But enrolling in the musical theater program at OCHSA really helped him as an artist: "I was able to immerse myself 100 percent in what I did artistically. It wasn't just something I did on the side. I had academic classes, yes, but now my days were surrounded by doing what I loved to do." He adds, "All of a sudden, I was one of the popular kids and it was all about how talented you were."
Several young performers who went to performing arts high schools concurred that the experience gave them a leg up in their careers and, more importantly, spoke directly to their passion for the arts. Coby Getzug started at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in his sophomore year. "We had school from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.—academics until lunch, and then we would have our arts classes until 4 p.m.," he says. "It was kind of like being in a conservatory program while being in high school, which was amazing."
Taylor Patterson had planned to attend a regular high school in New York City, but after going to an open house for prospective students at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (known as LaGuardia Arts), she changed her mind. "I knew that it was the place that I had to be," she explains. "I could tell right away that I was on the same wavelength as the other kids. We were all artsy kids and all so passionate about something at such a young age. That was a wonderful environment to be in.""I think television and the media has reintroduced the arts to the next generation of kids, which is just great," says Ralph S. Opacic, founder and executive director of OCHSA. "Ten years ago, who would have thought a TV series like 'Glee' would have been getting so much attention?" The "High School Musical" movies and shows like "So You Think You Can Dance" have also put the spotlight back on the arts, he notes. "Our focus at OCHSA is to provide our students with a rigorous preparatory college academic program, so that when they graduate from high school they're prepared academically to go on to higher ed and so that they're given a head start in the arts area they're passionate about. Many students don't experience this kind of arts training until they're well into college, or they have to go to a professional acting lab or dance studio."
On the opposite coast, Veronica York, college office director at LaGuardia Arts, voices a similar sentiment: "We are a dual-mission school that really tries to treat academics and the arts equally. We think you need both to have a well-rounded education." Thirty years ago, her institution (then known as the High School of Performing Arts) played a key role in inspiring a previous generation, when the movie "Fame" and the subsequent TV series burst on the scene.
The former students we spoke to all look back with appreciation on the training and experience they received at their schools. "LCHSA gave me opportunities to focus on different aspects of the theater that really helped me become a well-rounded actor," says Getzug, who performed in several class projects in his senior year, including a stage version of the classic Marx Brothers film "Duck Soup" and the Federico GarcÃa Lorca play "Blood Wedding." At LaGuardia Arts, Patterson was cast in a production of Michael Frayn's popular farce "Noises Off." "It required a whole new set of discipline, which we have as high school students but generally choose not to employ," she says.
Krysta Rodriguez, who graduated from OCHSA in 2002, had the unique opportunity to play the lead in a tryout of the brand-new show "Gidget: The Musical," co-written and directed by none other than Francis Ford Coppola. She had been performing in Orange County children's theater since the age of 12 and had set her sights on OCHSA, but she wasn't deterred when she didn't get into its theater program in her first year. "I was very determined to go anyway," she says, "so I enrolled in the production and design department—scene-building and spotlight-operating jobs—and then I re-auditioned the next year and got into the program."
Post-Graduation PlansIn her senior year, Rodriguez was faced with the difficult decision of all high school seniors: What next? She was accepted at both NYU and UCLA, and she chose NYU. "I had always planned on going to New York, and I decided that if I was going to do it, this was the way to do it," she says. "College was a safer environment to be in. I had a dorm room and a meal plan and I could learn how to navigate my way in the city without the pressures of having to work."
As it turned out, Rodriguez never finished college. First she landed a role in the Beach Boys musical, "Good Vibrations," on Broadway. When that show closed after four months, she re-enrolled in NYU but then was cast in the national tour of "The Boy Friend," directed by Julie Andrews. She managed to squeeze in a summer semester, but then came her second Broadway gig, "Spring Awakening." By this time her career was in full swing. Two Broadway shows later ("A Chorus Line" and "In the Heights"), she was cast as Wednesday in "The Addams Family." "It's really kind of the holy grail of Broadway shows," she says. "You want to be able to put a stamp on something, and you want it tailored for what you do best." Having created the role in the musical's first workshop more than two years ago, she continues in the current Broadway production.
Noah Robbins nearly experienced a similar derailment of his college plans. Although he didn't go to a performing arts high school per se, he says that his school, Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C., gave him excellent opportunities in theater (he played Max Bialystock in its production of "The Producers"). While still in school, he went out to L.A. and acquired an agent, and as he was finishing his senior year, he landed the role of the young Eugene Jerome in the Broadway revival of Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs." "It was perfect timing," he says. "I had just got into Columbia a couple of days before, so I knew that I could take a year off from college."
He graduated from high school in June 2009 and two months later started rehearsals for the Simon play, which began previews in October. Within a month, however, the revival closed, just one week after opening. But Robbins was soon cast as the young lead, opposite John Glover, in Primary Stages' Off-Broadway production of Jonathan Tolins' "Secrets of the Trade." He finished that run just in time to start a liberal arts program at Columbia University this fall. Speaking of the shuttering of "Brighton Beach" and the cancellation of its sequel, "Broadway Bound," Robbins says, "As sad as I am that it happened, I'm glad that I had a taste of such disappointment so soon, so that now that I've experienced that, I can take it all in my stride. I was still lucky, compared to some people who didn't get to perform. At least I got that one week."
One person who didn't get even one performance in "Brighton Beach Memoirs" is Getzug. He was cast as Robbins' understudy prior to starting his senior year at LACHSA. But things worked out okay for him too. He returned to Los Angeles to complete his senior year and then chose UCLA for college, "because they let you spend your time between musical theater and other academic education," he says. In April, however, he landed the role of Moritz in the new national tour of "Spring Awakening." He'll take a year off to do the show, but he fully intends to continue his education. "As much as I love theater, I want to be well-educated and have a broad spectrum," he says. "I think that if I know more about history, psychology, English, whatever, all that will inform what I do when I'm acting."
Taking Your TimeAltemus, now 23, is about to complete one year Off-Broadway playing the love-struck youth in "The Fantasticks," and he has just completed a role in the pilot for a new HBO series, "The Miraculous Year," written by John Logan ("Red") and directed by Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow. "I see it as a kind of adult 'Glee,' " says Altemus. "It's about this family, and the central character is a deranged but very brilliant and successful composer, in the vein of Sondheim. My character is a young dancer who is willing to do whatever it takes to come out on top."
His first choice for college after graduating from OCHSA in 2005 was NYU, but he wasn't accepted. Instead he chose the small but intense conservatory program in musical theater at the University of Cincinnati and has no regrets. "Moving to Ohio from Orange County was a culture shock," he says. "It prepared me for understanding what it was like to live in a huge city like New York now." He advises others to think carefully about their choices for after high school: "I think people need to be patient. I know what it feels like to want to jump into the industry and get started immediately. Our youth-obsessed culture doesn't help any. But I don't think it's worth giving up that time, which, in retrospect, goes by so quickly that you actually end up missing it."
Dancer Samantha Barriento, who graduated from LaGuardia Arts in June, came to a similar conclusion. She ended up choosing the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at Ailey/Fordham, a partnership between Fordham University and the Ailey School in New York. "It's as intensive as a conservatory, but you're also taking academic classes," she says. From reading the bios of numerous dancers she'd seen perform in the city, she noticed that nowadays contemporary companies are taking a lot more dancers who have graduated from college. "I think it's because you gather more life experience, and that definitely adds to the nuances and texture of your dancing. I notice that you gravitate towards those dancers when they're on stage because they have more to offer. The younger dancers probably can do more physically, but that doesn't necessarily make them better performers."
Patterson, who also graduated from LaGuardia Arts this June, decided to pursue her higher education at UCLA, even though it doesn't offer a BFA acting program. "I took some time and chose the B.A. program," she says, "because although acting is what I want to be doing, I'm a person who values other experiences as well. The program at UCLA is structured a lot like a BFA in the sense that it's very intense, but half of my classes are outside the school theater."
Such choices are not easy to make, particularly when you're still a teenager, and Patterson offers this advice to her peers: "I would say evaluate how you feel about your art. If you're the kind of person who honestly cannot fathom doing anything but acting, singing, or dancing, and if you're dreading having to take academic classes during college, then do a BFA." Or you can do what she did and pick a program that feeds your other interests as well. "Research your program," she says. "Find the ones that offer classes that you cannot wait to take, and go for it."