Alumni Spotlight 

He has appeared in a few off-Broadway shows and has done some screen work, including a lead role in a coming-of-age web series that has racked up more than 300,000 views on YouTube. He sees it as a promising start.   

“What I love to do most is act and sing, and it’s important to have patience, because it doesn’t always go your way,” he reflects. “Everything my parents said to dissuade me from doing this is true! It’s hard and there’s a lot of rejection. But I’m building patience and an understanding that it is a marathon and not a sprint.”

After graduating from UCC, he attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he got his BFA Drama specializing in musical theatre, and won an Outstanding Achievement in Studio Award. A professor assured him that in today’s digital world there are more opportunities to break out than when he started. 
 

“The world has evolved,” Manucha says. “You can go from being a TikTok star to Broadway without even auditioning. Back then there was no concept of overnight success. They got into this because they loved it, and they were prepared for the long game. That’s what I took away from him — it is the long game.”

While at Tisch, he performed in the ensemble of the musical Pippin, about a performance troupe recounting the story of a young prince. Coincidentally, he had played the lead in the same play in Year 9 at UCC.

“They were completely different productions, but it was fun to revisit,” he says. “I was six years older, and while singing that music reminded me of being in high school, so much had changed in my life.”   

He has maintained his relationship with NYU, now working part-time as a teaching assistant in physical acting classes, and serving as program coordinator for the Tisch New Studio on Broadway mobile unit, which brings performances to various institutions, including, most recently, the Rikers Island prison. 
   

He says they received a positive response from the inmates in the audience. “Many of them seemed really moved, and part of that was from the students’ singing in the play,” he notes. “These men behind bars got to hear live music for the first time in who knows how long.”

Manucha was also recently named executive director of the New York City Community Chorus at Holy Apostles, a non-sectarian, not-for-profit group that welcomes all to participate in singing. He oversees fundraising, operations, concert production, and community engagement. 

The group sees about 120 participants come together every week to sing everything from Old English folk music from the 1300s to Mariah Carey, Broadway show tunes, Fleetwood Mac, and Indian Sanskrit chants.

Manucha is also finishing an internship with the venerable Metropolitan Opera that sees him shadowing general manager Peter Gelb and other members of the senior leadership team. 

“There are many parallels between the community chorus and the Met,” he says. “Similar issues come up, such how to continue to gain community support for live, in-person performing arts. It’s the same challenge, but the Met is dealing on a much larger scale. It’s useful to take what I learn there and apply it to the smaller organization.”

He looks back fondly on the theatre education he got at UCC, where he took drama in the Upper School. In higher-level theatre he was taught by Judith Macdonell, and he stays in regular contact with that small group of classmates.  

“A lot of time and energy is dedicated to the arts at UCC,” he says. “It gave me a space. You go to rehearsal and focus on one thing that’s really fun. And you play in front of forgiving audiences. It’s a very supportive environment, and the resources are fantastic.”