Wyn Win Situation

2009’s Mr. Palisades Is an In-Demand Actor/Singer

April finds Wyn Delano hitting a high note. Since March 13, the teenager has performed in Morgan-Wixson’s musical, ‘The Secret Garden.’ On March 18, Delano was crowned Mr. Palisades by a panel of judges at the Chamber of Commerce-sponsored teen contest. The song he performed, which helped land him the title, proved a double-audition, as an American Cancer Society (ACS) chairperson caught his performance. Delano will reprise his rendition of ‘The Impossible Dream’ on April 18, during the opening ceremonies of ACS’ Relay For Life event at Palisades High, where he is a junior. Delano, 16, is still glowing from his Pierson Playhouse victory, where he dazzled the Chamber’s judges with one of his favorite tunes, from ‘The Man From La Mancha.’ ‘The story of Don Quixote has always had a place in my heart,’ Delano says. ‘The whole concept of this crazy guy reading books and thinking himself a knight was so brilliant.’ Forget steroids. ‘Impossible Dream’ provided the perfect performance-enhancer.   ’You can sing it alone without context and it’s still powerful,’ Delano says. ‘The evening went fantastic. Occasionally, I find myself in a groove when everything seems to go right, when the thought process clicks off and it becomes instinct. As soon as I finished ‘Impossible Dream,’ I smiled to myself because it clicked.’ On March 26, the new Mr. Palisades, boasting a blazer and a Spandau Ballet-style haircut, appeared at Affinity Bank for his first Chamber of Commerce mixer. Standing alongside Miss Palisades (PaliHi sophomore Sabrina Giglio), the winning, witty Delano quickly dashed any doubts that he might struggle to follow in the footsteps of his popular predecessor, Chris Alexakis. The ease with which Delano worked the party evinced his comfort with Pacific Palisades. Delano and his brother Hero, 14, grew up in the Edgewater Towers near Sunset Boulevard and PCH. Their father, Rick Delano, works as a movie executive. Mother Shari Nathan is a professional birthday clown. Those under the age of 10 know her as Whirlie. Raised Jewish and Catholic, Delano says his grandmother was a modern artist while his grandfather worked for the U.S. Defense Department. ‘It’s a very interesting family,’ he says. ‘Holidays are fun.’ (Scenes from Theatre Palisades’ ‘You Can’t Take It With You’ spring to mind.) Delano says he developed his passion for acting and singing at Marquez Elementary, where he participated in teacher Jeff Lantos’ three U.S. history musicals. After a Theatre Palisades youth group role, ‘a friend of mine told me about a theater in Santa Monica that has amazing youth productions,’ Delano says. Every September, Morgan-Wixson stages a youth musical. For four years, Delano has not missed a beat, playing in productions directed by Anne Gesling. In 2005, at 13, Delano portrayed con man Ali Hakim in ‘Oklahoma.’ The following year saw his turn as Lazar Wolf in ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’ When Gesling brought ‘Guys and Dolls’ to Paul Revere, Delano played Benny Southstreet. But it was 2007’s ’42nd Street’ which proved pivotal. ‘Until then, I played supporting roles, usually comic relief,’ Delano says. ‘But I got the lead, Julian Marsh. It was fantastic. It was a tough rehearsal process because the character, an anti-hero, was a difficult one to grasp. It was very complex.’ Last year, he played ‘Bye Bye Birdie”s Elvis role, which required dancing. He now takes vocal lessons with operatic baritone Vladimir Chernov and credits the UCLA professor for embellishing his ‘Impossible Dream.’ ‘Every role has helped the next one,’ Delano says. ‘Not only do I get better at acting, but everything I learn in the theater makes me a more rounded personality.’ While cozy with the Morgan-Wixson gang, Delano has been absent from PaliHi’s plays. ‘When I was a ninth-grader,’ he says, ‘I was very involved with the drama program.’ That year, he took part in the senior show, a stage adaptation of Mel Brooks’ ‘Robin Hood: Men in Tights,’ and his Richard III won him the 2006 Shakespearean Drama Festival’s Southland crown. But then he participated in ‘Once On This Island,’ a production of ‘questionable taste’ about black islanders in Haiti in which ‘no black people were cast. It just didn’t work.’ While impressed with ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ (he was too busy with choir to audition), Delano found the recent spring musical selection dubious. Delano recalls his excitement when ‘Sweeney Todd’ and ‘Carousel’ were bandied about. ‘But when they announced ‘Honk!,’ the story of the Ugly Duckling, my heart just sank. I had the option to do ‘Secret Garden.’ I thought it was the better show.’ Saturday marks the final performance of Morgan-Wixson’s adaptation of the popular children’s book. Delano recalls how Gesling, whom he affectionately describes as ‘Stanislavski mixed with a drill sergeant,’ ‘drafted’ him into the cast. ‘Three guys had dropped out,’ says Delano, who plays a military general. ‘So technically, I was drafted into the army.’ For tickets, visit www.morgan-wixson.org.