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Outstanding Public High School Teacher-Greg Parente

A Guiding Hand for Actors
Greg Parente nurtures budding careers in the performing arts

Greg Parente says he feels blessed to be a teacher.

Currently in his fifth year at the Professional Performing Arts School on West 48th Street, Parente, 31, teaches the first two levels of drama and is also a college counselor. His talented young students often work professionally in film, television or theater, or aspire to careers in the performing arts. All must first pass rigorous auditions to attend the public school.

Originally from Middletown, N.J., Parente trained to be an actor/director at Florida State’s Asolo Conservatory, from which he graduated with a master’s degree in fine arts.

“My mission is to affect students in the ways great art can alter all of us,” he said. “Whether it’s an inspiring piece of theater, a beautiful work of art or a moving piece of music, art has a positive impact on our minds and our souls.”

Sally Carroll is one of those students. “Mr. Parente is one of the greatest teachers I have ever had,” she said.

Her mother, Robyn, agrees. “He is amazing and goes way beyond the definition of teacher,” she said. “He finds the individual key to each student. And professional kids can be extremely challenging. He even gets along with the parents—no small feat!—think stage mothers times three.”

Charles Vassallo, director of the school’s performing arts department, also praised Parente’s work.

“Greg is one of the most generous teachers I have encountered in my years of teaching. He gives his time without hesitation to his drama students,” Vassallo said. “Greg makes them feel important and they will take this feeling into the rest of their lives.”

When these students step out into the professional world, Parente knows how easy it becomes to slip into “bad habits,” as he puts it. He endeavors, therefore, to give them a good foundation in their acting craft, with an emphasis on “staying truthful in the moment.” Sally Carroll elaborates: “In every class Mr. Parente reminds us to be ‘interested not interesting,’ and of the value of simplicity,” she said. “He even helped me with my acting final during a lunch period, teaching me not to overdo it.”

Parente fought hard to direct a production of Arthur Miller’s “A View From The Bridge,” which many parents and teachers thought was too complicated and difficult a play for high school students. But he persevered. “I believe a school such as ours should be taking on big plays with big themes,” he said. “We are not an ordinary high school; we are a performing arts high school.”

His students loved the experience. At the end of each rehearsal, he remembered, “They would beg and plead with me to keep working—‘Can’t we work outside on the sidewalk?’ They would even follow me to my car to get more notes. I have never seen such dedication in my life, not even in the professional theater.”

Under Parente’s guidance, the production was a huge success.

— Julia Finley Willis