Albright College senior Miranda Holliday has earned a Miranda Family Fellowship – awarded to passionate college juniors and seniors from underrepresented backgrounds who are studying music, theater or dance. Holliday, majoring in theatre and political science at Albright, received the news directly from Luis A. Miranda Jr., father of Broadways’ Lin-Manuel Miranda. The fellowship offers generous financial support as well as guidance from Lin Manuel Miranda’s professional development network.
The Miranda Family Fellowship is a mentoring program, designed to help young artists successfully transition from training to early careers. Fellowship winners must have demonstrated exceptional passion, drive and a unique point of view in their chosen artistic mediums, which include theatre, dance, film, visual arts and music. Winners must also be actively working to augment their training opportunities.
During her tenure at Albright, Holliday has been active onstage and off with the Domino Players Company as well as being an ongoing participant in numerous choral and instrument ensembles. Last April, she received national recognition through the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) for her role as Lena Younger in Albright’s production of “A Raisin in the Sun.” Her performance helped the Domino Players earn KCACTF’s top national prize for Best Production of a Play (2019).
Holliday will be following in the footsteps of Lin-Manuel Miranda, the American composer, lyricist, singer, rapper, actor, producer and playwright, who is best known for creating and starring in the Broadway musicals “In the Heights” and “Hamilton.”
As a multidisciplinary artist, Miranda’s success is due in large part to the endless family support and the invaluable mentorship he received from teachers, performing artists and friends who were willing to give him critical feedback and advice (long before he was famous). Therefore, the Miranda Family Fellowship was arranged through visionary partnerships between the Miranda family and national arts organizations like National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, at which Miranda began his career and Holliday attended last fall.
