A six-week, in-person musical theatre intensive will take place this summer semester from July 6 to August 5.
The course will be 1-5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Students will receive training in acting, dancing and singing in the summer program.
Students will be able to return to campus while following COVID-19 protocols as safety remains a top priority for the college. Dean of Visual and Performing Arts John Vaughan said the specific guidelines for returning to campus are still a work in progress.
“We have to wait to make sure we are following all of the guidelines that Los Angeles County Health gives us as well as the plans that are submitted to the coronavirus task force here on campus,” Vaughan said.
Most of the performing arts summer classes will be outside and start two weeks later to allow more time to adjust to anticipated county guidelines.
“Everyone feels safe that way,” Vaughan said. “Science tells us that being outside, especially if you’re outside and using masks, is a much safer environment.”
Faculty hopes this setting will allow more freedom to slowly resume performing arts training, even though it may not be the same as previous years.
Every summer, Citrus produces a summer musical open to all Citrus students. However, due to the uncertainty and restrictions of the pandemic, this summer intensive will focus on training and technique for high school seniors and college students rather than a performance.
The program’s flyer says additional topics of focus will include audition skills, song selection, cold readings, performance techniques and industry guest lecturers.
Dance Professor Renee Liskey and Music Professor Doug Austin will be teaching this intensive.
Liskey said the two main goals for the summer intensive are to get students together in a creative space and back to training.
“A lot of students have been stuck in bathrooms, garages and small bedrooms— places that aren’t conducive to really working their craft,” Liskey said. “We’ll do a lot of ballet barre work, conditioning, working on their lines, working on correct placement of their bodies and getting that technique back into their bodies.”
The transition to online art education has been demanding on both students and teachers, with the pandemic impacting both training and mental health. Liskey said her classes had to adapt to the lack of instant feedback that is usually the norm in dance classes.
“I want to reintroduce them to that level of training and get them back on the path that they were on prior to going on lockdown a year ago,” she said.
Liskey focused on slowing down, checking in, condensing technique and making sure students were not getting injured in their small spaces.
“I had to give them some time to be validated and experience their feelings,” Liskey said. “They kind of did the same for me, in terms of allowing me to give different options, allowing me to go a little slower, allowing me to feel my emotions about the situation.”
After an uncertain year, performing arts teachers look forward to students reconnecting with their peers, campus, teachers and art practices.
Liskey said the Visual and Performing Arts program has put together a protocol that includes spacing, mask use, checking in names when on campus, QR codes for buildings and bathrooms and other methods to help with contact tracing.
For the summer courses, the hope is more freedom to be back in person and indoors.
“I might possibly have this musical theatre class in the campus center,” Liskey said. “That space in the campus center is really large. Students would be masked, but we would be able to spread out to the appropriate distance away from each other and still be inside where it’s cool.”
As L.A. County enters the less restrictive yellow tier for COVID-19, faculty is optimistic about the slow transition back into in-person classes.
Students can register for the summer session on Wingspan starting May 10. The CRNS are 42266 and 42267.
For more information on the program, students can email Doug Austin at daustin@citruscollege.edu or refer to the flyer on the Citrus Visual and Performing Arts Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/793015260844357/posts/2441425802669953/.
