Westminster Hosts Day of Play for High School Actors
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Despite the fact that there were more than 170 high school students sitting in Yvonne Theater, the room was perfectly still – for a couple of minutes at least. The student performers were hard at work with the task at hand. Minutes earlier, they had just been told to bend their knees, drop their heads down and stare at the ground.
All of a sudden, a voice broke through the silence and instructed the students to look up. At once, more than 170 pairs of eyes looked up and stared straight ahead. They had just mastered the art of “hard focus,” a technique used by actors to put them in a neutral, focused place before they perform.
“The place where we spring as artists and athletes,” explained Nova Thomas, assistant professor of Voice at Westminster Choir College of Rider University.
The demonstration took place during Westminster Presents, a musical theater performance workshop, held on March 31. The program, hosted by Rider’s Westminster College of the Arts and jointly sponsored by Rider and the New Jersey Education Foundation Partnership (NJEFP), gave New Jersey high school students the opportunity to explore the world of musical theater at the college level.
Rider’s Music Theater Ensemble, composed of 17 student singers, dancers and actors from the Westminster College of the Arts, led workshops that focused on ensemble-building, improvisation activities and discussion of stagecraft, post-secondary study of the performing arts, and careers in the theater. The ensemble, taught by Thomas and Cristopher Frisco, adjunct faculty member at Westminster, also performed scenes from an upcoming music theater performance.
“It is so important that, even in these hard economic times, our New Jersey students continue to have access to extraordinary learning experiences like Westminster Presents,” explained NJEFP Vice President Diane Senerth, who coordinated the event for the coalition. “Our member foundations are very grateful to Rider University for partnering with them in this exciting arts education initiative.”
Participating schools include Lawrence High School, Hamilton High School East-Steinert Memorial, Nottingham High School-Veterans Memorial, Hamilton High School (West), Hopewell Valley Central High School, Manchester Township High School, South Hunterdon Regional High School, Highland Park High School, Robbinsville High School, North Brunswick Township High School and North Plainfield High School.
Peggy Sica, supervisor of Fine Arts in the North Brunswick Township District, came with her students to the workshop.
“I think it is a marvelous program for high school students to learn from Westminster students,” said Sica, a Westminster Choir College graduate. “I see how important it is for kids to express themselves.”
NJEFP is a statewide coalition of local education foundations working to enhance public education in New Jersey. As members of the partnership, local education foundations are offering this opportunity to the districts’ high school theater students.
Rider’s Music Theater Ensemble closed the workshop with a rendition of Seasons of Love (525 Thousand 600 Minutes) from the musical Rent, which received enthusiastic applause from the young audience.
“We are equally dedicated to telling the story,” explained Thomas about the Music Theater Ensemble members. “Today’s activities were to show that we are mature people having fun. We can still grow as actors and play games.”
