The MSG Award is named after Michael Scott Gregory. Michael came to us as a 6th grader (a year early) because of a wonderful lady named Hope. She served as his keeper and agent. We were holding auditions on the Parker Playhouse stage for the opening of the new Broward County Performing Arts program to open at Dillard. Hope called to get Michael an audition and I tried to explain that he was too young but she wasn't having any part of it. So he got the audition and within minutes of his appearance, we knew he had to be with us.

We made the appropriate arrangements with Michael's middle school principal and Michael was allowed to join Performing Arts as a 6th grader. Michael followed the program when it moved to the Atlantic Foundation and finished his high school years there. Michael became not only a triple threat, but a brilliant choreographer as well.

After George M!, his last performance in school at the Atlantic Foundation, Michael moved to New York. Michael defied the odds in New York just like he did with us. After an argument with an Equity door guard (you must be an Actors Equity member to get in to some auditions), he talked his way into an audition and got the part. (after only 6 weeks in New York) I remember his call home telling his mother that he "got a part in a show about some man named Ellington." We found out many years later from the director of Sophisticated Ladies that at the time they were all saying "who is that kid and where did he come from?" It seems that they could not throw a tap step at him that he couldn't do.

Michael continued his Broadway shows for many years with a tour in The Act with Liza, and a couple
of out of town premiers thrown in for variety. Andrew Lloyd Webber's shows Cats and Starlight Express were the next Broadway shows where he spent
years in each.

Michael was taken from us February 23, 1992

West Side Story number from Jerome Robbins Broadway

Skimbleshanks
from the musical Cats
Michael also played MISTER MISTOFFOLEES

Fiddler on the Roof number from Jerome Robbins Broadway