Graduates of performing arts high schools look back and face the future. JAMES LEYNSE LOS ANGELES COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS ORANGE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS BEYOND‘FAME’ JOAN MARCUS By Gerard Raymond [email protected] rik Altemus made a critical decision when, in the eighth grade, he transferred to the Orange County High ESchool of the Arts. Prior to attending the Southern California performing arts school, he went to a “stereotypi- cal” junior high school, he says: “It was all about whether or Clockwise from top left: Coby Getzug in the Los Angeles County not you were on the football team. I hated it. I was complete- High School for the Arts’ production of “Blood Wedding;” Noah Robbins with John Glover in “Secrets of the Trade,” Off-Broadway; Krysta Rodriguez with Nathan Lane in “The Addams Family” on ly ridiculed, and talent didn’t mean anything to those people.” Broadway; Erik Altemus in the Orange County High School of the Continued on page A2— Arts’ “60’s-a-Go-Go” 1104 SPOT College Guide Feature.indd 1 11/1/10 3:29 PM —continued from page 2 But enrolling in the musical theater program The acting education at OCHSA really helped him as an artist: “I was able to immerse myself 100 percent in what I did artistically. It wasn’t just some- of a lifetime... thing I did on the side. I had academic class- es, yes, but now my days were surrounded by doing what I loved to do.” He adds, “All of a sudden, I was one of the popular kids and it was all about how talented you were.” Several young performers who went to performing arts high schools concurred that Erik Altemus the experience gave them a leg up in their careers and, more importantly, spoke di- rectly to their passion for the arts. Coby Getzug started at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in his sophomore year. “We had school from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.—academics until lunch, and then we would have our arts classes until 4 p.m.,” he says. “It was kind of like being in a conserva- tory program while being in high school, which was amazing.” Taylor Patterson had planned to attend a regular high school in New York City, but after going to an open house for prospective students at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (known as LaGuardia Arts), she changed her mind. “I knew that it was the place that I had to be,” she explains. “I could tell right away that I was on the same wavelength as the other kids. We were all artsy kids and all so passionate about something at such a young age. That was a wonderful environment to be in.” “I think television and the media has reintroduced the arts to the next generation of kids, which is just great,” says Ralph S. Opacic, founder and executive director of OCHSA. “Ten years ago, who would have thought a TV series like ‘Glee’ would have been getting so much attention?” The “High School Musical” movies and shows like “So You Think You Can Dance” have also put the spotlight back on the arts, he notes. “Our focus at OCHSA is to provide our students with a rigorous preparatory college academic pro- gram, so that when they graduate from high school they’re prepared academically to go on to higher ed and so that they’re given a head start in the arts area they’re passion- Samantha Barriento ate about. Many students don’t experience this kind of arts training until they’re well into college, or they have to go to a professional acting lab or dance studio.” On the opposite coast, Veronica York, college office director at LaGuar- for a gifted, passionate few. dia Arts, voices a similar sentiment: “We are a dual-mission school that really tries to treat academics and the arts equally. We think you need both to have a well-rounded education.” Thirty years ago, her institution (then known as the High School of Performing Arts) played a key role in inspir- ing a previous generation, when the movie “Fame” and the subsequent TV WE INVITE YOU TO AUDITION FOR THE HIGHLY SELECTIVE series burst on the scene. NEW YORK CONSERVATORY FOR DRAMATIC ARTS The former students we spoke to all look back with appreciation on the training and experience they received at their schools. “LCHSA gave me op- At the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, intimate portunities to focus on different aspects of the theater that really helped me become a classes of 18 students or less means our faculty is free to well-rounded actor,” says Getzug, who per- focus intensely on you. They uncover your strengths. Your formed in several class projects in his senior weaknesses. Your unique traits. Then collaborate to prepare year, including a stage version of the classic Marx Brothers film “Duck Soup” and the you for success in the real world. Federico García Lorca play “Blood Wed- ding.” At LaGuardia Arts, Patterson was cast Extensive training in both the art and business sides of act- in a production of Michael Frayn’s popu- lar farce “Noises Off.” “It required a whole ing means you graduate ready to do it all — sell yourself, run new set of discipline, which we have as high your career, and perform brilliantly. school students but generally choose not to employ,” she says. Excited to start? Call us at 888.645.0030 ext. 4080 to Krysta Rodriguez Krysta Rodriguez, who graduated from schedule your audition today. OCHSA in 2002, had the unique opportu- nity to play the lead in a tryout of the brand-new show “Gidget: The Musi- cal,” co-written and directed by none other than Francis Ford Coppola. She had been performing in Orange County children’s theater since the age of 12 and had set her sights on OCHSA, but she wasn’t deterred when she didn’t get into its theater program in her first year. “I was very deter- mined to go anyway,” she says, “so I enrolled in the production and design department—scene-building and spotlight-operating jobs—and then I re- auditioned the next year and got into the program.” Post-Graduation Plans www.sft.edu In her senior year, Rodriguez was faced with the difficult decision of all high school seniors: What next? She was accepted at both NYU and UCLA, and she chose NYU. “I had always planned on going to New York, and I decided that if I was going to do it, this was the way to do it,” she says. “College was a safer environment to be in. I had a dorm room and a meal plan and I could learn how to navigate my way in the city without the pres- sures of having to work.” As it turned out, Rodriguez never finished college. First she landed a role in the Beach Boys musical, “Good Vibrations,” on Broadway. When that show closed after four months, she re-enrolled in NYU but then was cast in the national tour of “The Boy Friend,” directed by Julie Andrews. She managed to squeeze in a summer semester, but then came her second Broadway gig, “Spring Awakening.” By this time her career was in full swing. Two Broadway shows later (“A Chorus Line” and “In the Heights”), she was cast as Wednesday in “The Addams Family.” “It’s really kind of the holy grail of Broadway shows,” she says. “You want to be able to put a stamp on something, and you want it tailored for what you do best.” Having cre- A2 | COLLEGE GUIDE | NOVEMBER 4-10, 2010 | BACKSTAGE.COM 1104 SPOT College Guide Feature.indd 2 11/1/10 3:30 PM ated the role in the musi- however, he landed the role of Moritz in the new national tour Taylor Patterson cal’s first workshop more of “Spring Awakening.” He’ll take a year off to do the show, than two years ago, she but he fully intends to continue his education. “As much as continues in the current I love theater, I want to be well-educated and have a broad Broadway production. spectrum,” he says. “I think that if I know more about history, Noah Robbins nearly psychology, English, whatever, all that will inform what I do experienced a similar when I’m acting.” derailment of his col- lege plans. Although he Taking Your Time didn’t go to a performing Altemus, now 23, is about to complete one year Off-Broadway arts high school per se, playing the love-struck youth in “The Fantasticks,” and he has Noah Robbins in the he says that his school, just completed a role in the pilot for a new HBO series, “The Mi- Broadway production Georgetown Day School raculous Year,” written by John Logan (“Red”) and directed by of “Brighton Beach in Washington, D.C., Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow. “I see it as a kind of adult ‘Glee,’ Memoirs” gave him excellent op- ” says Altemus. “It’s about this family, and the central character is JOAN MARCUS portunities in theater (he a deranged but very brilliant and successful composer, in the vein played Max Bialystock in of Sondheim. My character is a young dancer who is willing to do its production of “The Producers”). While still in school, he whatever it takes to come out on top.” went out to L.A. and acquired an agent, and as he was finish- His first choice for college after graduating from OCHSA in ing his senior year, he landed the role of the young Eugene 2005 was NYU, but he wasn’t accepted.