recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Lauren Tucci

Lauren Tucci is a theater student in the class of 2022.

She is the daughter of two retired cops who have rocketed to fame with their best-selling memoir "Wicked Five-Oh: Badges, Bullets and Love on the Boston Police Force."

She is delighted when she learns that her teacher Isobel wants to turn the memoir into an ensemble creation piece, also called "Wicked Five Oh," but her parents are worried for her safety if any of the perpetrators in the cases described in the book were to see the piece and seek revenge.
LLAMA LLAMA LLAMA KADINGITY DING DONG

"Llama Llama Llama Kadingity Ding Dong" is the twenty-first episode of Season 2.

## Synopsis

When prices to rent The Odyssey skyrocket, the student council votes to refund the cost of prom tickets, allocate the budgeted money towards a small dance on campus and send the junior and senior classes to the local carnival, with the reasoning that everyone loves music, rides and fried dough and not everyone loves sitting against the wall while their classmates grind on each other. Vera and Harry are delighted, not only because of the resourceful and quick-thinking student body but because their wedding, the tenth anniversary of which falls on prom night, took place at Coney Island and chaperoning the event (with the still-ailing Julianne in a stroller) will bring back wonderful memories. Roger, attending the carnival with his grandmother, runs into a still-single Jillian, and they decide to renew their charade in order to secure his inheritance. Meanwhile, when Talia and Jenna decide to steal a moment of alone time, the students under their supervision decide to steal a llama from the carnival's petting zoo.
TURN AND FACE THE CHANG

"Turn and Face the Chang" is the eighth episode of Season 2.

## Synopsis

Michelle, having bonded with Jenna and feeling somewhat like a third wheel since Bonnie and Jonathan hooked up, arranges for a group of students to help Jenna clean up the debris and repair the damage to her house from the storm. When she arrives at the house, she is immediately approached by Jenna’s neighbor Paul Chang, an unemployed algebra teacher from a recently closed charter school and a father of a ten-year-old in the CDP, who is desperate to sell his pool table to pay to replace his first-floor windows. Knowing Vera is desperate to replace Roger, Michelle puts the two in touch, which lands Paul a paycheck for the first time in months, lands Harry a new pool table, lands Emily Chang the role of Clara in "CRACKED" (officially) and lands Michelle a fat raise.  Meanwhile, when Vera finds out that Harble Academy, Winter Lake's rival school in California, is getting lauded by the National Endowment for the Arts for reaching out across interdisciplinary lines, she asks several teachers outside the theater department to workshop the still unfinished "That's What She Said" script. Jillian thinks she has a winner, but a number of people in the faculty feel underrepresented by the figures that Jillian chose to profile.
Betsy Newbolde

Betsy is a student that gets approached by Colin to play the lead in his production of "Macbeth." In Colin's adaptation of the play, Macbeth is played as a transgender man. Without any transgender boys in the Theater Department, Colin defaults to Betsy. She attempts to work with students from BAGLY to approach trans issues with sensitivity, but the students don't respond well to being treated as "research material" and are very clear that they would have rather seen an actual transgender man in the role and wish Colin would have waited for the theater department to accept one before staging the production.

She is a member of the class of 2019.
The Academy Wikia

## Welcome to The Academy Wikia

A comprehensive guide to "The Academy," a television project created by PamelaJ.

An index of the episodes is located here.

An index of the characters will eventually be located here.

## Main Premise

Winter Lake Academy for the Arts, known for short as "The Academy," suffers a great loss when its long-time headmistress Helen MacLellan discovers online dating and finds her twenty-years-younger soul mate on the other side of the country in a New Mexico cattle ranch. After her abrupt departure, the school scrambles to find a new leader. A few years of disastrous interim leaders follow, and then Winter Lake stumbles upon their last hope.
Alysson-Clare Shannon

Alysson-Clare Shannon is a student in the Creative Writing Department from the class of 2017. Praised by her teachers for being prolific and extremely observant, their pride turns to horror when her dorm mother Bonnie discovers Ms. Shannon's magnum opus: 300 pages of "real person fanfiction," featuring much of the faculty in compromising positions in very vivid imagined detail.

While Alysson-Clare never actually hands in the assignment, indicating she has at least *some* sense of propriety, she does submit it to a publishing company with the characters' names changed and "Arts of Seduction" becomes a major "50 Shades of Grey"-style hit, at least until readers learn that the author was fifteen at the time the book was published.

While Alysson-Clare never reaches the level of, say, JK Rowling or Meg Cabot, she does have a cult following of readers who write fanfiction of her fanfiction.
ONE SCHLONG GLORY

"One Schlong Glory" is the fifth episode of Season 6.

## Synopsis

Thoroughly impressed by how quickly and seamlessly the production of "Rent" came together, Mira decides to throw together a special treat for the cast: a reunion concert and master class following the final performance, featuring the cast of The Academy's Spring 2003 production. While a few of the cast members say yes without hesitation, the idea brings up traumatic memories for the production's "Maureen," while the board of trustees is hesitant to allow Chip Carroll, the show's "Roger," to represent The Academy's alumni as he has become somewhat of a trailblazer in the world of X-Rated Musical Theater and has recently come off the national tour of "My Fair Labia," playing the male lead Henry Humpins. Complicating things is the issue that Cliff has been a huge Chip Carroll fanboy ever since Chip originated the role of Bony in the all-male ode to 1950s NYC gang violence "Backside Story," and thus cannot provide an unbiased opinion on whether Chip should be allowed to attend. Meanwhile, Michelle attempts to take Bonnie's relationship issues off of her mind by cancelling the weekly book club meeting and taking the entire club out for lunch at Max Brenner's, while Jenna and Talia continue the search for sperm donors.
Visual Art Department

The Visual Art Department is the oldest arts "major" at Winter Lake Academy for the Arts.

Students spend the first two years being immersed in as many forms of two-dimensional, three-dimensional and virtual media as possible. Initially, the introductory period was limited to the freshman students but a high level of sophomore transfers forced the change. After the introductory period, students are allowed to continue work in mixed media but many choose to focus on one specific field of study, for instance pottery, metal work, sketching or photography.

The department is run by Carole Stone.
Rita McNeil

Rita McNeil is the manager of the Winter Lake Academy for the Arts school store.

She is the favorite staff member of the international students because she speaks ten languages and will special-order snacks and cheap gadgets from homesick students' home countries.

She has only two regrets in life: sending her son to clown school and bringing Pumpkin Spice Lattes to the school store, as the latter choice nearly resulted in her being trampled to death.
Talia Vergara

Talia Vergara is a choreographer who came to the Dance Department at Winter Lake Academy for the Arts after successfully staging "CRACKED: A Modern Nutcracker" with the Boston Ballet.

Talia is all about breaking the mold when it comes to dance, and she is constantly trying to shake things up (and piss off the trustees!) with variations upon the traditional Christmas ballet, including a Star Trek-themed production with Tribble polichinelles.

She is the cousin of Clifford Torres and the eventual wife of Jenna Hanson. By the end of the series, Talia and Jenna have two children, Quinn (carried by Jenna) and Arizona (carried by Talia), who the two have decided to raise without gender roles.
GOTTA GET DOWN ON FRY-DAY

"Gotta Get Down on Fry-Day" is the eighteenth episode of Season 1.

## Synopsis

The 85-year-old fiction teacher dies of a massive stroke while making love to his new girlfriend (who happens to be Roger's grandma Pat.) Michelle immediately begins compiling her works of fiction to show the school board in a campaign to replace Mr. Emerson and is taken aback when the board suggests Robert instead. She points to Robert's work as a Shakespeare scholar and suggests that his gift for dissecting poetry makes him a better candidate to replace HER. The board agrees to the delight of both Michelle and Robert, but the decision takes its toll on Victoria. Meanwhile, Robert is about to turn 45 and when tasked with crafting the birthday cake out from which Jillian plans to pop at a Thursday assembly, Roger has a Jessie-Spano-style freakout that threatens to ruin the whole day.
Marley Clyde

Marley Clyde is the adoptive daughter of Bonnie and Jerry.

She is the biological daughter of Jerry's twin brother Thomas and an unknown woman. She is raised first by Thomas, then by his adoptive parents when Thomas becomes ill, and then Jerry posing as Thomas when Thomas dies. When she learns the truth, her reaction prompts Jerry to confront the demons of his own past and address his abandonment of Bonnie. Jerry temporarily leaves Marley in the custody of her adoptive grandparents again to attempt to make it right with Bonnie, but eventually Marley joins Bonnie and Jerry in Winter Lake.

She is a bright girl interested in slam poetry and computer coding, is close friends with Shaquarius Bentley and plans to convert to Judaism like her favorite new aunt Doreen.
Rabbi Steve Shapiro

Rabbi Steve Shapiro is the rabbi of Winter Lake's Conservative Congregation Temple Beth Halevivot and is married to Esther Shapiro.

More outgoing than his wife, Steve secretly harbors Hollywood dreams and is disappointed when Esther makes him turn down a lucrative consulting job on the new show "America's Next Top Mohel."
Isaiah Chapman

Isaiah Chapman is a science teacher at Winter Lake Academy for the Arts. He double majored in physics and biology in college, and he teaches both at The Academy, first filling in as Jenna's replacement in physics while she is on maternity leave and then taking a permanent position as a biology teacher.

When he isn't teaching, he is in the school exercise room working out. He is very traditional about his exercise routine and while he is friends with Daniel and Bridget, he thinks their Prancercise practice is "goddamn ridiculous."

He is the twin brother of Theater Department teacher Isobel Chapman.
THE MUCUS PLUG AND THE MIRROR

"The Mucus Plug and the Mirror" is the ninth episode of Season 5.

## Synopsis

When Cliff tips Athena off that Heath is about to review Alice's new restaurant, the mother and daughter decide to throw a Thanksgiving party there to give the illusion that the eatery is full of people. However, with many of the faculty planning to be out of town with their own families, Athena struggles to balance fine-tuning the next semester's curriculum with getting butts in seats. Ellen believes she has saved the day by inviting cast members from the aborted "Arts of Seduction" film to class up the event but the guests from The Academy are seriously weirded out by their Hollywood counterparts. Bridget Miller, the actress chosen to play Bonnie in "Arts of Seduction," is fourteen years Bonnie's junior and white as paper. Carey Liles, the actor playing Robert to Ellen's Jillian, is also significantly younger than Robert, white-passing, able-bodied and a four-time Razzie Award nominee responsible for ruining Victoria's favorite TV show, "We Sing About Things," while the actress playing Maya's counterpart is none other than Maya's estranged twin sister Maggie, who Maya hasn't seen since one unexplained night in their junior year of high school. Meanwhile, while Jenna and Talia steal the show at the party's open-mic with their adorable albeit filthy love songs, Athena's attempts to flirt with the newly-available Treble Watkins, now an OB-GYN at a nearby hospital, are foiled when the young doctor learns he must attend an emergency delivery in the handicapped bathroom.
I'LL BE HOME FOR HANNUKAH

"I'll Be Home For Hannukah" is the eleventh episode of Season 9.

## Synopsis

Aviva discovers that her favorite fashion designer, JJ, works with Esther and Hannah and contacts him begging for him to design outfits for her Winter Spectacular at the Center for Performance Research, where she and her quartet of backup dancers will, in Hannah's words, "probably gyrate half-clothed on a pile of raisin bagels while a Peruvian dude in a kilt made of Super Mario bedsheets plays 'The District Sleeps Alone Tonight' on the pan-pipes." JJ, realizing the importance of family after rediscovering his own, issues Aviva an ultimatum: either she returns home and reconnects with the family she hasn't spoken to fifteen years after dropping out of The New School, or JJ doesn't make the sequined hot pants Aviva deems "supremely essential to the Woot Dollop Woot Dollop Echo experience." Marley starts feeling left out when her friends start having their bar and bat mitzvahs, so the Jewish staff members (Leo, Maya, Daniel, Esther, and Hannah) give her a musical and culinary crash course in Judaism so she can at least feel like she's on the same planet as her peers. Meanwhile, Michelle and Dana meet to discuss a book idea.
Sage Graham

Sage is a dance student from the class of 2023.

She has an emotional support tarantula which has a tendency to escape. The administration at Winter Lake Academy for the Arts knows that emotional support tarantulas aren't actually a thing and are sensitive to the opinions of students with arachnophobia and those who require actual service animals who argue that Sage's tarantula trivializes their situation, but the school allows "Martha" as Sage's parents are high powered lawyers who could very easily ruin The Academy if emotional support tarantulas ever do become a thing and Sage is denied her right to one.
TWEE'S COMPANY

"Twee's Company" is the twentieth episode of Season 8.

## Synopsis

The Academy's prom committee votes to keep the dance on land and allocate the budget towards entertainment rather than the traditional boat prom with a DJ. Off-duty until Leo and Maya teach their afternoon classes, Bridget decides to assist a slightly older crowd of "young'uns" and use her Hollywood connections to land an epic band that will be talked about as prom legend for years to come. When alumni band Damp Sandwich declines the invitation in solidarity with the still-sore-from-the-stampede Rita, Bridget calls in a few favors and lands Hermione Gardner and Byron Cassidy, two thirds of hipster band French Bulldogs Eating A Watermelon (the third member is currently finding herself in India and really was only there to occasionally play the triangle). While the prom committee is relieved and Bridget is absurdly proud of herself for her accomplishment, some students wonder if FBEAW's music is conducive to dancing and Bridget's roommate Cora is apprehensive about letting Hermione and Byron crash on their futon, especially considering the feeding and toileting habits of the service pig Byron utilizes to remind him to take his insulin. Meanwhile, secret FBEAW fanboy Isaiah nerds out about the news on Michelle's radio show and offers her a bribe not to release the day's episode as a podcast for fear his fanboying will ruin his "street cred."
Jurassic Nutcracker

"Jurassic Nutcracker" is, again, exactly what it sounds like: a ballet in which all the characters are dinosaurs or prehistoric mammals, created by Talia Vergara and choreographed by Mary Kontrarian while Talia is on maternity leave.

Despite promising to the board of trustees that she would return "The Nutcracker" to its traditional staging in Talia's temporary absence, Mary had her fingers crossed under the table and vows to make "Jurassic Nutcracker" the wildest "Nutcracker" ever to honor the legacy of the fallen Roger, who adored watching his colleagues "stick it to the man."
SMOOTH OPERA-TOR

"Smooth Opera-tor" is the seventeenth episode of Season 4.

## Synopsis

The spring gala is back in Boston, and with Jillian out of commission, Jonathan hard at work preparing "A Bun in the Coven" and Leo and Maya over their heads with the winter musical, the London trip and three kids under three, Vera and the arts faculty have made the brilliant decision to focus the entirety of the night's program on the music department, in particular Bonnie's senior vocal students. Unfortunately for the music department, an extremely large number of early decision acceptances to very prestigious music schools has inspired the overjoyed seniors to spend their spring break on a tour of all the amusement parks on the East Coast and the young men and women have screamed their way into frog-noise territory. With only a week to go until the big show and twenty doctors' notes banning the department's most talented seniors from singing for at least two, Bonnie begs for Cora's advice and the young woman makes a decision that could possibly change the trajectory of her career.
TROUBLE WHEN YOU WALKED IN

"Trouble When You Walked In" is the eleventh episode of Season 7.

## Synopsis

Days away from beginning principal photography on "Duck Me In The Park," Frank throws a New Year's party for both his cast and the real people who inspired the story of the film. While the culinary arts faculty is all abuzz, playfully arguing over who gets to help cater the "Hollywood event," other faculty members seek the party as an opportunity to network. With Cliff and Heath's support, Michelle offers a script for Frank to peruse, while Violet has the guests in stitches with her impression of both Becca and the swarm of angry ducks. While sole student guest Emily Chang is initially thrilled to be at a star-studded gathering, an insensitive comment about Michelle made by one of the celebrity guests sours the sophomore on her idol and she demands to be taken home to document the night's events on her blog.
Julie Andrews

Julie Andrews (no, not THAT Julie Andrews) is the eldest daughter of Violet and Colin Andrews. She is a member of the class of 2022.

She is the only student to have participated in three different "arts majors" in her time as part of the Winter Lake Community. Born into notoriety as one of the reasons why her parents had to vacate their dorm parent position, she came to be recognized by her own merit for her accomplishments in the Community Dance Academy, eventually dancing the role of Clara in "The Nutcracker." When an injury prevents a repeat performance, she is offered a role in a Theater Department production, That's What She Said: Women's Voices Throughout History, despite not actually being enrolled at Winter Lake Academy for the Arts. When she finally enrolls at The Academy as a junior, she begins her studies in the Culinary Arts Department.
Helen MacLellan

Helen MacLellan is the former headmistress of The Academy, having run the school from 1982 until 2007.

Helen MacLellan had what one might call a tempestuous love life. At age twenty, she discovered she was pregnant and was married off to the father of the baby to avoid shaming her family. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, she was later discovered to not be carrying a child but rather one of those tumors that have teeth in them. Her first marriage lasted ten years. Her second marriage was to an animal trainer. The marriage lasted until the mid-1980s when the capuchin monkey to which he had taught saloon tricks accidentally shot him in the trachea. She was single for twenty-two years and then she discovered Match.com, she discovered a cattle rancher twenty years her junior, and she peaced out to New Mexico, vacating her position at The Academy.

The headmistress position was filled by a series of inept interim leaders before the trustees found their Holy Grail in Vera Sharma .
LAUREN ORDER

"Lauren Order" is the eighth episode of Season 8.

## Synopsis

In an attempt to bond with her coworkers, Isobel joins Michelle's book club just as they're beginning discussions over the hottest new work of non-fiction "Wicked Five-Oh: Badges, Bullets and Love on the Boston Police Force." Thrilled by true-crime stories, she becomes determined to interview the authors for her winter show and is delighted to discover that the husband and wife responsible for the bestseller are the parents of Lauren Tucci, a Winter Lake junior. Still feeling she owes the Chapmans for "the Subaru incident," Jenna offers to help facilitate a meeting between Isobel and the Tuccis to discuss adaptation of the memoirs. Meanwhile, after a revelatory dinner with Esther and Rabbi Steve, Talia feels more confident than ever in her decision to adapt the Hannukah story for the ballet stage instead of more traditional Christmas programming.
WE DID WHAT WE HAD TO DO

"We Did What We Had To Do" is the twenty-first episode of Season 8.

## Synopsis

Wanting to escape the same wrath unleashed upon cousin Talia when her pregnancy was announced at Hannah's engagement party, Cliff decides to propose to Heath in private instead of at the prom to avoid being accused of stealing the thunder from the guests of honor. Word travels fast, however, and the big news becomes the only thing the student body wants to talk about. Vera is delighted for the couple but stresses to the student body that their counselor's personal life is his business and his business alone, and that they should not gossip or pry as it has been a problem in the past. While her lecture eases the students off of Cliff, they somehow decide that the rest of the faculty is fair game and they demand the details of every faculty love story that didn't play out before their very eyes. Meanwhile, FBEAW's ukulele cover of "What I Did For Love" from "A Chorus Line" triggers a flashback in Daniel to the time he was hospitalized for exhaustion at age ten for attempting to perform the entirety of the show by himself to impress a girl at overnight camp.
I HOPE YOU DANCE

"I Hope You Dance" is the fifteenth episode of Season 1.

## Synopsis

Acceptance letters go out and the verdict is in: both Victoria Fry and Michelle's young friend Dana Lewis get accepted to The Academy. Victoria begins blowing off more and more of her extra-curriculars at her current school, sneaking into Winter Lake's classes to catch up with her future classmates, which gets her into big trouble. Meanwhile, a future of freedom of expression ahead of her, Dana completely stops forcing herself to act like the young man everyone thinks she is, which doesn't faze her parents but horrifies the faculty at St. Sebastian's. Cora, Maya, Bonnie and Michelle take Dana out for "lady lessons" and to celebrate Cora's acceptance into grad school.
GAME OF DRONES

"Game of Drones" is the ninth episode of Season 7.

## Synopsis

Campus security discovers an anomaly upon their pre-Thanksgiving-break sweep of The Academy's dormitories: a student who not only doesn't want to leave but isn't even a boarder. Vera is torn as to whether to notify the girl's parents; if they didn't know she was missing, they now know she was momentarily un-accounted-for and if they did know she was missing, they might have been the ones from whom she was hiding. The latter turns out to be the case; theater sophomore and "Death of a Salesman" stage manager Capri DeSisto-Stornello, while in no personal danger, is the daughter of a well-meaning but clueless father and his wife of eighteen years, the crazed fan who charged Cliff and Kayla with a paintball gun at Colin's production. Although Capri's mother treats her with genuine love and kindness, the teen is tired of hearing her mother's endless conspiracy theories about the vivid sex life she imagines Heath and Carey to have and is upset to hear the names of both her beloved guidance counselor and her childhood idol dragged through the mud. While allergies prevent Capri from camping out at Vera and Harry's home, Colin and Violet open their home to the girl while Harry contemplates using drone surveillance to protect his wife's staff after viewing Axl and Carl's impressive remote-controlled helicopter collection. Meanwhile, JJ is forced to trade in his collection of fabulous faux furs for Cosby-esque sweaters when the board of trustees insists on Talia's original plan to stage a ballet version of "Home Alone" instead of going with his Muppet suggestion.
The Brown Note

The sole English language opera presented by Music Department head Bonita Alcott during the run of the series (though not the sole English language opera presented by Bonnie or any other director in the history of The Academy), "The Brown Note" is neither a presentation of songs featuring the mythical tone rumored to cause its listeners to lose bowel control nor a history of said rumor, but a hypothetical look into a near future in which the National Treasury is tasked with choosing the first African-American to appear on paper currency.

Unfortunately for director, cast and audiences alike, an ill visitor with a fast spreading case of C. diff leads many to wonder if perhaps a prankster switched out the orchestra's sheet music with a score featuring the note of legend.
The Alcott Family

## Cora Alcott

Cora Alcott is the daughter of Bonita Alcott's older cousin Wesley and his wife Marie. Although not initially a member of the faculty, she enjoys friendships with many of the teachers through Bonnie and through her roommate Clifford Torres. As a child, she was very close with her younger brother Nicholas and was devastated when Nicholas disappeared as a teen. Although she makes much of her living singing songs performed by others at weddings, her creative work draws a lot on the trauma of her experience.

## Doreen Alcott-Bloomberg

Doreen Alcott is Bonita Alcott's younger sister. She is a convert to Judaism and marries an OB-GYN early on in the series. Like her older sister and her cousin, Doreen is musically gifted, but her family wanted each child to have their own thing at which to shine and Doreen's impressive vocal range was overlooked for her skills on the track.

## Joseph "JJ" James

Joseph James is a hip young fashion designer, described as the love child of Tituss Burgess and Alexander McQueen. Little is known about his early years, although rumors abound and he does nothing to stop them as he loves the air of mystery. After a film project he is working on falls through, he is hired by Jonathan Bates to do the costumes for Death Becomes Her: The Musical. When the school decides to retain Joseph for further productions and to teach a costume design unit, the young man decides to bond with the rest of the faculty. Cora and Bonnie find themselves particularly drawn to the flamboyant and delightful young fellow, but it takes them a while to figure out that the man they love is Nicholas, the boy they lost.

## Wesley and Marie Alcott

Wesley and Marie Alcott are the parents of Cora and Nicholas Alcott. Wesley is Bonnie's first cousin.
Surprise Package

Surprise Package is a Magic-Mike-inspired faculty dance troupe created for Bonnie's bachelorette party. Their inaugural performance is so raucous that it sends Maya into labor with her first child and inspires an encore performance a short time later at the Winter Lake Academy Faculty Spring Break Staycation retreat.

Word gets out and eventually the troupe is asked to perform at benefits and auctions despite its salacious subject matter.

The troupe is managed by Michelle Hall and Tracy Chang, and the main lineup consists of Leo Hartz, Cliff Torres, Paul Chang and Colin Andrews. At times, they are joined by faculty friend Treble Watkins and Academy alum Hassan Sharuk.

The troupe disbands in 2021 when Colin throws his back out, Paul quits and Cliff doesn't care enough to keep it going. Tracy tries desperately to rebuild the group around Leo and Daniel Sonnenschein, but Daniel cries "nevernude" and refuses to join.
Alphonse Frankenstein

Baron **Alphonse Frankenstein** was the oldest known member of the Frankenstein family and the father of Henry Frankenstein, as well as the patriarch of the town of Goldstadt. The elderly baron was extremely disdainful of his son spending all his time working in his secluded laboratory, and his one wish was for Henry to finally marry his fiancee Elizabeth. It is unknown if the Baron lived to actually see Henry and Elizabeth married, but it is known that the old man died shortly after the first appearance of the Frankenstein monster and the Frankenstein estate went to Henry, who became the new baron. The old Baron's body was interred in the Frankenstein family crypt.

## Notes

* The Baron's first name isn't mentioned in *Frankenstein*, however his first name was Alphonse in Mary Shelley's original novel, so this wiki accepts it as the closest thing to a canonical name Henry's father has.
WINTER'S BONE

"Winter's Bone" is the twelfth episode of Season 1.

## Synopsis

Winter recess is over and rehearsals begin for The Academy's children's musical, "Schoolhouse Wrong." Leo and Maya come under fire from the head of the theater department for casting three seniors (two of them particularly difficult to work with and one who is a total peach but kind of fugly and can't dance) in what is traditionally an underclassmen-only production. Maya argues that their talent isn't being properly utilized elsewhere and that they can't improve without experience. An outbreak of gonorrhea in a clique of visual-arts sophomores forces Cliff to step up his game in his role as the health teacher when hormones and emotions run rampant as the Winter Dance approaches. Michelle receives word that her young friend from St. Sebastian's has applied for a space in Winter Lake's poetry program. Victoria auditions for The Academy.
ROCK-A-BYE GRAVY

"Rock-A-Bye Gravy" is the ninth episode of Season 3.

## Synopsis

When Alice Rockwell announces that she is shutting down the Boston location of Wonderwall and abandoning Massachusetts for her birthplace of England, Athena (who is now a beloved faculty member at The Academy) finds herself alone for the Thanksgiving holiday. Leo and Maya invite Athena to join them, excited at the prospect of her handmade bonbons and finally getting the lowdown on the mysterious Esther. The revelation of Esther's secret puts Maya's hope of a future friendship in jeopardy when an unplanned but happy surprise in Maya's life turns out to be something that Esther briefly had and lost. Michelle is invited to Dana's house for the holiday. Meanwhile, when Victoria disappears with large amounts of food halfway through the Thanksgiving meal, Robert begins to wonder if there's some truth to her mole people story.
THE TRANCE OF THE SUGARPLUM FAIRY

"The Trance of the Sugarplum Fairy" is the tenth episode of Season 1.

## Synopsis

Winter Lake Academy's dance department and Community Dance Academy come together to put on their annual production of The Nutcracker. Colin and Violet take a break from raunchy Shakespearean puns and volatile chemicals respectively to support their daughter Julie (yes, that's her name) as she dances the role of Clara. Meanwhile, disappointed with The Academy's tradition of a very Christmas-y holiday dinner, a group of students petition Vera to change things up to be more inclusive of their practices. With only a week left before school breaks for the winter recess, Leo and Maya rush to put together a presentation about the Jewish holidays. Cliff offers to help with his vast array of puppets, but the student body is wary when the "talking potato pancake" has legs and suspiciously resembles the "talking pubic louse" from October's lecture on STIs.
Joseph Entwiler von Schachten

Joseph Entwiler von Schachten was the Syndicate Vice President of Operations in command of the Special Projects Division (VPO-SPD), the Syndicate research and development arm. Under his command, Special

Projects focused primarily on the creation of superior power conduits, research in genetics, and handheld projectile weaponry. To the embarrassment and confusion of Iteration-X, some of this technology has surpassed their timelines over the last twenty years and trading in proprietary schematics has greatly increased the Special Projects profile and von Shachten's personal power. Born in late 19th-century Prussia, von Shachten spent most of the last seventy years in an experimental space vessel to avoid paradox effect.

Over a series of missions the Roosevelt Group discovered that von Shachten's success was due in part to trafficking with Nephandic entities in deep space. His most important operations at Research Plantation 4 and Null-B involved forcing enlightenment on extraordinary citizens, mind control, and new measures for species-wide modifications. These ventures were disrupted one by one as the Roosevelt Group picked off von Shachten's key allies before launching a final assault on his stronghold, The Unconquered Fate. In this last attack all key Special Projects assets on Earth were seized by Layla Ahmed and von Schachten himself was killed by a gift-wrapped EDE.

In the end, von Schachten revealed that his power came not from the corpses of demon gods but from the dreams of even greater entities still. In a final letter he suggested that these beings must have either died or woken up.
SCHRANKGEFLÜSTER

"Schrankgeflüster" is the nineteenth episode of Season 5.

## Synopsis

The Academy's annual opera "Schrankgeflüster" opens under Cora's direction. Bonnie's pride at her cousin's success is tempered by tension on the home front when Michelle buys Jerry a ticket for the seat next to Bonnie's on opening night. When the theater department receives a large anonymous donation from someone with a bank account in Connecticut, Jonathan is convinced that Maury Povich is planning to attend the spring mainstage musical and becomes fixated on editing the show to make Mr. Povich appear in a favorable light. Meanwhile, Robert's toucan becomes ill and he suspects his well-meaning but nutritionally-unsound students to be responsible for the bird's Type 2 Diabetes, leading Cliff to suggest Vera hire a nutritionist for the student body. The decision is met with praise by all except for school nurse Tracy, who feels insulted that none of the other staff members came to speak to her about the students' eating habits and instead chose to go over her head.
IT'S A PRIVILEGE

"It's A Privilege" is the twenty-second episode of Season 9.

## Synopsis

Just when The Academy has had enough drama as it is (no pun intended), two sophomores from the ensemble of "Urinetown" fail to show up for their call opening night. A small search party is set up to look for them, and they are located in the Helen MacLellan Theater's public restrooms in full costume, forbidding anyone from using the toilets unless the patrons give them a dollar. While Colin has to admit the prank is pretty creative, he puts the kibosh on it by assigning Axl and Carl to stand outside the costume shop for the remainder of the run, lest The Academy be accused by a visiting Kathleen Dearborn of forcing its students to panhandle. Bridget considers a return to acting but ultimately continues to stay in Winter Lake another year, switching nanny duties from the Hartz-Song girls to the Hanson-Vergara tots and organizing group prances along famous Boston landmarks. Meanwhile, Hannah gets Rocky, Heath and Cliff extremely high and they end up devouring the wedding menu samples and bribing Victoria to steal the school van and drive them to Provincetown where the two couples elope.
PROMJECT RUNWAY

"Promject Runway" is the twentieth episode of Season 3.

## Synopsis

Vera travels into Boston with Bonnie to see Cora present a song cycle dedicated to the memory of her missing-ten-years-and-presumed-dead younger brother Nicholas. Previously unaware of the tragedy, she suggests Cora start a support group for young people to deal with loss through art, a gesture that catches the attention of Esther, still grieving her own loss. Victoria learns that JJ, already completely finished with the costumes for "Death Becomes Her," is planning a runway show to showcase his fall line, set to take place in Boston on prom night. Convinced that she and her little clique of dancers have the perfect physiques to model JJ's avant-garde creations, she begs him to let her walk the runway only to find that he is far more interested in clothing non-traditional models, including the "richly bodied" Bonnie, the designated-male-at-birth Michelle, the terrifyingly pregnant Maya and Victoria's own father. Angry that all the "fun" faculty members are getting involved with JJ's project, she abruptly quits the prom committee.
Colleen Haley

Colleen Haley is a pre-school teacher at Lithgow Montessori School.

While she means well, she often presents extremely sanitized versions of historical events to her students and sometimes gets called out on them by precocious three-year-olds. She finds this "disturbing" and "requiring an immediate parent-teacher conference."
The Tsaganis Family

## Eleni Tsaganis

Eleni Tsaganis was Jillian Jordan's dialect coach at Boston Conservatory. Winter Lake Academy for the Arts seeks out her services when composer Jason Robert Brown offers The Academy the opportunity to stage the world premiere of his new musical "Jewperheroes," which is set in a yeshiva and requires the cast to have passable New York accents. Jillian tracks Mrs. Tsaganis home only to find out that like The Academy's former headmistress Helen MacLellan, her widowed professor has taken off for the South West with a younger man.

## Ariadne Tsaganis

Ariadne Tsaganis is the only daughter of Eleni and the late Gus Tsaganis. While she has none of her mother's training in dialects, she shows a great deal of natural skill and is asked to interview with Colin for the dialect coach position. Initially a shoo-in, she finds herself competing with bored helicopter mother Barbara and former New Yorker Laurel for the position. Ultimately, she does end up landing the job and she parlays her success from the project into a gig coaching Daniel Radcliffe as he takes over the role of James Bond.
LAST YEAR'S RANT

"Last Year's Rant" is the third episode of Season 6.

## Synopsis

The rumors of Jonathan's departure turn out to be true and Colin is named interim director of the theater department, a role he takes to like a fish to water. With Colin already handling freshman, sophomore and junior-level acting classes, his busy schedule leaves him unable to cover Jonathan's senior seminar. Mira offers to take on his underclassman students, but he worries that her "woo woo hippie-dippie" style of performance will leave the students with a lot of bad habits he will have to undo when they come under his instruction again. Desperate to utilize the outdoor theater again, Mira convinces Colin and the school board to let her stage a production of "Rent." While the students are delighted, the rest of the theater faculty is not entirely thrilled for various reasons. Meanwhile, after noticing a disturbing apathy about current events in his students and discovering many of them simply do not feel like they can make a difference, history teacher Dave begins a unit called "Reaction and Resistance," a study of activism in the 20th and 21st centuries, and encourages the teens to fight for a cause for which they feel very strongly. While he had hoped they would fight for the right for gay men to donate blood or fight against police brutality, the students instead choose to stage a die-in after the school's nutritionist successfully convinces the cafeteria staff to replace meatballs with tofu balls.
THE AFTERMATH

"The Aftermath" is the seventh episode of Season 2.

## Synopsis

A terrible hurricane strikes New England, wreaking havoc on the lives of the students and faculty at The Academy. Colin, stuck in Boston after Julie's operation has complications, is forced to cancel the Shakespeare production at the last minute. Jonathan, his car embedded in three feet of mud, is stranded on campus. Jenna, who resides in a heavily wooded area, is forced to evacuate due to tree damage and seeks shelter with Talia, much to Cliff's chagrin. With most of the academic and artistic faculty stuck off-campus due to a state-wide travel ban, classes are canceled and Leo and Maya, as the "young, approachable ones," are saddled with the task of keeping three hundred students with no power, hot water or wifi from staging an uprising, an orgy or the Hunger Games. Meanwhile, Roger takes a leave of absence when the first signs of the storm appear and his PTSD causes him to lash out at a student.
The Sherman Family

Elvis and April Sherman are the owners and managers of Haven Farm, a working farm and retail operation that serves as a temporary home for the Culinary Arts Department after they terminate their contract with The Stickitt Inn.

They have eight children: Antigone, Delancey, Tibia, Garfunkel, Cobbler, Reverie, Palabra and only son Zithromax. All of their children are homeschooled and off-the-charts brilliant, save for eldest daughter Antigone who made the extremely questionable decision to have unprotected intercourse with Obediah Sommers, the hyper-closeted star of hit reality show "21 Kids, Two Uterine Prolapses and No Sign From God Telling Us To Stop."
Dana Lewis

At the beginning of the series, Dana Lewis is a student at St. Sebastian's, an all-boys Catholic school, in the class of 2017.

The problem is that Dana is a girl. She has always felt like a girl, even when everyone else thinks she's a boy and treats her like one. When Michelle Hall comes to speak at St. Seb's in the role of Poet Laureate of Massachusetts, she senses a kindred spirit in Dana and encourages Dana, quite the writer herself, to apply to The Academy for her sophomore year and beyond.

The two become lifelong friends and plan to collaborate on a writing project in the future.
METRO-WEST SIDE STORY

"Metro-West Side Story" is the seventh episode of Season 5.

## Synopsis

In an attempt to smooth things over with the BAGLY youth, Colin and Michelle offer them and their guardians free transportation to the opening of the play. One of the students invites his older cousin, who happens to be Globe reporter (and Cliff's on-again/off-again, currently off-again boyfriend) Heath. Knowing how desperate Colin is to be taken as an innovator in the world of classical theater, Jonathan and Violet convince Heath to review the show for the magazine section. The increased publicity fills seats, but a rumble in the parking lot between conservative protestors, open-minded theatergoers just trying to get home, and school-board bigwigs (who wonder why The Academy can't just do "regular shows with regular casts") sends three students and two faculty members to the hospital. Meanwhile, Cliff, Cora and Athena head into Boston for a night on the town when Alice reveals that she has re-bought Wonderwall Bakery's city location and turned it into a bar and grill.
Daniel Sonnenschein

Daniel Sonnenschein is a writer, actor and composer who is hired to spice up the Theater Department with his genius.

After Colin finds himself struggling with all the songs in his musical "Sea Sharp" sounding the same, a visiting Jonathan suggests that he work with Daniel, who became unemployed after the premature closing of the Broadway run of "Jewperheroes," in which he played the lead.

Daniel relocates to Winter Lake to the delight of Colin, but to the chagrin of Leo Hartz, with whom he competed heavily for solos in their a cappella years at NYU. When work with "Sea Sharp" is done, Leo believes that Daniel will again head off to New York, but the composer decides to stick around.

In his short time at The Academy, Daniel wears many hats in his role as educator. In addition to composing a number of shows and helping teach the higher level musical theater classes, he helps Isobel Chapman plan an improvised musical, he helps Leo and Maya with childcare and he Prancercises with Bridget for stress relief and so she doesn't have to do it alone.

He eventually returns to New York with Leo and Maya to help them start a theater company. He also returns to acting, making his triumphant return to the stage in a Broadway revival of "Company."

He is, as an Onion article once put it, "a beautiful cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure," although one-time roommate Cliff would beg to differ, as apparently Daniel musically narrates everything, including his yoga practices and his bowel movements, and likes to dance around the apartment to Sia in nothing but a dance belt.
SHUT UP AND PRANCE WITH ME

"Shut Up And Prance With Me" is the sixteenth episode of Season 8.

## Synopsis

After managing to wrangle all but two members of their college a cappella group into going on a Spring Break tour of the East Coast (one of the two has transitioned and no longer sings with mens' a cappella groups, and the other got hit by a bus and lives in a mansion on the French Riviera with the settlement money), Leo and Daniel hit the road with Maya, Bridget and the kids. While seeing Daniel's work with the students of The Academy and his genuine enthusiasm for performance and creation warms Leo's heart and allows him to move on from the rivalry of their past, Leo grows weary of Daniel's insistence that the whole group join him and Bridget in their daily Prancercise routine and comes up with increasingly elaborate excuses not to participate. Tracy and Violet take Emily and Julie on their first round of college visits. Meanwhile, back on campus, a romantic and roommate-free weekend for Cliff and Heath goes sour when upon cuddling in the common room of the dorm Cliff oversees, Heath discovers bedbugs in the couch.
AWK-APPELLA

"Awk-apella" is the eighteenth episode of Season 7.

## Synopsis

Having finally decided on and written the spring musical, "Sea Sharp" (a combination of "The Little Mermaid," "Finding Nemo" and "Pitch Perfect") Colin excitedly puts together a medley of numbers for the Gala reception in New York City, having decided to stage numbers from more established shows for the actual show. While the students are jazzed about their teacher's debut as composer, a visiting Jonathan points out that the melodies are too similar and not interesting enough to sound intentional and suggests the director seek outside input before beginning rehearsals in earnest. Enter Daniel Sonnenschein, fresh off the painfully short Broadway run of "Jewperheroes", composer in his own right and Leo's former college a cappella rival. While Leo is thrilled to be able to brag about balancing the creation and production of multiple original musicals with young fatherhood, he concedes that he hasn't seen his mortal musical enemy since their graduation more than a decade prior and doesn't know what the man has up his sleeve. Meanwhile, another shock is dealt to the Hartz-Song family when nanny Ellen accepts the role of Ms. Norbury in "Mean Girls: The Musical," which has finally reached Broadway after three years on tour and three years in Hoboken, while freeloader Liam accepts Carey's old role in "Duck Me In The Park" to the delight of his sister and the wrath of Carey's fangirls.