Faith grounds this star
By Chris Donahue
Staff Writer
It took only four years after graduating from Bishop George Ahr High School, Edison, for Veronica J. Kuehn to bask in the bright lights on Broadway.
Kuehn, who also attended St. Bartholomew School, East Brunswick, began performing in the role of Ali in the musical Mamma Mia! May 19. In a telephone interview from her home in Hoboken, Kuehn cited Bishop Ahr’s drama department for not only attracting her to the school, but for developing her talents.
“I had decided I wanted to do theater about seventh or eighth grade,” Kuehn said. “I got to do so much in those plays at Bishop Ahr. It was a wonderful growing experience as an actress and a singer.
“I took dance lessons early on, probably when I was about five, and started doing theater in East Brunswick when I was about 6 or 7. I was very, very shy and was doing it as a hobby because the other girls and my sister [Vanessa] were doing it, too.”
After Bishop Ahr, Kuehn attended the Boston Conservatory, where she earned a bachelor of fine arts degree. As an undergraduate, she was an Elliot Norton Award nominee for outstanding actress and an Independent Reviewers of New England awards’ recipient for best supporting actress. She was also a two-time soloist with the Boston Pops.
Richard Alfonzo, a math teacher and drama director at Bishop Ahr, said Kuehn’s “considerable talents were evident right from the start.”
In each of her four years at Bishop Ahr, Kuehn was nominated for a performance award in the Rising Star Awards through the Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn, and in her senior year she won the award for Outstanding Achievement by an Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, Alfonzo said.
On June 30, 24 members of the faculty from Bishop Ahr and six from St. Bartholomew traveled to New York to see Kuehn perform, said Felician Sister Cynthia Marie Babyak, the high school’s campus minister. Also in attendance were Kuehn’s mother, Brenda, a sixth grade teacher at St. Bartholomew School and a member of the parish, and Corrine Tighe, also a 2002 graduate of Bishop Ahr and a Radio City Rockette, Sister Cyndi said.
“The whole Catholic school upbringing has definitely, I know for a fact throughout school at the conservatory, kept me entirely grounded,” Kuehn said. “It has given me a bigger perspective in life and hasn’t let the showbiz thing get too out of hand in my head.”
“She has always been very focused and done very well in school and strives to do her best,” Brenda Kuehn said.
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law