LYNN – Pickering Middle School’s Harper McGarvey was nominated for the METG Musical Theater Awards for Best Performance in a Featured Role in March, a first for the school’s theater program.
McGarvey is a chipper, well-spoken 7th grader who, freshly entering middle school, decided to give acting a shot. When she saw the school offered a theater program, she thought: “Oh! Yeah, why not?”
“I’ve always been a theatrical person,” McGarvey said.
That year, she was chosen to play the lead role in Moana Jr., a “really big role,” she recalled, as she had only just started acting.
“I never left the stage,” McGarvey said. “Moana is a part where you do not leave the stage. Maybe 30 seconds, but practically never.”
This year’s production of The Little Mermaid Jr. featured her, once more, in the lead, under the direction of Lucas Ross, Pickering Middle School’s drama teacher.
“I was so surprised and proud when we found out she was nominated,” her mother, Kelly McGarvey, said. “Then, it started to get real.”
In high school, Kelly McGarvey was a part of her school’s chorus and drama club. The family makes trips to the theater, sometimes as far as New York, she said, where they went to see Hamilton.
Harper McGarvey’s performance in The Little Mermaid led her to represent her school on June 9, as a nominee for the METG Musical Theater Awards.
“It was very exciting,” said Ross, who has never had a nomination in his program.
Although she did not win the award this year, McGarvey wants to continue acting later on.
“If I can do it in my future, I would love to,” she said.
This summer, she will attend theater camp with The Saugus Theater Company, in preparation of another exciting year to come.
