IHM Teacher to Open New Drama School

Ashleigh Petrell-Jack, a drama instructor at Immaculate Heart of Mary, is turning her love of theater into a business.

BY DEBORAH SKOLNIK

Hartsdale resident Ashleigh Petrell-Jack loves Broadway shows. But the production she’s most excited about is isn’t Hamilton or Hadestown; it’s Willy Wonka Jr. Which is understandable: This school year, she will direct the show at Immaculate Heart of Mary, in Scarsdale, where she teaches drama. And if her past record is any indication—she recently helped students put on enthusiastically received performances of Beauty and the Beast and The Wizard of Oz —then Wonka will be a hot ticket, too.

Petrell-Jack has her sights set on business success as well. In the next few months, she will open Artist Odyssey: Stage of the Arts, a performing arts company for students age 3 and up. Beyond acting, voice, and dance lessons, opportunities will be available to learn about skills such as theatrical makeup and even set building. “Oh, I’m going to teach it all!” Petrell-Jack said.

The Greatest show-woman: Petrell-Jack has a rich background in theater and performance.

Star-quality qualifications

For Petrell-Jack, theater is a family tradition. Her mother, who worked in a school in the 1980s, was indignant when some students were cruelly rejected from a talent show. “So, she started a [inclusive] drama group, and it grew into a nonprofit, and I pitched in to help for many years,” Petrell-Jack shared. She went on to study performing arts, musical theater, and film in college, and later moved with her husband from her native Lake Tahoe to New York, where Broadway beckoned.

Her salad days consisted of jobs in fields including music and fintech, as well as auditions. “I got to perform in an off-Broadway play, which was really cool,” she said. But when she became pregnant with her first son, now a rising 6th grader, she walked off the floorboards—at least until her boy began attending school at Church of the Sacred Heart in Hartsdale at age four. “The woman who had led the arts [program] had just left,” Petrell-Jack said. She eagerly stepped into the role. When her children (a second son is a kindergartner) moved on to IHM, she began to instruct drama there as well.

The performing arts company will likely be located in Scarsdale or Hartsdale, says Petrell-Jack.

The Next Act

Although Artist Odyssey’s website isn’t fully built out yet, anyone who’d like to keep tabs on the grand opening can sign up here. Petrell-Jack, who recently left a fintech job to launch the venture, is eager to get the shows on the road—not only for her own sake, but for the benefit of the many people she hopes to teach. “The growth that I see in the students is tremendous,” she said.

She fondly shared the story of a shy eighth grader at IHM whom she cast as the lead in Beauty and the Beast. Although musical theater seemed out of his wheelhouse, Petrell-Jack kept encouraging him. “You have to build the children up. You have to make them believe that they can do it,” she said. “The morning after the opening night, the boy told me it had been the best night of his life.”