The City Springs Theatre Company began its education program shortly after its first production in 2018 and its growth has exceeded expectations.
Today it offers multiple education programs, including a Pre-Professional Company, The College Process, a Junior Theater Festival, summer programs, weekly classes, student matinees and scholarships.
Executive Director Natalie DeLancey said they knew education was going to be a component, but they weren’t sure how big it would be.
After the production of “42nd Street,” students and parents asked about arts education programs. That began with the launch of student matinees in December 2018, in which local school children attended performances. Students had their first chance to be on stage with Disney’s “Frozen Jr.” on the Byers Theatre stage in June 2019.
That Disney production served children who were interested in musical theater performance. But it included a technical theater track, with students building the sets, helping with costumes and lighting design, and managing the show.
“Since then, the Conservatory has taken off, honestly in a way that I wasn’t quite expecting at our young age,” DeLancey said.
One of the successes has been Central Gwinnett High School senior Tsumari Patterson, who started performing in middle school. He enrolled in City Springs Theatre Company education programs after attending one of those “Frozen Jr.” performances. He said he was sitting in the audience thinking this was what he needed to do with his life. He joined the City Springs Theatre Conservatory in the spring of 2020.
By then programs shifted almost exclusively to livestream classes and performances with the pandemic. Kids were stuck at home and unable to participate in their schools’ musicals or dance classes, DeLancey said. A free dance and acting class series was streamed on Zoom. Instagram Live classes were held, and more than 1,000 kids participated in the free instruction.
The Conservatory got more ambitious with its next program, called “Virtually Broadway.” Students worked with different faculty members on songs, monologues and dances. Students were filmed individually, and Marketing Director Mason Wood edited it to make it look like they were performing together.
These virtual productions the Conservatory was creating were shared with schools across the state, with “Schoolhouse Rock” performed live as teachers streamed it to more than 40,000 students, DeLancey said. An original student matinee called “Beautiful Hair” was filmed at North Springs High School and was seen by more than 45,000 students.
Since the pandemic restrictions ended, students have returned to City Springs Theatre Company’s studios on Dunwoody Place in Sandy Springs, and to the Studio and Byers Theatre in the Performing Arts Center at City Springs.
The City Springs Theatre Company tries to give students a professional experience in its education programs, employing highly-experienced music directors and vocal coaches, she said.
Patterson auditioned and was accepted into the Pre-Professional Program, which provides middle and high school students with rigorous, weekly training to prepare them for a career in the arts. Industry professionals with extensive years of teaching and performing lead the classes. Students participate in six hours of dance, singing and acting training every Sunday in the program.
Patterson progressed from a performer with minimal dance training to one of the strongest dancers in the Conservatory programs, DeLancey said.
As a rising senior, Patterson started taking advantage of another Conservatory program last summer, the College Process. It takes students – and their parents – through the musical theater college audition process step-by-step. Instructors and coaches from some of those colleges help the students learn what’s required in their college auditions and how to put those together.
With this help, Patterson said he was accepted by six colleges by early February. The practice and coaching prepared him so well that when he attended a unified audition in Chicago that brought together representatives from 100 college programs, he didn’t feel scared and he could show off what he had learned.
The Conservatory can take a person who loves theater and turn them into an artist who makes theater with an understanding of the world of this industry, Patterson said.
Patterson started off as an audience member and won the audition for the lead role in “Godspell Jr.” after training at the Conservatory.
“My place in it is so much stronger because of all this experience. It has provided all the opportunities that have simply been blessings, that they’ve just been almost thrown at me. And all I had to do was just be passionate and put my best foot forward,” he said.
