Thanks to psychologist Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, it is now widely accepted that are seven distinct types of intelligence among children. As any parent knows, some children excel at reading, writing and arithmetic, and schools like West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North and South have programs just for them.
For others, like the dancers and athletes who process knowledge through their bodies, musical children who constantly sing or drum to themselves, and those who think best in images and pictures, there’s the Mercer County School of Performing Arts.
Located on the Mercer County Community College campus, the high school offers an afternoon program that is free to Mercer County residents. Students accepted into the program attend their home schools for core academics in the morning, and then catch a bus over to the college for two afternoon classes.
Although the program is challengingly academic, students need only a C average to be considered. “Many times,” says Marjorie Herman, an associate professor at Mercer County Community College, who heads the high school’s vocal music department, “kids who feel like fish out of water in their own schools, come here and suddenly they are understood. Usually that means that they’re talented in a different way.”
Auditions for fall placement occur next on Wednesday, February 9, at 3 p.m. and Saturday, February 12, at 9:30 a.m. Auditions are by reservation only. No walk-ins are admitted.
“We’re looking for kids who already know that some type of career in the performing arts is going to figure into their lives,” says Herman, “They may not know exactly where or how. They may already be performing locally. We’re not looking for the ‘starry eyes,’ who want to make millions.”
And while it helps for a child to come in with certain spark, Herman adds, “We look for kids who are serious about learning music; for the kid who says, ‘I can’t live without singing.’ Ninety-five percent of our kids say that in one way or another.”
“The students don’t come here to just sing, act and dance. They have a full roster of academic programs. Vocal musicians get theater and dance training; drama students gets dance and vocal music instruction; and dancers get music and theater as well. It’s all integrated. Theater history, staging and movement, playwriting — it’s a very intensive program. Dancers even get a course in anatomy,” Herman says.
Says Herman: “We want them to be able to sight-read a piece they’ve never seen before in an audition. They learn keyboard techniques so they can work out their songs, and accompany themselves. We teach them dictation so they learn how to write down what they hear, which is more complicated than it sounds.”
“They also get an introduction into conducting so that, whether in church or a community group, they know how to handle a group of kids and a piece of music. Conducting incorporates vocal technique, theory, historical knowledge, even crowd control.”
The school creates a close environment, where instructors really get to know the kids. With approximately 60 kids in the school, a typical classroom consists of 15 to 20 students. Adds Herman: “The kids not only get more one-on-one time with instructors, they get to associate with other kids who are interested in what they’re interested in.”
Wendy Graham-Hugo, drama head of the school of Performing Arts for the past 19 years, agrees. “Believe it or not, actors can be shy and they sometimes get lost in a big school setting. Here they have small classes and they relate directly to the teachers and each other. Students who flounder in regular school come here and, all of a sudden, they like what they’re doing and their core grades improve. We’re not pulling students away from their regular school, we’re just giving them extra quality-time to help them succeed.”
Perhaps because of a sense of family, graduates return to pass on what they’ve learned. One former student who has made good, Robert Pullen, was a stage manager on Broadway for ‘Chicago’ and ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ and now works at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Says Graham-Hugo: “He is a true success.”
Pullen comes back every year bringing singers and dancers from Broadway to conduct a mock audition. They take the students through the process they would experience in New York, and then conduct a de-briefing at the end.
Another success, Elizabeth Johnston of Princeton Junction, who is at the Eastman School of Music, came back on her semester break to perform a recital and hold a Q & A with the students. She shared what it’s like to get into a conservatory. “They’re passing on a real education in what it’s like to be in the arts,” Graham-Hugo adds.
But, what makes a promising candidate? “A student should know the basics about music and be prepared to learn major scales, says Graham-Hugo. “Generally speaking, we want kids to know the basics about how to navigate a piece of music. We really salivate when we give them a piece of music and they can point out middle C. It’s not rare, but it’s less common than you think. Kids who take private lessons make up about half of the applicants. But we’re looking for that.”
“I like to think that I get the diamonds in the rough,” Graham-Hugo says. “I look for a kid who’s open, who’s willing to learn, willing to have different ideas, who wants this opportunity. It really comes down to their skill, what they’ve known before, whether they’re a quick study or not. Whether they’re able to take direction. The difference between a middle school student and a high school student is that they realize they don’t know everything and that the teachers are here to guide them and impart hard-earned knowledge in the arts.
“Not all of my kids are going to become professional actors,” admits Graham-Hugo, “but culture and art teaches them about who they are, how they can express themselves, what they want to be, what they are interested in — it gives them an avenue of expression. It’s important to find yourself, to be understood, and to know where you are going.”
What should parents of younger students who think their child has “IT” do to prepare them to attend the Mercer County School of Performing Arts several years from now? Herman advises, “Go out and see as much dance, theater, and music as they can, so they have a better idea of the real world.”
• For dancers, find a school that trains the whole dancer and offers classes in many areas: classical ballet, jazz, modern dance, hip-hop, even salsa.
• Expose drama students to as much dance and theater as possible so they know what’s out there.
• Vocal students should be singing in choirs, in church, and auditioning for kids’ musicals; anything other than popular music, which they get enough of at home.
• Enroll budding musicians in a preparatory musicianship class, to learn the nuts and bolts of reading and writing music.
Graham-Hugo says, “Parents come back and say, ‘He grew. We never thought he was going to go to college. And now he wants to go.’ Some kids decide, ‘I really want to study English, because you let me write plays. I didn’t know I could do that.’ On the flip side, my biggest challenge is motivating a child who doesn’t have that hunger. You have talent. You’ve got ‘IT.’ Now, what are you going to do with it?”
— Fran Ianacone
Mercer County Performing Arts High School, MCCC West Windsor, 609-586-3550.
