Though the New York High School of the Performing Arts, now merged with the High School of Music and Art and called the LaGuardia High School, is frequently cited as a model, the school that the Chicago Academy for the Arts resembles most closely is the Crossroads School in Santa Monica, Calif., which is also private. Other arts high schools such as New York`s LaGuardia School, Washington`s Duke Ellington School, the Alabama School for the Performing Arts and the North Carolina School for the Performing Arts all are public magnet schools.
Jordan opened his school as ”The Academy” and for a brief period it also was known as the Chicago Academy for the Performing Arts before it settled down as the Chicago Academy for the Arts. Its formative years have not been without struggle and turmoil in terms of both direction and financial management. A laissez-faire attitude in the early years led to the
accumulation of a large operating deficit that made meeting the payroll a precarious exercise. Quite a bit of the tuition went uncollected.
With sounder business management, the $238,000 deficit the school had in 1984 was cut by one-third at the end of the last fiscal year. Nevertheless, the tuition was raised to $5,500 from $4,600 (the actual cost is $7,200) for the current school year, and faculty salaries were cut by 7 percent. ”Our plans are to break (even) with just a bank loan of $38,000 at the end of the current fiscal year,” headmaster Owen says.
It is ”an absolute certainty” that the school can survive, says Joyce Sloane, director of Second City and chairman of the Academy board of trustees. ”We`re dedicated to making it survive.”
Still, fund-raising is constant and often discouraging. One generous benefactor could have wiped out the debt years ago, but so far no one has come forward. ”I ask people to give to the future generation of stars, and they don`t give a damn,” says Essee Kupcinet. ”One person gave me $500 and said, `I can`t give you anymore,` and two weeks later gave $2 million to the zoo.”
Low enrollment also is a problem, due only in part to the recent tuition hike. ”When I first came here almost three years ago, the word out on the street was that we were this flaky, anything-goes, spend-a-lot-of-money, do-everything-for-show type of place,” says Dean of Students Hubbard. ”It hurt us. The type of `quality student` that we`re looking for wasn`t about to come to a place like that. The parents weren`t about to take a risk with their children in their adolescence, which is a touchy time of a person`s life.
”Since then we`ve taken a more conservative approach. We`re slightly off-center, and we try to make sure that everybody stays only slightly off-center. We do as much positive reinforcement as we can, but we`re not afraid to say, `Look, you`re on the line right now, and if you take one more step, you`re going to go over, which means I`ve got to suspend you.` ”
Most students, however, find a haven at the Academy. ”The backgrounds of the students are all different, but personalitywise, the people are more like me here,” says Lanko Miyazaki, a senior music major and visual artist who transferred from the Academy of the Sacred Heart.
Sally Boyle, the mother of actress Lara Flynn Boyle, took a second job to earn tuition money so that her daughter could attend the Academy and says the school was ”worth every penny. It was literally a godsend. Lara`s whole life changed. She was a wallflower. She was painfully shy and didn`t do well in a regular school. All she was interested in was acting. She was considered dumb. Then for the first time in her life she felt good about herself, and because of that she did better in her studies. She blossomed.”
Academically, the Academy is not a comprehensive high school. Only one foreign language, Spanish, is available, and there are few electives or advanced-placement courses.
”A lot of people say that this is an academic vacation,” says Joshua Feinberg, a senior theater major who transferred from Lincoln Park High School. ”Some classes are weaker than others, but, for instance, my humanities class is really enriching and a lot deeper than my average public- school class.”
The academic requirements are standard for the college preparatory track: four years of English, three years of mathematics, two years of science, two years of a foreign language and four years of humanities, which combines world and U.S. history with an emphasis on the arts. The school is fully accredited by the Illinois State Board of Education and provisionally accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States.
For the most part, classes are small, enabling plenty of attention from teachers, who, in the absence of a full-time counselor, often fulfill that role on an ad-hoc basis.
”I do lots of counseling,” says dance instructor Marisa O`Neill, a graduate of the New York High School of the Performing Arts. ”About issues from, `What am I going to do with the rest of my life?` and, `Am I dancing well?` to, `I broke up with my boyfriend` and, `My mother and I had a fight.` I think I have a good sense about what the kids want and how they think based on my own high school experience. This is a very hard place to be because there`s so much on your plate besides the academic work. It`s like having two full-time jobs.”
According to the teachers, their salaries are low. Owen says the starting pay is ”as good as any on the secondary level, public or private,” but he admits the pay has a tendency to ”go flat after three or four years.”
Nevertheless, all the teachers say they look forward to coming to work each day. ”It`s a big struggle to keep working under these conditions,” says Geoffrey Baer, chairman of the theater department. ”But we keep coming back because there`s something about working with young artists that makes this place magic.”
And the teachers are nothing if not sensitive and supportive. They also try to prepare their students for reality. Though the phrase ”Fame school”
is batted about for public-relations purposes, the school supports no fantasies about stardom. Of last year`s graduating class, 85 percent went on to college or conservatories, while 10 percent went directly into show business, mostly dancers, and the remainder took a breather.
”We don`t necessarily have the geniuses, though every year we get a few wildly talented kids,” says recruitment manager Fagan. ”Those that are really ambitious want to be on `The Cosby Show` by the time they graduate, but that`s not our message. We don`t push. We post auditions, but we`re not a booking agency. There`s no credit for life experience. Even if you were on
`The Cosby Show,` you`d still have to take Acting I.”
The arts courses are solid and academically oriented, blending the history and theory of the art form along with its practice.
Music majors take courses in music theory, music history and composition, and they also take part in ensemble work in addition to private lessons in voice, piano and guitar. Outside arrangements are made for other instruments. The emphasis is on classical music, but quite a few students work in rock or jazz ensembles.
The core of the theater program is the acting studio, using the realistic Stanislavski method. Drama survey, theater history, voice and body movement, and stagecraft are required, and there are several electives, including playwriting and stage design.
Dance majors are required to take history, survey/theory and composition courses in addition to rigorous ballet and modern dance studio courses.
The art department, though the largest in the school, is hampered by a lack of facilities. Poor ventilation prohibits the use of oil-based paints, there is no sculpture class and a printing press only recently was acquired. Consequently, drawing classes are emphasized. ”Our goal is to prepare our students with fundamental knowledge of the visual elements, especially drawing from observation,” says Glenn Rupert, chairman of the visual-art department. ”If students can tune their senses to observing and recording what they see, they`re going to be prepared as artists for the future.”
All seniors take a sophisticated humanities course taught by Dr. Bruce Horst, chairman of the music department and the sole Ph.D. on the faculty. It explores the relationship between the arts, psychology and philosophy and focuses on the creative process.
In addition, they are afforded as many performance opportunities as possible in the form of dance and music recitals, plays and art exhibits. And guest artists supplement the already solid teaching staff, offering different teaching styles and insight into their professional lives.
Students also are allowed to audition for roles during their arts time in the afternoons, provided they notify school authorities 24 hours in advance, and to accept roles in movie and plays, as long as there is a tutor on the set and they are able to complete their classwork.
Some students work as steadily they can. Anthony Russell, a senior theater major, has appeared as one of the Cratchit children in the Goodman Theatre`s ”A Christmas Carol” for the last three seasons. He also was a host of the Fox Television Network`s ”Over 17 Not Admitted.”
Russell says he`s interested in law as well as acting and plans to attend college. But asked where he sees himself in 10 years` time, he quickly says:
”I`d like to be a successful actor, preferably in theater. I`d like to walk the boards with De Niro and Olivier, but who knows?
Like the members of its class of `89, the Chicago Academy for the Arts is at a crossroads. The headmaster is leaving at the end of the spring term, and a replacement must be hired. Old St. Patrick`s Church has other plans for its school building, and a committee is searching for a new home, a larger one with space for more students and a real performance hall. There is talk of adding a creative-writing major. Faculty members believe the choice of headmaster will signal the direction the school will take in its next phase of development.
As long as the need to act, dance, sing, play music, draw and paint comes bursting out of the young, it seems certain that the Chicago Academy for the Arts will be there to share the marvelous adventure with future students as it did with Tom Gold.
”I couldn`t have made it in a regular high school,” says Gold, 20, now a member of the prestigious New York City Ballet. ”In 8th grade the counselors from the local public high school asked me what I wanted to do. When I said I wanted to dance, they told me: `That`s ridiculous. That`s not a living. You have to change your mind.`
”So I came to the Academy, where I had the freedom to take outside dance classes when the less experienced students were holding me back and the freedom to go to auditions, and now I`m doing what I really want to do, and I`m really happy!” –
