Bio: Peter Balonon-Rosen is a senior Drama Major at School of the Arts High School in Rochester, NY. Since he entered the school as a sixth grader in 2003, he has taken part in over twenty extracurricular dramatic productions, as well as daily acting classes, dance classes, monologue and scene performances, working on improvisation, and much more. Peter has participated in SOTA Singers, the school's show choir, and is a founding member and host of SOTA Improv, the school's improvisation troupe, as well as working on approximately three school shows a year and various community theatre productions. Peter also had the amazing opportunity of being in Ang Lee's major motion picture Taking Woodstock as an extra.

As well as being a distinguished Drama Major, Peter is very involved with music. He plays a variety of instruments including marimba, timpani, snare drum, tenor saxophone, electric bass, guitar, and piano. He is recipient of the Eastman Pathways Scholarship that has allowed Peter for five years to take percussion lessons at the Eastman School of Music from Ruth Cahn, a distinguished senior Eastman faculty. At Eastman, he has taken classes that range from percussion lessons to music theory courses to latin jazz ensembles. At school, Peter has participated in a number of concert bands, jazz bands, and pit orchestras playing both percussion and tenor saxophone.

Outside of school and Eastman, Peter continues to be immersed musically. He currently plays bass in two punk bands and over the years has played in seven self-started bands with friends playing both bass and guitar, as well as saxophone. His saxophone playing will be featured on the Insubordinates' LP that is being released from California label Cowabunga Records and Peter's band Love Pork, in which he plays bass, is soon going to see the light of day on vinyl with a release on local record label Reel Time Records. Love Pork is also featured on an area compilation of Rochester area bands.

Below are video examples of Peter's work:

Theatre:

Title: Anything Goes
Part: Sir Evelyn
Date: December 2008

Setup: Peter's British character is somewhat naive. On a cruise to England several con-artists try to get him into a compromised situation but only comedy happens.
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Title: Beauty and the Beast
Part: Lefou
Date: December 2007

Setup: Peter plays Lefou who spends much of his time being thrown about by the egotistical and powerful Gaston. Worth watching to the end to see the unique "Beer Mug" dance.
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Title: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Part: Demetrius
Date: April 2009

Setup: Shakespeare has crafted the story of a magical evening in which lovers fall in and out of love depending on how the fairy dust falls. Here Peter's character has yet to be smitten by the beautiful Hermia and in this scene her love remains unrequited.
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Title: Taking Woodstock
Part: Extra
Date: August 2009

Setup: Peter can be seen on this movie trailer walking behind the principles when the cross-dressing bodyguard shows his gun to Dimetri Martin's character.
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Title: Anything Goes
Part: Sir Evelyn
Date: December 2008

Setup: A second scene from Anything Goes. Here Peter's character comes out of his shell in order to "Misbehave".
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Music:

Peter on Marimba performing Mitchell Peters' Yellow After the Rain:
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Peter playing a Timpani solo from Etüden für Timpani by Hochrainer:
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Peter playing bass in his punk band Love Pork:
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