Arts Academy Charter School Appoints Principal, Executive Director

The new Arts Academy Charter School, a middle school scheduled to open in August in Salisbury Township, has two new administrators.

The new Arts Academy Charter School, an arts-enriched middle school in Salisbury Township scheduled to open in August, has appointed two administrators, according to a news release. William Fitzpatrick was appointed executive director and Jan Labellarte was appointed principal. Fitzpatrick has been the artistic director of the figure skating program at the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Performing Arts since 2004.  while there, he developed curriculum for the first public school figure skating program in the country. Fitzpatrick spent 33 years in management at the Steel Export Corporation, while serving in a leadership capacity for a variety of figure skating associations. He is currently a judge and referee for the United …

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"Hairspray" Pro Premiere Coming to Muhlenberg

Muhlenberg's 32nd Summer Music Theater season will feature "Hairspray" and "H.M.S. Pinafore"

Muhlenberg's Summer Music Theater (MSMT) schedule in Allentown will feature the regional professional premiere of "Hairspray: The Broadway Musical" that opens the season, June 13 – July 1. Adapted from the John Waters movie that was partially filmed right here in the Lehigh Valley, "Hairspray" will feature Angela DeAngelo as Tracy Turnblad and SMT mainstay Bill Mutimer as her mother, Edna. MSMT co-founder Charles Richter directs. Gilbert & Sullivan's "HMS Pinafore," the duo's first commercial hit (way back in 1878), and a precursor to the Broadway blockbusters of today will run July 11-29. Muhlenberg Theatre & Dance Department chair James Peck directs. This season's production for young audiences, "Harold and the Purple Crayon," accounts …

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Salisbury's Abbey Eichorn Nominated for Freddy

Salisbury High School student Abbey Eichorn was nominated Wednesday for a Freddy Award for Outstanding Solo Vocal Performance.

Salisbury High School student Abbey Eichorn was nominated Wednesday for a Freddy Award for Outstanding Solo Vocal Performance. The nomination was for Eichorn's performance of "Someone Else's Story" in "Chess," a musical presented last October about a romantic triangle in a Cold War-era chess competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was Salisbury's only nomination this year. The 2012 Freddy Awards Ceremony will be held at the State Theatre in Easton on May 24.      

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St. Thomas More Student Gets Poem Published

Anna D. Sixsmith, a 13-year-old St. Thomas More School student, was among the winners of a national poetry contest and was published in an anthology.

Anna D. Sixsmith, a seventh-grader at St. Thomas More School in Salisbury Township, was recently named among the winners of a national poetry contest and as a result, her poem was published in an anthology, "A Celebration of Poets." Sixsmith's poem, "Rain," was among the poems that Language Arts teacher Peggy Herman submitted from seventh and eighth grade students to the Poetic Power National Poetry Contest.  Thousands of poems were submitted from across the country and Canada, but Sixsmith, 13, was one of only four seventh-graders to win and the only Pennsylvanian in the grade 7-9 category. The poems were judged for their literary merit, creativity and social significance. Sixsmith won a copy of the anthology and a $25 check, which she …

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Cheap Trips

Cheap Trips: 2nd Saturday, Theater and IronPigs

Find three local attractions you can visit on one tank of gas.

Are you interested in taking a trip, but not willing to part with a stack of money? Try one of these three trips you can enjoy on just one tank of gas: 2nd Saturday in Media, Coca-Cola Park in Allentown and the Players Club in Swarthmore.   Address: 1050 IronPigs Way, Allentown How Far from Salisbury Patch: 6.19 miles / 16 minutes Admission:  Hours: Summary: Coca-Cola Park is home to the IronPigs baseball team, a Triple A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, where current Phillies such as John Mayberry and Vance Worley have played. The park was minor league baseball's most visited venue in 2011 with close to 630,000 fans passing through the turnstiles. The stadium has been named "Ballpark of the Year" by Ballpark Digest and "Best …

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Dick Clark Made This Dream Come True

A Lehigh Valley man performed a song on "American Bandstand" in November 1960.

For most of us, Dick Clark was the man who ushered in a new year. For others, he was the host of numerous game shows. And for the older generations, he was the man who brought music to the mainstream and the masses. For my father, Frank Ciliberti of Forks Township, Dick Clark will always be a special part of his life. It's not every day you can tell people that you're father appeared on "American Bandstand." But that's what my father did long ago before I was born, performing solo on the popular show that Clark made famous first in Philadelphia and later in Los Angeles. My father was one of the first in music history to cover "Rock Around the Clock." Now had he been the first to sing that song, like Bill Haley and the Comets, our lives may…

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Remember the Titanic With These Movies

Some movies have told the Titanic's story better than others.

On April 15th, 1912, the greatest ship the world had ever known sank in the north Atlantic on its maiden voyage. A hundred years later, the Titanic still remains with us, in memory, history, legend, and as a rusting, disintegrating ruin two and a half miles down on the bottom of the ocean. With the re-release in theatres of James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster (now upgraded to 3-D), part of a phalanx of commemorative events to help honor the Centenary anniversary of the great ship’s demise, the legend of the RMS Titanic is poised to remain with us for the next hundred years. The cold Atlantic waters had scarcely closed over the Titanic’s massive stern before the first film version of the tragedy flickered on movie screens a mere month after …

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Allentown Public Library Loans Most Challenged Books

American Library Association releases annual report on the most frequently challenged library books of 2011.

Salisbury Patch readers can find classic works such as "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Brave New World" and the popular young-adult trilogy "The Hunger Games" at the Allentown Public Library. They can also find these books among the titles on the American Library Association's list of the most often protested library books of 2011. According to a recent report on Galley Cat, the top 10 most frequently challenged library books of 2011 are:

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Swain Students Create Sculpture From Recycled Items

With the help of visiting artist Steven Siegel, students from The Swain School are creating a giant sculpture from found objects.

With the help of visiting artist Steven Siegel this week, students from The Swain School have been creating a giant sculpture from recycled items donated by the students' families. Each students crafted individual sculptures, which were fastened together and affixed to a two-story high wall in the school's meeting room, Rogers' Commons.

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