 | | SHELBY CASE/CENTRAL OREGONIAN | | Crook County High School student Chelsea Lofton was among a select few students from around the United States to participate in the theater program, Summer Seminar for High School Juniors in Ashland. |
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Chelsea Lofton absolutely loves the theater.
The aspiring community theater student has now had an opportunity to see how the professionals work, thanks to attending the 2006 Summer Seminar for High School Juniors at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, which lasted from July 31 through Aug. 12.
Lofton, who will be a senior this fall, was one of just 65 students from across the United States to participate in the theater workshop. Students came from Oregon, California, Washington, Nevada, Texas, Hawaii, Wyoming, Montana and Pennsylvania.
Lofton said she and her grandmother, Anne Porter, had been discussing going to the festival. She was looking at the Southern Oregon University (SOU) Web site about classes and found out about some student opportunities through that site and "this was the ultimate student opportunity," Porter said. Through the seminar, she received two college credits.
"And we came upon the application completely by accident," Lofton said, adding that finding the information was perfect timing because she was going to be a senior this fall.
"When I got the envelope in the mail saying I'd been accepted, I didn't even open it," Lofton said, smiling. Instead, she placed the envelope toward light so she could see the wording, "and I saw the word 'congratulations!'"
"I scared my grandmother, driving up the alley, screaming 'Yee! Oh my God!'" Lofton recalled, laughing.
The Summer Seminar, started in 1981, is a rigorous program intended for a select group of theater students who have recently finished their junior year. Lofton was among those who stayed on the campus at SOU, where OSF's theater professionals present workshops and forums on a variety of topics.
Students learned about the workings of a successful repertory theater company, and attended forums and workshops on such topics as theater administration, stage management, costume construction, scenic painting, properties, sound and theatrical lighting, as well as Renaissance dance, stage combat, marketing and publicity, fund-raising, auditioning
techniques, physical characterization, creative criticism and movement and voice for the stage.
Lofton received about $1,300 from the Soroptimists Club, the Kiwanis Club, PEO Sisterhood, Brooks Resources, the Prineville Music/Theater Booster Club, as well as several individuals and a $400 scholarship from the festival)s Bowmer Society that all helped her attend the sessions. Lofton is active in the booster club.
Also, students attended nine of OSF's productions and collaborated on projects.
She saw a variety of plays including "Cyrano de Bergerac."
"That was my favorite one because the understudy was amazing," she said of "Cyrano." "He had only gotten a day's notice that he was filling in for Marco Barcelli, and throughout the entire three hours, he called for a line maybe three times."
Lofton said she and other students did not get to meet the understudy, but heard from a friend of his that "he probably would've remembered all his lines if he had not been looking at the prompter."
The senior said she was fortunate enough to participate in the hands-on properties intensive workshop, "where we ended up playing with plaster and then making broccoli" as she pointed out in a thank-you letter to her sponsors. Properties, also known as props, refer to anything actors use or touch, such as lighting or a recreation of a microphone. For example, she pointed out a real looking stem of broccoli, which was made out of yellow rope, duct tape and green spray paint. The materials were fused together with a blow torch.
"It was kind of interesting because I didn't realize they had to make a majority of the props," Lofton said. She and other students visited where the stage crew kept all the prop categories - everything from telephones to lettuce.
"And I just thought it would be extremely fun to make some of those properties that they get to make on stage," she said.
She also participated in a theater make-up intensive, watching a man who was in "King John" and "Cyrano de Bergerac" do his makeup for three of his performances. Additionally, students also received a tour of the costumes workshop, seeing where and how costumes were made.
Lofton lived in Los Angeles for a long time and then moved up to Prineville two years ago. She grew up by California State University of Northridge, which has a good theater reputation. Participating in theater at CSU has also helped her.
"I took two years of summer school there and I had a really, really shy stage, and through participating in summer school I got over that real fast," she said.
Lofton had hopes of participating in musical theater.
"After attending the seminar, I realized how competitive the acting field is," she said. She's not yet sure where she will go for her college studies, and wants to stay active in theater.
"I mean, even if I don't pursue that as a career, I definitely plan on participating in community theater," the senior said.
She loves the theater.
"It's probably one of the most enjoyable things I've found is doing theater," Lofton said. "I guess it's 'cause I wasn't always a very happy person. I had issues with my mom and father and everything's cleared up now."
Lofton was able to perform monologues on stage at CCHS and at her prior school. These she performed from a perspective she could relate to and "it was like instant gratification that I was out there." She added that she was able to better express her emotions through the stage.
Her grandmother, Anne, spoke highly of her and the fact that she was just one of a handful of students to be accepted for the festival. To the best of their knowledge, Lofton is the only CCHS student to ever be accepted for the seminar.
"She did a wonderful job on the essay. To my knowledge, she's been interested in theater since junior high school," Porter said. "I was just glad to be able to see her do something that was such a special opportunity."
Both Porter and Lofton hope other CCHS students will apply to attend the seminar in the future. Lofton also emphasized the need for students and other Crook County residents to travel to see the plays in Ashland.
"It was nice that the Ashland Shakespearian Festival got exposure from that and we're hoping that they will send a troupe here," Porter said. |
