LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- Rory Fream of Point Pleasant, NJ, and Monique McClung of Upper Marlboro, MD, have been named the 1997 Acting Scholar award winners by the fine arts department of Rider University.

The annual theater award recognizes high school students with exceptional acting talent and leadership potential. Candidates undergo a rigorous application process and private audition on campus that requires performance of a serious monologue, humorous monologue, and an optional song.

Fream, a senior at Point Pleasant Borough High School, has appeared in several school theater productions, including Bye Bye Birdie, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Lil' Abner, The Foreigner, Brigadoon, Much Ado About Nothing, Fiddler On The Roof, Charlotte's Web, and The Wizard Of Oz. He has also performed in the Point Pleasant Drama Company's productions of Life In The Day Of Sally Go Forth and The Nutcracker Suite.

McClung, a senior at Sutiland High School, has recently appeared in the Thomas Pullen School For The Arts' production of Unmasked...Just For A Moment, as well as the Prince George's County Summer Teen Theatre production of Little Shop Of Horrors. She has also performed in several Very Special Arts and Sutiland High School productions, and earned a pair of awards at the Folger Shakespeare Festival.

The scholarship covers full tuition costs at Rider University for four years in exchange for each recipient's involvement in the fine arts department's three major theater productions each year. Scholarship winners may choose to major in fine arts, or select a major from any of Rider's 57 disciplines and pursue a minor in fine arts.

For more information on the Acting Scholars program, contact Dr. Patrick Chmel at (609) 896-5168.

Rider University is an independent, co-educational, non-sectarian institution with a 353-acre campus in Lawrenceville, NJ, and a 23-acre campus in Princeton, NJ. The University offers 57 undergraduate programs and 15 graduate programs in business, liberal arts, science, education, and music. Ninety-five percent of Rider's faculty members hold doctorate or other appropriate advanced degrees. U.S. News and World Report has again ranked Rider in the top tier of northern universities based on the quality of its programs.