(check out main website: http://www.mccoyrigby.com)
This summer, I had the pleasure of interviewing David Green, original founder of OCHSA and current (and also original) Artistic Director at McCoy Rigby Conservatory of the Arts:
PMJ: David, when were you first approached by McCoy Rigby about becoming artistic director?
DG: I am the director of the annual Tree Lighting Show at Fashion Island, and this past year, I asked Cathy Rigby to join the show to play Mrs. Claus. She accepted, at which time I was introduced to the McCoy Rigby Dance Academy and its tremendous dance program. I then asked the MRDA dancers to participate in the production as well, and it was a wonderful collaboration. Then in January, my former Conservatory - The California Conservatory of the Arts - produced a nationally recognized production at The Barclay Theater in Irvine that featured the music of Stephen Schwartz and nine Broadway stars. Mr. Schwartz gave us the rights to his entire songbook, and once again, I asked the MRDA Dancers to join us. Over the course of these two events, we all began to realize that our vision for training young people in the arts and offering these professional level performance opportunities was the same and that with our combined talents and expertise, collaboratively we might be able to create one of the finest training grounds for young singers, dancers and actors on the West Coast. Because McCoy Rigby Entertainment's primary focus is "theatrical production," it was just natural for them to want to develop an intensive, high quality educational program for actors and singers in addition to the outstanding training they were already offering in dance. With my twenty plus years of experience in arts education and my track record of training young people for Broadway, Film and Television careers, it seemed like the right match.
It was a difficult decision for me to close my very successful south county Conservatory but we all believed that with our combined resources, we would be able to expand our influence on the lives of even more talented young people with aspirations for careers in the arts, in both north and south Orange County and neighboring counties, than either of us could do independently.
PMJ: What was your initial vision for the studio when you were asked to be artistic director, and has that vision been realized or even added to?
DG: I have always believed in offering high level training in a positive, uplifting and nurturing environment where students feel safe to risk and grow. My mission has always been to provide young people with the training, the tools and the mentors necessary to take them to the next level and to provide them with an environment that is above all creative and inspiring. I feel totally supported in that vision by Tom McCoy and Cathy Rigby McCoy, and think we are off to a great start.
Programs like this take time to build. We started off last spring by offering a handful of classes in voice and acting, and then this summer kicked off a very high level "summer stock" program. This fall, we will debut our full Conservatory training program called "Broadway U." I think this is only the beginning.
PMJ: You are offering a rich variety of programs to MRCA students. Are these programs unique to MRCA, or are some/all similar to those offered at OCHSA?
DG: Of course since I was a founding director of, and instrumental in building, OCHSA I have always carried the best of what I developed there with me to my other ventures - including my amazing faculty of Broadway professionals who followed me to CCA and now to MRCA - however, over the past seven years since OCHSA, I have developed a unique style and approach in training young people and have created unique "one of a kind" instructional and performance programs that, although imitated, are different than any other "school of the arts" in Southern California. I was the first high school performing arts program in the region to bring in Equity and Broadway performers to work alongside my students in theatrical performances and created "The New Works Program" where I continue to offer opportunities with the leading Broadway composers and writers in developing their New Works "hands on" with our students that no one else has yet been able to emulate. I think the biggest difference in our approach is that we stay small enough to truly be able to offer the "one on one" mentorship and coaching necessary to grow as an artist that similar programs, due to their size, are unable to offer. Our focus is in not only on "technique," but on the real world skills that are necessary to build and sustain a career in this business.
PMJ: What are your goals for the studio?
DG: I hope to provide educational opportunities at all levels - classes for those who just want to "explore the arts," and also high level classes for those who intend to pursue this as a career. I want to be a creative center for both the aspiring artist and the art lover. Not everyone will pursue, or be successful in the pursuit of, a career in the arts but I believe it is important for the human spirit to nurture each of our gifts and our passions no matter where we end up taking them.
In collaboration with McCoy Rigby Entertainment, I am also excited to develop "stepping stone" opportunities into the world of professional theatre that has no other high school of the arts can possibly offer because they are not affiliated with a professional theatre. We have dreams of not only training our students for Broadway but, in some cases, providing them the vehicle to get there. No other school of the arts has the capability of actually providing students with exceptional training but also their equity card.
PMJ: Is there any one program you are especially enthused about?
DG: I am truly excited about everything we are offering, but I guess I can focus on a couple of programs that are totally unique to MRCA: The McCoy Rigby National Youth Summer Stock and The Broadway Intensive.
The National Youth Summer Stock is a five-week intensive where sixty talented young performers, ages 14-21, and selected by audition, participated in master classes with Broadway professionals and mounted and performed in three fully staged musical theatre productions. The participants will spend over forty hours a week together in classes and rehearsals. This first year, it was more of a "regional program" with students coming from Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego counties, but next year we will launch the Summer Stock on a national level.
Our amazing Master Teachers included Broadway composers Jason Robert Brown, Stuart Ross and Jeff Marx, film and television producer/director Garry Marshall, Grammy winning composer Paul Williams, and Broadway Stars Shoshana Bean (WICKED), Eric Kunze (MISS SAIGON and LES MIS) and Tony-nominated stage, film and television actress Jonelle Allen (TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA and DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN).
Each student was cast in at least two of the musicals - FORBIDDEN BROADWAY, CURTAINS and HAPPY DAYS - and worked in a technical capacity (props, lights, sound, wardrobe, etc) on the third. There are no programs quite like this offered anywhere else in the country.
The "Broadway Intensive" is something I have been offering for eight years at my former Conservatory and am bringing to MRCA. Students have the opportunity to study in New York City - actually "on Broadway" - for a week, each fall and spring, with the most celebrated actors, writers, directors, composers and choreographers in the business, attend Broadway production and meet the casts of the shows in both formal and informal Q&A sessions and perform in a musical of their own at a major off-Broadway venue. It is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.
PMJ: How are performers chosen for the Broadway Intensive? Do they audition or are they hand-picked?
DG: "The Broadway Intensive" opportunity is offered first to those students who are enrolled in The Broadway-U Conservatory program. As space allows, the opportunity is made available to young people who are not currently enrolled in our programs.
PMJ: Same question for the Civic Light Opera group.
DG: The McCoy Rigby Civic Light Opera will be the first program of its kind in Southern California - a professionally-produced youth theatre for highly talented young people, ages 14-21, from throughout the region. The Youth CLO will produce two musicals annually at The La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts or a similar professional Orange County venue and the intention is that the production s will be professional in every way - the only difference between the Youth CLO and any other CLO or regional theatre will be the age of the performers. Auditions will be open to young people from all parts of Southern California and not restricted to those participating in MRCA's "Broadway-U" or other programs. However, those enrolled in MRCA classes will receive priority in casting. We hope to give young performers who are of a Broadway caliber but are not yet being considered for roles in professional regional theatres because of their age and experience, the chance to be seen and reviewd in high caliber productions and to build their professional resumes. The Youth CLO will also offer equity contracts to adult actors so that the young people will get to work with, and learn from, equity and celebrated Broadway performers in selected musicals.
PMJ: And additional thought, David?
DG: The cornerstone of the entire MRCA is "Broadway-U." This is an after-school Conservatory program that is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) that is offered during the traditional school year, from September through June. Students are selected by audition. The faculty is comprised of working professional artists who have Masters Degrees and/or equivalent professional experience in their respective areas of expertise. Students attend their own homeschool, including public and private schools and magnet arts-schools, for their academic studies and attend MRCA classes in the late afternoons and evenings. Concurrent with their core "Broadway-U" classes, students have the opportunity to participate in high-level, professionally-produced performances and performing groups at major theatrical venues throughout the region ad the nation.
The "Broadway-U" is designed for young people, grades 9-12, and for college students up to age 21. We also offer "Broadway-U Prep," which is a similarly comprehensive musical theatre program for young people in grades 508.
We are also planning to open a satellite campus for "Broadway-U" in partnership with The South Orange County School of the ARts at Dana Hills High School this fall. The south county program will offer both a Performance Major for triple threats - singer/dancer/actors - and a Dance Major.
