ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Emily Browning Pons ’11

CHORAL DIRECTOR

OR EMILY BROWNING

FPONS, music is a family affair. Emily’s mother, Norma Browning, became TCA’s choir director in 1986. Emily recalls, “by the time I started school, it was a given that I’d attend TCA because of the history of academic rigor and Christian values.” In addition to building toothpick bridges in Mr. Lipman’s science class, many of Emily’s favorite memories at TCA revolve around music, including performing in the fouth-grade musical production In God We Trust as well as dancing in halftime shows and pep rallies with the Trojanette drill team.

Choir played a special role in Emily’s life at TCA. She sang in the Women’s Chorus and Chorale throughout high school, qualifying for the TPSMEA All-State Choir all four years. She enjoyed musical theater as well, performing in The Secret Garden and starring as Cosette in Les Misérables.

Looking back on her time at TCA, Emily says, “I am most grateful for the relationships I was able to form with teachers” who blended “a high level of quality instruction” with a “genuine desire to know and disciple their students toward academic success, future career success and, most importantly, spiritual growth.”

After TCA, Emily took the love of music embedded in her heart at TCA to the University of Oklahoma, where she studied vocal music education and performed with multiple choirs, including Singing Sooners as well as an a cappella and vocal jazz ensemble. Emily’s love of music is more than a mere hobby: “I absolutely connect with God through performing! There is such a power in music that speaks to the divine; it connects to our souls in a unique way. We’re even told that all nations, tribes and tongues will be singing collective praise to the Lord for eternity! How beautiful is that?!”

“There is such a power in music that speaks to the divine; it connects to our souls in a unique way. We’re even told that all nations, tribes and tongues will be singing collective praise to the Lord for eternity!”

After graduating from OU and moving to Kansas, Emily continues to sing with the Lawrence Civic Choir, now serving on its board of directors. She volunteers on the worship team at her church and also continues to pursue musical theater by performing in local productions at Theatre Lawrence, including Camelot, Mamma Mia and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Theater is spiritual for Emily, who believes that there is “something so powerful about telling a story on stage. Jesus often told stories in order to teach people about the Kingdom, and that alone indicates the important and worth of storytelling.”

Emily married Daniel Pons, and they are the proud parents of a two-year old daughter, Meredith, as well expecting a baby boy.

Emily followed her mother into vocational music education, currently serving as choral director for fifth through twelfth grades as well as teaching drama at Perry-Lecompton High School near Lawrence, Kansas. In addition to her mother, Emily praised many of her TCA teachers as integral to her current career blending performing arts and education, including Fran Legband, Zoe Ellen Azzi, Bill Bradley, Lorna Griffin and numerous others. She says, “they have been a guide for me in my own journey as an educator. Their passion and authenticity shaped who I am today and made an impact that I now, Lord willing, get to pass along to my own students.”

RIGHT - Emily Browning Pons ’11 as Miss Evangeline Barley in Theatre Lawrence’s production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder FAR RIGHT - Emily receiving the Outstanding Young Choral Director award from the Northeast Kansas Music Educators Association in December 2020 BELOW - Emily directing students in her seventh- and eighth-grade choir from Perry-Lecompton Middle School in Perry, Kansas, for their December 2022 concert

MacBETH, JULIUS CAESAR, TWELFTH NIGHT,

OTHELLO. Blake Henri ’12 is at home acting on stage, but he found an early home as a little boy enjoying a life of learning and growing at Trinity Christian Academy. From lifelong friendships to nurturing his talent for performing arts, TCA gave Blake rich blessings to carry with him into adulthood.

Blake’s parents chose TCA for their son’s education after hearing rave reviews from family friends. He recalls, “TCA had the best reputation among the Christian schools in town. After a visit, my parents really fell in love.” Among Blake’s favorite Lower School memories, he is most grateful for the relationships he made, forming deep bonds. He says, “Lower School was the place where I first met the men and women who have stood by my side at every major event of my life.”

In addition to all the fun and friendships, Blake notes that the TCA Middle School was where his career began. He says, “I did a little Hamlet monologue, and K-Rob [TCA theater teacher Kristi Robison-Rasnic] told me that I needed to start taking acting seriously.” Blake felt his first sting as an actor when he lost a part in the show Laughing Stock to a friend. This disappointment served as a turning point, as Blake decided

Blake Henri ’12

STAGE AND TV ACTOR

to work even harder in the future in order to “never feel that pain again.” His love for theater grew. He recalls, “my incredibly talented friend, Tommy Hart, dragged me from our basketball tournament to audition for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. We booked roles together, and I was hooked.”

TCA continued to nurture Blake’s potential for performing arts in Upper School, as his theater teacher skipped him from the traditional ninth-grade placement in Drama 1 to Advanced Drama as a tenth-grader. “I remember Ann Marie Daniel [Dreiling ’10] dragging me down the stairs and telling me how that never happens,” Blake remembers, grateful for teachers who saw his potential as an individual and helped him grow his skills. Over the next few years, he acted in Les Misérables, Into the Woods, Clue, Death of a Salesman, Of Mice and Men, The Secret Garden, Oliver! and Almost, Maine.

“There is so much I’m thankful for about TCA: my faith, my education, the community. Related to my profession as an actor, TCA is where I learned to take risks and leaps of faith. As an actor, there is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative or being a fool. Take the leap! What I learned, from K-Rob in particular, as well as from many other mentors throughout TCA, was to take risks with my performances and not fear mistakes.”

After graduating from TCA in 2012, Blake attended the University of Oklahoma and received a bachelor of fine arts degree in theater with an acting emphasis.

Now a professional actor, Blake finds joy and purpose in acting. He says, “I love bouncing around the country doing what I love and what God has called me to do.” He loves to travel and has enjoyed performing in the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa, as well as with the Oklahoma Shakespeare Festival, the Great River Shakespeare Festival (Minnesota), the Island Shakespeare Festival (Washington) and the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.

Blake has a particular passion for stage acting, savoring “that feeling of hundreds of people experiencing ONE moment that will NEVER be replicated.” He says, “You can’t recreate a moment from live theater. It is you—your past, your traumas, your anger, your love, your desires, your wants—every aspect of you, wrapped up into one story, one connection, one collective breath. As a viewer or performer, there is nothing better.”

In addition to his work in theater, Blake’s recent film credits include performances in American Underdog, Great Plains and Waiting, while his television credits include involvement with Love and Death, The Chosen, Into the Wild Frontier, Walker, The Amazing Race and Eyewitness Bible Series.

Based in Dallas, Blake has graced local stages in Clue at the Dallas Theatre Center as well as The Odd Couple at WaterTower Theatre. He is currently in rehearsals for The Play That Goes Wrong, playing at WaterTower Theatre in January and February 2023.

Blake’s life is full of scripts, sets and stages. The roots of his passion lead back to discovering the performing arts at TCA. “What do performing arts mean to me? Simple: everything. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Life will beat you down and sometimes crush your soul, but art is to remind you that you have one. Acting teaches me to find empathy in every situation, to see the good in every person. The world needs more of that.”

“Life will beat you down and sometimes crush your soul, but art is to remind you that you have one.”

LEFT - Blake Henri ’12 performing as Mr. Boddy in Dallas Theatre Center’s production of Clue

Shea Smitherman McMillan ’12

CO-FOUNDER, PLAGUE MASK PLAYERS

HE BRIGHT, SHINING “FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS”

Tof Tom Landry Stadium first attracted the Smitherman family, who lived in a nearby neighborhood, to consider Trinity Christian Academy for their daughter, Shea. Little did they know that a few years later, Shea would be dancing as a Trojanette under those very same lights, or that the bright lights of theater stages would follow Shea into college and beyond.

Shea Smitherman McMillan ’12 started at TCA for pre-first. Her penchant for theater and performing arts was apparent even in Lower School, where her favorite days were always dress-up days, from Charlotte’s Web day to dressing up as Princess Diana and Annie Oakley for book reports. In Middle School, her flair for the dramatic continued as her favorite day was the Medieval Fair. She was delighted that her costume won an award for “Most Likely to Win the Heart of Lancelot,” and her medieval castle art project won “Most Detailed.” She sees her future love of theater, from costumes to set building, in these joyful early memories at TCA.

Remembering her time in Upper School, Shea calls herself a classic “drama kid” who treasures memories from shows including Into the Woods, Death of a Salesman, Les Misérables, Steel Magnolias, Clue, The Secret Garden and Almost, Maine, as well as serving as student director of Arsenic and Old Lace. If she wasn’t on stage in the Performing Arts Center, Shea loved dancing as a Trojanette. Looking back, Shea says, “I am grateful for the excellent education I received, especially in the humanities as well as the small, tight-knit community at TCA.”

After high school, Shea headed to the University of Alabama, from which she graduated summa cum laude with a major in musical theater and a minor in telecommunication and film. She was a member of the honors college and was selected for Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s most prestigious collegiate honors society. For Shea, theater and performing arts are a calling and an avenue for God to speak to audiences: “I absolutely believe God uses the arts to move people and

TOP - Shea Smitherman McMillan ’12 as Grace in Repertory Company Theatre’s 2022 production of Annie ABOVE - Shea with the rest of the creative team for the Plague Mask Players production of As You Like It

“I feel a calling to show a Christ-like love to theater artists and operate in a way that nurtures them and supports their growth in their craft.”

speak to them. My prayer for any project of which I’m a part is for the production to be a blessing to the audience.”

After college, Shea came back to TCA, serving as the Middle School drama assistant before moving to New York City for three years. In the Big Apple, she originated roles in several script readings of TV pilots and plays, including working with Broadway star Marc Kudisch and TV/film actress Elizabeth Rodriguez, an experience she found “exciting and humbling.”

Now settled back in Dallas, Shea regularly works with several performing arts companies in the area, including recent roles as Phoebe in A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love & Murder and Grace in Annie (both at Repertory Company Theatre), Daphne in Present Laughter (at Richardson Theatre Center) and Jessie in Cry It Out (at Rover Dramawerks). Her most recent project was directing Chicago: Teen Edition for the advanced students at Genesis Children’s Theatre, which featured TCA seniors Morgan Hausz and Lexi Meador in the starring roles, an experience she found “a joy overall, and extra special with the TCA connection.”

Shea has found not only fun but also purpose and even love in theater, as she met Michael McMillan, her husband of four years, when they played a couple in a show together. Shea, Michael and a third fellow actor co-founded Plague Mask Players, a nonprofit professional theater company that produces live and virtual performances and educational workshops. Currently, Shea is director of programming for her theater company as well as serving on the board. “I feel a calling through my work with my own company, Plague Mask Players, to show a Christ-like love to theater artists and operate in a way that nurtures them and supports their growth in their craft,” Shea says, because “too often in this competitive industry, actors are cut down and treated as expendable. We want to honor each person’s dignity and artistry and build them up!”

From the Friday night football events that attracted her parents to TCA, to many years on the stage, Shea Smitherman McMillan’s story continues to be about shining light by using one’s gifts to the glory of God.