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It's show time!

County teens will perform in a talent show as part of fundraising efforts to create scholarships for arts students.

Colleges, businesses and organizations give high school students scholarships in science, math, service, and athletics, among other things.

Charlie Skelton the president of the board of directors at Richey Suncoast Theatre, thinks there should be specially designated scholarships from his theater for students interested in pursuing the performing arts.

So Richey Suncoast is joining with the Pasco Education Foundation to do just that.

"We hope to raise enough money at our fundraisers to endow scholarships for those kids," Skelton said recently.

The drive kicks off Feb. 13-15 with Ticket to Broadway, a talent show by Pasco County high school students who might one day be the beneficiaries of those scholarships.

"It's a two-hour variety show, with singers, dancers and actors from several schools," said Marie Skelton, who is directing the show along with Pasco Education Foundation executive director Chip Wichmanowski.

Students from River Ridge, Hudson, Mitchell and Ridgewood high schools, as well as a Pasco student who attends the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg will be featured in the show.

The acts include a ballet by Ridgewood student Loralinde Wright; a singing quartet by Mitchell students Laura Ramos, 16, Audrey Holeman, 17, Jennifer Borusky, 15 and Cindy Carney, 16; and a dance by Hudson student Star Dawn Verosic, 18.

Richey Suncoast regulars will recognize several of the performers from previous theatrical productions, including Ms. Holeman, who played Princess Winnifred the Woebegone in Once Upon a Mattress, and Ms. Verosic, who played a courtesan in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, among other roles, at the theater.

In all, the show will have 19 segments. The most unusual will be monologues by 17-year-old Jessica Borusky, the Gibbs High student. Also in the show are singers Jesslyn Kostopoulos, Melissa Palazzolo, Jamie Ellis, Jonathan Tietz, Dawn Triolo, Erin Lowe, Teri Esquerra, Luis Rickert, Stephanie Colon, Tina Taylor, Krystal Moulton, Jessica Martin and Chris Stein; singer-dancers Melissa LaCicero, Cindy Lewnes and Ms. Ramos; and dancer Noel Cooper.

WHERE: Richey Suncoast Theatre, 6237 Grand Blvd., New Port Richey

WHEN: 8 p.m. Feb. 13 and 14; 2:30 p.m. Feb. 15

TICKETS: $10 adults, $5 students. Box office open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and an hour before each show. Call (727) 842-6777.