NJPAC Summer Youth Performance Workshop Graduates Take Stage at Victoria Theater

We're in room 313 of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) classroom and workshop building, just east of the theaters. Actress and drama instructor Nikkole Salter is calling out instructions to her young troupe of actors as they throw themselves into a demanding rehearsal: "Straighten your arm — fully extended; not sadness; pursue your goal," Salter directs. Meanwhile, the class's co-instructor, Danielle Thompson, is observing every student carefully.

In a few minutes, these performers, age 13 to 18, will come together for the first time with their counterparts in modern dance, musical theater and vocal music in NJPAC's spacious Chase Room. Since June 27, they have been honing their chosen craft in NJPAC's prestigious Summer Youth Performance Workshops (SYPW), an intense Monday through Friday, five week immersion programs in the arts — intense as in going full tilt from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each day.

The word chosen is central here: This past March, hundreds of hopefuls had converged on NJPAC for a demanding audition. The 72 participants, representing 11 counties in New Jersey, were the ones with the talent, training, determination and spark who made it.

Newark can be proud; six of their budding artists passed the test, along with 16 others from throughout Essex County.  Among the Newark participants is acting students Ernissa Williams who is entering her senior year at American History High School, a city magnet school. "This workshop is so intense; it's been amazing," Williams said. "I've learned how to be free in my body movements, how to move differently to portray different characters."

Jeffrey Griglak, the director of Arts Training at NJPAC talked with rightful pride about the SYPW program. As a youth Griglak, the son of musicians, spent his Saturdays traveling 40 miles each way from his rural Pennsylvania home to study music with members of the Pittsburgh Symphony. A 30-year veteran New York City performing artist, Griglak has been drawing upon his years of varied experiences in the arts to assemble a top flight staff of instructors in Newark.

"The Summer Youth Performance Program exemplifies what I envisioned for NJPAC," Griglak said. "The level and quality of teaching is thrilling."

Last year, in addition to the excellent NJPAC-SYPW faculty, Griglak initiated a master class program. "We have 14 artists come and present specialty two-hour programs," Griglak said. "For example Justin Greer, the dance captain for the current Broadway revival of 'Anything Goes,' taught movement for vocalists and Sanem Ozcan, the lead actress of the State Theater of Istanbul, taught acting for dancers."

Many of the master classes cut across disciplines or explore subspecialties such as hip hop, jazz singing or Pilates conditioning for dancers, not to mention the all important "Presenting Oneself Professionally," by Michelle Ivey. Ivey is a singer, image consultant and official liaison to Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro.

Griglak takes special pride that admission to the NJPAC program is needs based. "Money is never the deciding factor; no one is turned away," Griglak said. "We have a strong scholarship program; throughout this year we offered 142 arts education scholarships to Newark students."

Frankly, the NJPAC-SYPW program grabbed me even before I entered the three and a half story arts education workshop building. An older structure that long predates NJPAC, it has been retrofitted into professional rehearsal spaces and boasts a black box theater and recital hall. After painting it white, NJPAC commissioned an artist to festoon the entire façade with bold graphics spelling out MUSIC, DANCE, THEATER, DRAMA, POETRY and WRITING in a repeating vertical and horizontal pattern.

As to the acting students, they were perfecting the presentation of their own scripted prelude to the upcoming showcase presentation of the finale from "The Lion King."  Mourning the passing of the earth, they launched into a restoration of wind, water and fire: "But why isn't the earth restored?" they intoned.

A half an hour later, they repeated the performance for a rapt audience of their peers — the dancers and vocalists seeing the drama students for the first time while they awaited their own moments in the center of the room.

Learn more about arts education at NJPAC by clicking here; there are programs all year. The NJPAC-SYWP Showcase takes place in the center's Victoria Theater at 7 p.m., Thursday, at One Center Street in downtown Newark. Tickets for this event are free. That night, there is also a  free musical performance presented by the summertime "Sounds of the City" starting at 5 p.m. and run until about 10 p.m. on NJPAC's outdoor Theater Square, weather permitting.