Wanna be famous

By Kumari Mason

Chicago High School for the Arts

What comes to mind when you hear the term performing arts high school? Do you think “High School Musical”? Do you think that the kids who attend these schools learn only about the arts? Do you think that most of the kids there are stuck up? What about “Glee”? These are some of the stereotypes about performing arts high schools and their students. People who attend these schools everyday seldom get to tell what really happens.

Even though a performing arts high school isn’t your typical high school, students still take reading and math classes. At the Chicago High School for the Arts, students and teachers take their classes very seriously.

Adam Blackman, 15, is a musical theater major at ChiArts entering his second year. For Adam, a normal school day is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with classes from 8 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. During that time you may take math, science and history, and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., you study your arts. A musical theater major may take acting, vocal, dancing and choir class. In acting, you learn improv, storytelling theater and the building blocks of acting (who, what, when, where and how).

In your first year of vocal you learn classical music. What does classical music have to do with musical theater? “You have to know it all,” says Adam. When you’re in the entertainment world, it’s important to know how to do more than one talent, because you may get hired for more parts. In the first year of dance, you learn the basics, such as dance terms and how to do certain moves. The class is mainly an introduction to ballet.

After that busy day at school you still have homework for all your classes. Sometimes Adam takes private lessons during the week and has to prepare for shows outside of school, such as the award-winning musical “Cats.” “It’s all worth it. You make friends that you never had before and you get to do everything you love everyday,” he says of his long days. “It feels like I’m getting closer to my dreams as each school day goes by.”

Other students take part in performing arts but they don’t attend performing arts high schools. Rmonda Baggette, 17, is a senior at Gary Comer College Prep High School. “They are great schools. They help teenagers express themselves and let them do what best fits them,” she says. If she had the chance to attend a performing arts school, Rmonda says she would study singing and drums.

At a performing arts high school, your arts teachers are just as important as the other teachers in preparing you for the future. Rachel Slavick is an acting teacher at Chicago High School for the Arts. She also teaches at DePaul University and is a part of a Theater Mir, a small theater company in the Chicago area.

“I can be teaching at Chicago High School for the Arts part of the day and then go do a production the next,” she says. She worked with high school students for the first time in 2009.

“I never knew what to expect teaching high school students because I taught at DePaul University for 15 years,” she says. Now she says that she “loves them like they where my own.”

Faheem Majeed is a sculptor and the acting-executive director of the South Side Community Arts Center where he works with teens in the community. Majeed didn’t always want to be an artist. He wanted to be a vet but found that it was very boring. That’s when his art teachers in high school got him into the arts. He went to Howard University in Washington, D.C., and took up painting. He then realized that painting wasn't for him. That’s when he took up sculpting and hasn’t stopped.

“It’s important to have more than one mentor. You have different mentors for different things,” he says. “I had my mother to teach me about profit, my dad taught me about business and I had my sculpting professors. Having a mentor is good because they point you in the right direction.”

Majeed is concerned about funding of the arts: “It’s not a good situation. Growing up I had two to three visual art classes in high school. Now they usually tack all the arts on as an after-school program.”

Deep budget cuts threaten arts education programs nationwide. Many don’t see the arts as important as other issues we face today. In the Chicago area, funding for the arts is dwindling, forcing schools to partner with non-profit groups for help.

“Even though funding is low, that doesn’t mean students shouldn’t get into them [arts],” Slavick says. There are many programs in Chicago such as the Looking Glass Theater, Actor Gymnasium, After School Matters and Gallery 37 that offer students the chance to participate in the arts. They offer scholarships and some pay students for participating.

“Growing up you should get not a plate of culture but a buffet of culture,” says Majeed. “It’s not being handed out. I’m hopeful but not happy.”