Day: October 14, 2025

THREE WINNERS FOR 2025 AVP THEATRICAL ARTS SCHOLARSHIP

Kiki Campbell, Zoey Congelosi, and Oceana Seber will each receive $750 for performing arts education and activities

GLOUCESTER, Mass. (Oct. 14, 2025)  – The Annisquam Village Players, the country’s longest continually running community theatre since 1863, is pleased to announce the selection of three local students – Kiki Campbell, Zoey Congelosi, and Oceana Seber – as the winners of the 2025 AVP Theatrical Arts Scholarship. Successful fundraising efforts this year allowed the AVP to offer $750 to each recipient.

Part of the AVP’s mission is to expose young people to the performing arts and cultivate a wider appreciation for music, dance, and community involvement. To support and encourage our young performers, the AVP awards a scholarship each year to students aged 8-22, who have demonstrated a commitment to developing their artistic talent in acting, voice, dance or in theater production, and have participated in at least one AVP production in the previous three years. 

The scholarship funds can be applied to any artistic development, such as classes or private instruction in theater arts, or tuition to a school or camp program offering such instruction.

The winners:

Kiki Campbell, 15, is an Essex resident and currently a sophomore at Manchester-Essex Regional High School. She made her AVP debut in 2022 playing the role of the daughter, Jane Banks, in Mary Poppins and has since participated in other shows, including Gloucester Story, Cinderella, and last season’s Hello, Dolly!, playing Ermengarde. She has also performed with the Cape Ann Shakespeare Troupe, playing Horatio in Hamlet, and Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other roles include the Wicked Queen in Maudsley is Haunted, Cinderella in December A Christmas Panto, both with Theatre in the Round. She has also participated in school productions, including the role of Lavender in Matilda Jr., and Tessie in Annie Jr.  She also enjoys spending time writing, drawing, playing guitar, surfing, playing tennis, singing, and raising and supporting monarch butterflies.

Zoey Congelosi, 11, of Rockport, is a passionate and active participant in the local performing arts, including as a member of the AVP’s youth ensemble in the recent productions of Cinderella and Hello, Dolly!. Last Spring she performed in Seussical at the North Shore Musical Theatre, and was in the theatre camp productions of Beetlejuice and Finding Nemo, where she played the role of the cool sea turtle. She also plays trombone in her school band and sings with the Cape Ann Youth Chorus. Zoey hopes to obtain her pilot license by age 14 and rescue animals around the world.

Oceana Seber, 8, of Gloucester, is currently the youngest trouper at the AVP but already has a number of theatre credits under her belt, including the 2024 role of a magical mouse in Cinderella, and a member of the youth ensemble and 14^th Street Band in this season’s production of Hello, Dolly!. This summer marked her third season with Cape Ann Arts Alive, the community choral program that performs at the Shalin Liu Performance Center. Oceana also studies piano and violin and loves soaring on the trapeze in her classes with the Seaside Circus.

“We are very pleased to announce these three young and talented individuals as this year’s winners of our annual youth arts scholarship,” said Victoria Fortune, chairperson of the AVP Scholarship Committee. “They all light up the stage when they are here, and we’re thrilled to help them develop their energy and passion for the performing arts beyond Annisquam Village Hall.”

The AVP is a not-for-profit organization run by volunteers and is always welcoming new members of all ages and backgrounds. AVP membership includes full-time and summer residents from the greater Cape Ann area, local youth, as well as individuals with professional associations with theatre and music. 

For more information about the Annisquam Village Players or the arts scholarship, please visit www.annisquamvillageplayers.org.