Photo by Manuel Mata-Flores ’19 | Nico Pacioni ’18 poses in the opening scene of Brophy’s the Bronco Room taken on Friday Jan. 19, 2018 in the Black Box.

By Peter Warner ’20

THE ROUNDUP

Nico Pacioni ’18 won the award Most Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play from National Youth Arts for his performance as Dr. George Lewis in Once in a Lifetime during the 2016-17 school year.

Pacioni has been participating in plays at Brophy for four years. He is currently one of the directors for Brophy Student Theatre.

Once in a Lifetime was a production that took place in the Spring semester of the 2016-2017 school year. Pacioni’s role as Dr. George Lewis.

Pacioni’s fun personality is very similar to Dr. George Lewis, allowing him to bring his role to life.

“An important thing doing a character like that is that it doesn’t become too much” Ms. Jessie Mason is the advisor for Write Life, a part of the Brophy Student Theatre.

“The character was a very comedic focused character,” said Jack Arthur ’19. “Nico has really good timing on stage so he was great at delivering his lines and making the audience laugh.”

“He did a phenomenal job of owning the role and becoming the character through and through which is wonderful to see actors be able to do” Ms. Mason said. “He was able to accentuate his already kind of comical characteristics. It made it fit that role so it brought it to life.”

“It’s incredibly special to get the award,” said Pacioni. “It’s a fairly substantial award and it means a lot because it’s not connected with school.”

The award was given to Nico by National Youth Arts. It is run by Rob Hopper, who started the company in 2000. It now has branches throughout all parts of the country, and three throughout Phoenix.

Alumnus Spencer Coben ’17 also won the award for his role in Once in a Lifetime. He is currently attending college on the east coast.

“We were both alongside each other and being able to close out an entire section of the National Youth Arts Awards was really awesome” said Pacioni.