lyrics for its adaptation as a stage musical of the same name. In addition, he wrote the play The Pitmen Painters (2007), and the screenplays for the films War Horse and Rocketman (2019).
Mason Welch Gross was an American television quiz show personality, philosopher and academic. The namesake of Mason Gross School of the Arts, he served as the sixteenth President of Rutgers University from 1959 to 1971.
David James Furnish is a Canadian-British filmmaker and former advertising executive. He is the husband of English singer, pianist and composer Sir Elton John.
Rutgers University–Newark is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in Newark. Rutgers, founded in 1766 in New Brunswick, is the eighth oldest college in the United States and a member of the Association of American Universities. In 1945, the state legislature voted to make Rutgers University, then a private liberal arts college, into the state university and the following year merged the school with the former University of Newark (1936–1946), which became the Rutgers–Newark campus. Rutgers also incorporated the College of South Jersey and South Jersey Law School, in Camden, as a constituent campus of the university and renamed it Rutgers–Camden in 1950.
Mason Gross School of the Arts is the arts conservatory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Mason Gross offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in art, design, dance, filmmaking, music, and theater. Mason Gross is highly selective in terms of admissions, with a low admission rate. It is named for Mason W. Gross, the sixteenth president of Rutgers.
Sparta High School is a four-year comprehensive community public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from Sparta, in Sussex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as the lone secondary school of the Sparta Township Public School District.
Billy Elliot: The Musical is a coming-of-age stage musical based on the 2000 film of the same name. The music is by Elton John, and the book and lyrics are by Lee Hall, who wrote the film's screenplay. The plot revolves around Billy, a motherless British boy who begins taking ballet lessons. The story of his personal struggle and fulfillment is balanced against a counter-story of family and community strife caused by the 1984-1985 miners’ strike in County Durham, in North East England. Hall's screenplay was inspired in part by A. J. Cronin's 1935 novel about a miners' strike, The Stars Look Down, to which the musical's opening song pays homage.
Liam Mower is an English actor and dancer. Best known for his talent for ballet, he was one of the three boys who shared the lead role in the original London cast of Billy Elliot the Musical which earned a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, making him the youngest nominee and the youngest solo winner in the category aged 13. He is currently employed by Matthew Bourne and has appeared in his production of Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and The Car Men.
Leon Dominic Cooke is an English actor, singer, dancer, and choreographer.
George Street Playhouse is a theater company in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in the city's Civic Square government and theater district and resident at the newly built New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. The GSP is one of the state's most prominent professional theaters, committed to the production of new and established plays.
Kevin Chamberlin is an American actor. He is known for his theatre roles such as Horton in Seussical and Uncle Fester in The Addams Family. For his theatre work, he was nominated for three Tony Awards and three Drama Desk Awards. He also starred as Bertram Winkle in the Disney Channel Original Series sitcom Jessie from 2011 to 2015. From 2018 to 2019, he starred as The Wizard of Oz in Wicked on Broadway.
Sons of Tucson is an American sitcom starring Tyler Labine, Frank Dolce, Matthew Levy and Benjamin Stockham. It premiered on Fox on March 14, 2010. The show was announced as a midseason show to air on Sunday nights at 8:30 pm ET/PT in between animated hits, The Simpsons and Family Guy, although it was changed to 9:30 ET/PT, replacing American Dad!.
Bobby Thomas was a Kittitian-American jazz drummer. A member of Junior Mance's trio in 1960, Thomas recorded with the Montgomery Brothers in New York in January 1960.
Robert Livingstone Aldridge is an American composer, professor, and current Head of Composition professor, and former Director of Music at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. He has written over eighty works for orchestra, opera, musical theater, dance, and various chamber ensembles that have been performed in the United States, Europe, and Japan. He is widely known for his opera Elmer Gantry, based on Sinclair Lewis's 1927 novel of the same name. which was completed in 2007 and won Best Engineered Album (Classical) and Best Contemporary Classical Composition in the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.
Anthony Branker is an American musician and educator of Caribbean descent.
Billy Elliot the Musical Live is a 2014 British filmed version of Elton John's coming-of-age stage musical Billy Elliot the Musical (2005), which in turn was based on the 2000 film Billy Elliot. Stephen Daldry directed both the original film and the 2014 musical adaptation.
James Ortlieb is an American film, television and theatre actor known for his roles in Roswell and Felicity. Ortlieb has also appeared in Broadway productions of Guys and Dolls and Of Mice and Men, Billy Elliot the Musical, and The Farnsworth Invention.
