Today was the last day of service learning, but only the beginning for the Arts & Learning Conservatory! I made this video of footage from different shows at A&L to show what goes on within the bright walls of the conservatory!
I hope you enjoyed reading about my experience during Spring at Sage and I hope you will all come to A&L shows in the future!
I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. I know I did! On Saturday, we had our summer planning meeting at Arts & Learning. All of the staff and volunteers got together for a breakfast meeting to talk about the conservatory and our future plans. We discussed the mission statement of the conservatory and what we stand for, as well as our future plans for the 10th anniversary of A&L.
I am so excited about working with A&L this summer. I am hopefully going to be teaching Frozen & Friends for 5-8 year olds, which will be similar to the class I am teaching now at Deerfield Elementary. It will be fun to see the younger kids perform and I am excited to get to teach them about my love for the arts.
There are so many amazing things going on this summer, such as dozens of summer camps from ages 5-17, as well as off-site classes and camps all around Orange County. All of these will be taught by Arts & Learning teaching artists and will feature intern assistants and volunteers.
Tomorrow is my last day of Spring at Sage, but it is definitely not my last day working with A&L. I am excited to show you my Arts & Learning presentation and video tomorrow and to share my project with the rest of Sage Hill!
Today was another day of planning at the Arts & Learning Conservatory. Tomorrow is our summer planning meeting, where we will decide what teachers will be teaching what classes and training for the summer. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out, and I will explain what is decided in detail on monday!
Moving past the summer, we also did more planning for the future shows in the fall and spring. Though the spring shows are still undecided, we now have a full team and theatre ready for the shows are announced. We've also done more planning for the fall shows, and we are working on sets and props for Sound of Music. We've also begun the hunt for five different sized plant puppets, required for the teen/adult show Little Shop of Horrors.
Sound of Music
With new and exciting things happening at A&L, like a collaboration between the orchestra and theatre camps, as well as big plans for next years shows are helping the conservatory move forward. There are many new teachers and interns being brought in to further enrich Arts & Learning and help it grow.
Little Shop of Horrors
I will check in after the weekend and explain the plans for the summer and beyond after our meeting!
Today has been a day of planning for this summer and next year for Arts & Learning. There are big plans for the summer classes and camps, as well as the shows, Sound of Music and Little Shop of Horrors, in the fall. However, today was also a day of reflection on the last year at Arts & Learning to help the conservatory move forward. Today I received my DVD copy of Kiss Me, Kate, which was the last show I performed in at A&L and also saw photos from the last year as well.
Into The Woods, Fall 2013
Today I also began working on the video I am making of our "Frozen & Friends" class which I will be using as my Spring at Sage presentation.
Into the Woods, Fall 2013
I'm excited to see what tomorrow and the weekend hold, as there are many planning meetings and other exciting things going on!
For the next two weeks, I will be focusing in on the work I do for the Arts & Learning Conservatory. I decided to start off my blog and my first day of Spring at Sage by explaining what Arts & Learning is, how it is a part of the community, and my involvement with it.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/arts-610472-learning-theater.html
Arts & Learning was founded ten years ago by Debora Wondercheck on the Vanguard University campus. It started as an instrumental music conservatory that featured summer camps and other programs on the campus. Arts & Learning has grown phenomenally since it's inception and now has it's own office and rehearsal space located in Santa Ana, a full theatre program that includes four full length shows a year, and dozens of classes in music and various art forms.
In addition to that growth, Arts & Learning has also developed a program that has experienced teaching artists travel to various public schools to teach and put on the school's play or musical. This year, Arts & Learning put on shows in five districts and over twenty schools. In most cases parents or associations pay for the cost of the show, allowing the school to have a full scale play or musical free of charge. This service is incredibly beneficial because of school budget cuts, and Arts & Learning is helping to make sure there will always be arts in schools.
I began working with the Arts & Learning Conservatory in the fall of 2013, after hearing about it from my voice teacher. I was urged to audition for their musical, Into the Woods, which was featuring a cast of high school students and adults. I was cast in a leading role, Cinderella, and got to be a part of the production. Though I have been in countless shows, this one was life changing. I began working closely with the director, Colleen Brown, and forming a relationship with her which I had never before had with a director. She was inspiring and changed the way I looked at theatre. I call her "my fairy godmother". After being apart of Into the Woods, I decided to stay with the conservatory and do their next teen/adult show, Kiss Me, Kate. I was cast as the lead, Lilli Vanessi/Kate, and had the most amazing experience putting it on. Kiss Me, Kate was said to be the best show Arts & Learning has ever put on, and was featured in publications like the OC Register. My relationship with the conservatory and the people who are a part of it grew even stronger, and I knew that I had found an amazing place.
After Kiss Me, Kate, I started working as a music directing and directing assistant/intern on shows at elementary schools around the county. I just finished Grease at Harbor View Elementary School in Corona del Mar, a full length production that featured 56 fourth to sixth grade students, and am now working on a revue-type show called "Frozen + Friends" at Deerfield Elementary in Irvine.
I'm so excited to be working with A&L for my Spring at Sage independent project and I hope you all enjoy reading about my work.
