News + Info
A post by Jenna Wilcox, PAA Artistic Director. Memorization is the grunt work of the performing arts. Whether a jam poet or a Shakespearian actor, we all must memorize on a regular basis. So, how do you make it easier and faster? The first step is actually understanding your own learning style. Using the tips…
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A post by Jenna Wilcox, PAA Artistic Director. In the arts we meet and work with lots of different people. Some of these people are very much like us and making friends is fast and easy. Some are very different from us and it can be hard to understand where they are coming from. It…
Read MoreA post by Dr. James Ramsey, PAA Executive Director. Its no secret that we think singing can be fun. However, research suggests that singing in a choir might be also good for our psychologicalwell-being. A study presented by a masters student, Nick Stewart, from Oxford Brookes in London last month was quite enlightening and affirms…
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Music is wonderful. It stimulates our creativity, stirs emotions and brings color to our lives. For kids, it is also a wonderful educational platform. Music is mathematical. Learning to count, read beats and notes all supports and grows a child’s math skills. It is also great for fine motor development. Learning to place fingers on…
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It may seem strange that we hold curriculum as a core value at PAA. Curriculum is defined as “the subjects comprising a course of study in a school or college”. Keeping curriculum at the center of our focus helps all of us at PAA work toward the common goal of educating our students. This education…
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This business of show we all work at is an incredibly competitive business. At any given audition you may be sitting with 10 or more people who look very much like you and all of them likely can sing, dance and act about as well as you. So how do you set yourself apart? Hard work!…
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Community has always been important to me. As a kid I loved playing with the other kids on my street. In the summer we would play freeze tag and kick the can in our front yards. In winter we would have snowball fights or dig tunnels and create our own little city. And, since I…
Read MoreA post by Jenna Wilcox, PAA Artistic Director. At PAA we spend time working on character. We delve into the scripts and scores looking for clues on who we are playing. What does my character need? Who does my character love or hate? How does the direction given by the director change my interpretation of…
Read MoreA guest post by Brian Olson, PAA marketing consultant. There’s a great joke about a guy in New York asking a cab driver how to get to Carnegie Hall. The response? “Practice man, practice.” Success is hard work! It’s been an awesome summer of performances by St. Luke’s Performing Arts Academy. Seeing the kids performing,…
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A guest post by Elise Collins, PAA student and Boettcher Scholar. My greatest passion is life, observing and experiencing it in all of its teeming and vibrant complexity. Perhaps it is for this reason that I have an intense fervor for performing. Yet such excitement for the miracle of existence did not blossom overnight. It…
Read MoreA post by Krista Beckman, PAA Assistant Producer. Among the ambiguities in spelling that have arisen during the evolution of the English language, perhaps few are as hotly contested as the “theatre”/“theatre” pairing. The spelling entry for these words on the Grammarist website is followed by a long comments section full of insults and sarcasm,…
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A post by Krista Beckman, PAA Assistant Producer. At PAA, we’ve found that one of the most unique and effective ways to motivate students and foster friendships is – perhaps not surprisingly – CANDY! Though it involves hundreds of chocolate bars and countless lollipops, our Candy Kudos initiative is about much more than satisfying the…
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