‘All the world’s a stage’ again

On Feb. 13, City Councilmember Alan Gerson, at right, joined students, teachers and principals of the Seward Park High School Complex in dedicating the newly refurbished auditorium that serves the five high schools at 350 Grand St. on the Lower East Side. With a $440,000 capital grant from Gerson’s budget, Seward Park High School Complex has been able to reactivate its 800-seat auditorium as a state-of-the-art venue with new lights, a new sound system, a new screen and projection system and a new stage and window curtains. As a condition of the grant, the facility will be available for community and nonprofit groups when not in use by the school. At the celebration, students from the five schools — High School for Dual Language and Asian Studies, New Design High School, Essex Street Academy, Lower Manhattan Arts Academy and Urban Assembly for Government and Law — presented poetry, music, dance, video and tae kwon do performances. The current school building sits on the site formerly occupied by the old P.S. 137 and, before that, a jail where Boss Tweed died. Alumni include five Nobel Prize winners and many entertainers, including Tony Curtis, Zero Mostel and Tony Randall. Eight years ago, Seward Park High School was broken up into the five smaller high schools that share the complex.