Choaties Pursue Arts Beyond Campus Students Attend Prestigious Summer Programs and Arts Colleges
By Elizabeth Gribkoff ‘09
News Staff Reporter
Every year, both graduating and current Choate students attend art schools either during the summer or as their fulltime educational program. This summer and next year, students will be heading off to prestigious institutions such as Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, Cherubs (a summer program at Northwestern University), and the University of Pennsylvania. What more are these students searching for when they attend these specialized programs? And what drives them to seek better arts instruction?
Upon coming to Choate, Katie Hartsoe ’06 morphed from a tri-varsity athlete to a member of Choate’s Arts Concentration Program and a frequent participant in Choate’s many drama productions. She savored the experience she was able to gain in theatre at Choate, and will be attending Tisch next year to further explore acting. Tisch especially appealed to Katie because “it’s in the city, which is a huge artistic resource, and the business of theatre is about making connections.” Alex Kveton’06, who will also be attending Tisch next year to focus on all aspects of theatre, agreed with Katie about the benefits of being in New York City. A Wallingford resident his entire life, Kveton commented, “What’s better than getting out into the city, right where everything is?” Students who will be attending art schools are also drawn to the experienced instructors who would be working with them; Hartsoe commented, “All of my teachers will be professionals who have been in the business and who know what it’s like.”
Caila Koster ‘09 will be attending Episcopal High School next year in Jacksonville, Florida, where she will submerge herself in dance through the school’s art program. Though Koster loved the drama section at Choate because “it added more depth to my strength as a performer,” she wishes to pay special attention to her dancing. According to Koster, “I never realized how important dance was to me until I got here... Everyone was sharing their varsity hockey skills, and I was like ‘Hey, I’m a varsity dancer, doesn’t anyone care?” At Episcopal, Koster will be spending two hours during her school-day dancing, and will devote three hours outside of class honing her skills. Koster’s “passion” requires her to spend far more time practicing than such an academically rigorous school as Choate can accommodate. Koster feels it will be harder for her to gain respect having the occupation as a dancer; however, she still wants to follow with her dream of someday opening a dance company in New York City. In her own words, “My favorite place to be is on the stage, no matter what is going on around me.”
Many artistic Choate students, including Hartsoe and Kveton, attend summer programs at various universities and high schools across the country to further their knowledge of the arts. Alexandra Drago ‘08 loves the two theatre programs she has attended in previous years, including Choate’s Summer Arts Conservatory, and is currently enrolled in a summer theatre workshop at the University of Pennsylvania this summer. By attending an intense theatre program during the summer, Drago feels she will be able to concentrate more on theatre than she can during the school year. Her past experiences at summer conservatories have been encouraging; at a program she attended in the county where she resides in New York, “They brought in the dance captain of ‘Chicago’ and she taught us the dance routine to “All That Jazz.” This summer, she hopes to broaden the scope of her acting capability from musical theatre to “dramatic acting,” as well as meet more arts oriented people like herself. The program at the University of Pennsylvania appealed to Drago because of “the small class sizes, so I will get more individual attention.” She hopes that by strengthening her skills as an actor through summer programs and Choate, she will eventually be able to continue her education in the arts during college.
Cherubs, formally known as the National High School Institute, consists of 6 divisions totaling about 850 students per year (last year the Theatre Division had 161 students). Last summer, four Choate students attended the program - Kveton, Hartsoe, Madeline Ruskin ‘06, and Jacqueline Salamack ‘06. Each division offers high school juniors an opportunity to explore their selected discipline at the college-level with a disparate and exceptional faculty. Ruskin, “the Theatre Arts Division, in which I participated this past summer, is intended for those students who pursue theatre with unwavering passion.” Theatre Cherubs explore different theatrical mediums and fields in order to enhance their understanding of the creative process. The program aims to teach its students that the theatre is an intellectually, emotionally, and physically demanding art form.
All students agreed that Choate’s arts department has helped them immensely in discovering which areas they wished to explore, as well as helped with the arts school admission process. Hartsoe received help from acting instructor Tracy Ginder-Delventhal with her auditions, “We worked on it (Hartsoe’s monologue that she needed to perform in an audition the next day) for about forty-five minutes, and it helped take it to the next level.” Students who desire to someday have a career in the arts are obviously highly motivated and willing to put everything on the line for an opportunity to do what they love.
