Arts & Literature

Paul Duke STEM Students Star in Amy Ray’s Newest Music Video

Published

2 years ago

April 6, 2023

Editor’s Note: We apologize for the error in naming. Sarah Jane Von Hagen is the correct name of the student. Our print edition has it spelled incorrectly.

Two Peachtree Corners teenagers have gotten their first taste of fame with an appearance in a music video. Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls recently debuted a new song, “Subway” alongside a corresponding music video that features Paul Duke STEM High School students Iris Rubin and Sarah Jane Von Hagen.

The video, which was shot in part here in Atlanta, features Von Hagen as a young Amy Ray on the cusp of self-discovery in New York City, with Rubin playing her girlfriend.

The shoot went from concept to execution rather quickly last fall. The father of Aleia, one of their classmates, was responsible for casting for Amy Ray’s music video. Aleia approached Von Hagen and Rubin, noting that Von Hagen bears a striking resemblance to a young Amy Ray, and asked if they wanted to act in the video.

Their response was an enthusiastic yes, and the two began researching and planning for the shoot right away.

“I remember I called Iris, we were both so excited,” said Von Hagen. “Iris was like ‘oh my goodness, you need to learn how to walk and act like her.’ I had never done anything like that before. That night I sat down in a living room with my mom, and we watched old Indigo Girls music videos and newer Amy Ray videos. We also went to Goodwill and thrifted some really grungy shirts. I already dress more masculine, but I leaned into it a lot more when I was playing Amy Ray.”

The two-day shoot in December involved one day of on-location filming in Little 5 Points which was the area that looked the most like New York City, plus one day filming in the studio in front of a green screen.

Iris Rubin and Sarah Jane Von Hagen recently shot at Town Center’; Hayes and Rubin with Amy Ray (center)
Photography by Isadora Pennington

A love of theatre

This experience was quite a departure from the norm for Von Hagen who had little previous experience with acting, while Rubin was able to lean on their lifelong love for theater and acting experience in the role of Ray’s love interest.

Paul Duke STEM High School, where Von Hagen is a senior and Rubin is a junior, has a burgeoning theater department that offered Von Hagen her first real foray into acting during last year’s inaugural Improv Olympics. Rubin, who is only 16, is the president of the Paul Duke Thespian Society and has held a number of roles including Lilith in “She Kills Monsters,” Karen in “The Children’s Hour,” student director for “Valentines,” and Alice in “The Addams Family.”

“Theater couldn’t escape me if it tried,” said Rubin, who has been acting since they were around 5 years old. “I love Paul Duke Theater. It’s everything. It’s where I spend all of my free time.”

The theater program is new, as is the school which opened back in 2018. For Rubin, theater is more than just a passion, it’s also home. They call themself the ‘theater mom’ and takes a maternal role with them.

“You really need compassion because people in theater tend to be Queer and neurodivergent,” Rubin continued. “You also need to be driven because our rehearsals are long. We have 11 hour days in the second week of rehearsals.”

One of the most unique elements to the Paul Duke STEM High School theater department is the way they are able to integrate STEM projects with theater productions. Under the leadership of theater teacher Alissa Zimmett, they work with the electronics, engineering and mechatronics classes to help develop creations like robotic monsters that enhance the theater performances.

“Combining STEM into theater has been so cool,” said Rubin. “The engineering and mechatronics departments have helped us so much.”

Given their deep and lifelong passion for theater, it’s no surprise that Rubin was ready to get involved and help Von Hagen in any way possible when it was time to prepare for the Amy Ray music video. The two used to date and are now good friends, which served to cement their on-screen chemistry in the music video.

Indigo connections

For Von Hagen and Rubin, the music of Amy Ray with the Indigo Girls was a backdrop to their youth, thanks to their mothers. In fact, Von Hagen’s mother Jill Von Hagen attended the same high school as the Indigo Girls, which was called Shamrock High School at the time and is now Druid Hills Middle School in Decatur. Though they were not in the same classes she did attend the school at the same time as Emily Sailers’ younger sister Carrie.

“I have loved their music ever since,” said Jill. She has always been drawn to their harmonies and melodies and has sought out concerts to attend since she was a teenager herself.

“For my daughter to get the opportunity to play a young Amy Ray in her new ‘Subway’ video was incredibly exciting for me. I was giddy throughout the whole process…from the initial planning meeting with the director, Scott Lansing, to helping Sarah Jane piece together her wardrobe, and finally, getting to observe the filming itself.”

It was a special treat when the girls and their mothers went to the Indigo Girls concert with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at the end of December in 2022. They were able to go backstage and meet Amy Ray, who instantly recognized Von Hagen as the young woman who had played her in the music video. They got a photo together and shared a hug, which was a distinct highlight for all involved.

“While listening to Amy’s music in high school, at the same age my daughter is now, I never would have thought that one day we would have this amazing experience together,” Jill said.

Back to real life

After the surreal series of events that led to this moment, life has more or less returned to normal for the teens. Rubin, who will be entering their senior year this fall, is back to focusing on her classes and the theater. After high school Rubin hopes to pursue psychology, particularly as it relates to incarcerated individuals.

Von Hagen will be attending Agnes Scott University this fall and is interested in working with children who have special needs, though she admits that the music video gave her a taste of acting that she found to be inspiring.

Von Hagen also highlighted the connection that she feels to Amy Ray based on being Queer.

“We all have this understanding of having to discover that part of yourself on your own,” said Von Hagen. “There’s not that much media about how Queer people fall in love, so getting to play that part was sort of full circle. It was really important to me. In this way, I get to be a character that younger Queer people get to look up to.”

“It was a wonderful opportunity,” said Von Hagen. “It just kind of fell in my lap. I was really lucky.”

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Isadora Pennington

Isadora is a writer, photographer, and designer living in Avondale Estates, GA. She has worked in print for the past decade and has been published in the Atlanta INtown, Oz Magazine, Atlanta Senior Life, and the Reporter Newspapers.

Around Atlanta

The High Museum to Showcase “Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind”

Published

1 week ago

December 12, 2024

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

Oil on paper artwork by Terry Winters. A large red circle with smaller blue circles on top of it and gold/yellow accents. All of it on a dark brown background.

The special exhibition of the Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection will run January 17 through May 25, 2025

In the mid-1970s, artist and Georgia State University professor Medford Johnston, along with his wife and collaborator Loraine, began collecting works by artists who were in the vanguard of contemporary art. Today, they hold one of the finest collections of postwar American drawings and related objects of its kind, now numbering more than 85 works.

In 2025, the High Museum of Art will present Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind: The Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection, featuring their collected works, which is a promised gift to the museum. Featuring artists such as Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Elizabeth Murray, Martin Puryear, Ed Ruscha, Al Taylor, Anne Truitt, Stanley Whitney and Terry Winters, among others, the exhibition will demonstrate how establishing the parameters of an art collection requires infinite patience, focus, discipline and a keen eye.

“The Johnstons have been friends of the High for a very long time. They’ve also built an impressive collection featuring works by many of the 20th century’s most significant abstract artists,” said the High’s Director Rand Suffolk. “We are honored that they have promised to leave their collection to the Museum where it will be preserved for future generations — and we are delighted that they are sharing it with our audiences now, hopefully inspiring the next generation of art collectors and supporters.”

A curated collection

The Johnstons’ story is a testament to, in the words of the High’s Wieland Family Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Michael Rooks, “knowing the difference between what is right and what is almost right” when building a collection.

Although the Johnstons acquired several paintings and objects when they first began collecting in 1972, they quickly narrowed their focus to drawing, primarily by artists working on the frontlines of abstraction in the mid-1960s during a time of great innovation and experimentation.

Ink drawing by Anne Truitt, rectangular lines and shapes made with black ink on off-white background — Anne Truitt (American, born 1921), *Ink Drawing ’59 [11]*, 1959, ink on paper, The Johnston Collection. © Estate of Anne Truitt / The Bridgeman Art Library / Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.

Rooks added, “Med and Loraine’s collection struck me at once by its single-minded focus on a specific moment in time, which was essentially the time of their contemporaries. The artists in their collection are like close friends to the Johnstons — in fact many are or were. What is equally astonishing about the collection is the Johnstons’ dogged pursuit of quality. Their in-depth knowledge of each artist’s practice combined with their understanding of specific qualities to look for — or more appropriately, to hold out for — will be a revelation to emerging collectors.”

The Johnstons have built their collection with the High in mind as the benefactor of their passion and discernment. For them, their collection “is a labor of love, pursued over more than 50 years, and we are delighted to be able to help the High Museum document and celebrate these important artists working during the same decades as our lives.”

About the exhibit

Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind: The Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection will be presented in the Special Exhibition Galleries on the second level of the High’s Stent Family Wing.

The exhibit is organized by the High Museum of Art and made possible through the generosity of sponsors:

Premier Exhibition Series Sponsor Delta Air Lines, Inc.
Premier Exhibition Series Supporters Mr. Joseph H. Boland, Jr., The Fay S. and W. Barrett Howell Family Foundation, Harry Norman Realtors and wish Foundation
Benefactor Exhibition Series Supporters Robin and Hilton Howell
Ambassador Exhibition Series Supporters Loomis Charitable Foundation and Mrs. Harriet H. Warren
Contributing Exhibition Series Supporters Farideh and Al Azadi, Mary and Neil Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones, Megan and Garrett Langley, Margot and Danny McCaul, Wade A. Rakes II and Nicholas Miller and Belinda Stanley-Majors and Dwayne Majors.

Support has also been provided by the Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund and USI Insurance Services.

About the High Museum of Art

Located in the heart of Atlanta, the High Museum of Art connects with audiences from across the Southeast and around the world through its distinguished collection, dynamic schedule of special exhibitions and engaging community-focused programs.

Housed within facilities designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Richard Meier and Renzo Piano, the High features a collection of more than 19,000 works of art, including an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American fine and decorative arts; major holdings of photography and folk and self-taught work, especially that of artists from the American South; burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, including paintings, sculpture, new media and design; a growing collection of African art, with work dating from prehistory through the present; and significant holdings of European paintings and works on paper.

The High is dedicated to reflecting the diversity of its communities and offering a variety of exhibitions and educational programs that engage visitors with the world of art, the lives of artists and the creative process.

For more information about the High or to purchase tickets, visit high.org.

Top image: (from the collection) Terry Winters (American, born 1949), Orb, 2020, oil on paper, The Johnston Collection. © Terry Winters, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.

Around Atlanta

City Springs Theatre Company Presents the Hit Musical Jersey Boys

Published

6 months ago

July 3, 2024

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

The megahit musical Jersey Boys is making its regional premiere with the City Springs Theatre Company in a five-week run.

The megahit musical Jersey Boys makes its regional premiere in City Springs Theatre Company’s (CSTC) first-ever, five-week run at the Byers Theatre in Sandy Springs.

Directed by Atlanta’s-own Shane DeLancey, and choreographed by Meg Gillentine, Jersey Boys tells the rags-to-riches story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. The show details their remarkable journey from the streets to the top of the charts, to their 1990 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Leading the cast of Jersey Boys is Haden Rider as Frankie Valli. Rider is a City Springs Theatre Company veteran, with recent roles in both Legally Blonde (Emmett) and Fiddler on the Roof (Perchik).

Presented by Resurgens Spine Center, Jersey Boys runs from July 12 through August 11, and shines a special spotlight on home-grown talent, as the show’s four leading men are all Atlanta-area residents.

With phenomenal music, memorable characters and great storytelling, Jersey Boys follows the fascinating evolution of four blue-collar kids who became one of the greatest successes in pop-music history.

“City Springs Theatre Company is very proud to be the first in the southeast region to present Jersey Boys,” said CSTC Artistic Director and Tony Award-winner Shuler Hensley. “Our audiences have been asking for this particular show since we opened. The production is truly stacked with talent onstage and off, and we’re pulling out all the stops to bring audiences an experience that will rival any previous version of the show.”

Jersey Boys premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2005, prior to its 13-year Broadway run, from 2005 to 2017. There have been productions of the show in Las Vegas, UK/Ireland, Toronto, Melbourne, Singapore, South Africa, the Netherlands, Japan, Dubai and China.

Jersey Boys features a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio, and lyrics by Bob Crewe.

Individual tickets to see Jersey Boys are on sale now ($42 – $108), with discounts for seniors, students, groups and active and retired military personnel.

CSTC’s Box Office is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Call 404-477-4365 or visit CitySpringsTheatre.com for more information.

This production contains adult language and is recommended for mature audiences.

Performance schedule:

Arts & Literature

Local Students Show Off Their Artistic Creations

Published

7 months ago

June 2, 2024

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

Courtney Escorza, Colleen Nikopour, Laura Hwang, Jennifer Jackson, Norcross. Laura ELizabeth Martin, Payton Hirschmann, Paul Duke HS

From May 11 through May 18, the Norcross Gallery & Studios kicked off a fantastic exhibition, Reflections at Rectory, which showcased the works of 36 rising stars: AP and IB art students from our local high schools.

The opening reception celebrated their creativity and dedication. Gallery director Anne Hall presented a dozen awards generously sponsored by the community, a testament to the local support for these young artists.

One prestigious award, the Terri Enfield Memorial Award, holds special significance.

Established by Terri’s daughters, it recognizes not just artistic excellence, but also leadership, work ethic and the spirit of collaboration. Last year’s winner, Aidan Ventimiglia, even played a part in selecting this year’s recipient Jasmine Rodriguez.