Young Leaders

The Mooresville Community Children’s Theatre (MCCT) has been passionate over the years about nurturing up and coming performers, and the Clayton Miller Memorial Scholarship is one of the ways they exhibit this support. Clayton Miller, who passed away in 2014, was the original founder of the Mooresville Community Theater. In 1996, while serving as the Executive Director, Miller organized a group of volunteers to head up a children’s division under the main community theatre umbrella. The MCCT produced its first performance around 1997. But the theatre suffered A Spotlight on Future Stars from the waning economy and performed its last musical in 2009. Two years later, a group of board members worked with the Town of Mooresville to resurrect the children’s theatre. MCCT rehearses The Mooresville Community Children’s and performs in the town’s buildings, and just wrapped up their summer programming and performances, with more planned for Theatre scholarship program the fall. Through the Clayton Miller Memorial Scholarship, award recompiled by Renee Roberson cipients can take their dedication to theater and apply the same dedication and passion throughout their lives. All profits from concessions at each show are 100 percent directed towards the scholarship program. In 2021, Lake Norman High School graduate Eleni Kash received the $1,000 scholarship. She began performing with MCCT in 2014 and spent time volunteering and working with sets, strikes, and concessions when she wasn’t performing. Kash is currently pursuing a degree in theatre with a minor in business at Coastal Carolina Community College. Mooresville resident Lexia Gianopoulos is the 2022 Clayton Miller Scholarship recipient of $1,000. She started her performing arts journey in fifth grade with “Aladdin” and continued performing in as many shows through MCCT throughout the years. She credits much of her confidence and future pursuits to the early exposure to performing arts. Gianopoulos graduated from the Community School of Davidson and is attending Furman University this fall to pursue degrees in Public Policy and Broadcast Journalism.

Lexia Gianopoulos Eleni Kash