How Sonoma County’s drama kids are getting real-life training at ArtQuest

Stagestruck and blinded by the spotlight, aspiring young actors often have grandiose ideas about life on the stage, but in reality there’s a lot of hard work ahead, often in obscurity.

One of the goals of Santa Rosa High School’s ArtQuest Theatre program is to prepare its students to work in community and professional theater outside of school - not just onstage but in vital backstage roles that help make theatrical magic possible.

Kat Motley, 17, an ArtQuest senior from Santa Rosa, is working backstage on the current 6th Street Playhouse production of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” moving set pieces as needed and keeping an eye on the children in the cast. She helped with the sound equipment for the theater’s February production of “Million Dollar Quartet” and served as assistant stage manager for “The King and Marilyn” in March. She also played a supporting role onstage in the Playhouse production of “Annie”

While Motley aims to become a professional entertainer and perhaps an acting coach, she’s grateful for practical experience in various production jobs around the Playhouse.

“ArtQuest opens up many different avenues, rather just acting,” she said. “I never would have known I had any interest in set design if not for ArtQuest. Now I know it’s one of my passions. And I wouldn’t be the actor I am today if it weren’t for ArtQuest. The program does its job.”

Jereme Anglin teaches ArtQuest Theatre’s intermediate and advanced classes, while the beginning classes are taught by Danielle Cain, who also serves on the theater faculties at Sonoma State University and Napa Valley College.

“We act like a professional theater company, so the kids have to do everything - build sets, paint scenery, stage-?manage and run the lights,” Anglin said.

“Danielle Cain and I were hired with Career Technical Education credentials,” he explained. “This is an alternative route to teacher certification that allows professional artists to be hired by schools with the goal of training them to join the global workforce. As a result, we actively reach out and pursue internships for our students in local theaters, giving them real workplace and career experience.”

The overall ArtQuest program, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, offers specialized training in both the visual and performing arts - including not only theater arts, but digital arts, photography, video, visual fine arts, dance, and instrumental and vocal music.

Founded in 1994 as a magnet program for young people who seek training for professional arts careers, ArtQuest draws students from schools all over Sonoma County and beyond. Students also participate in their own productions in the ArtQuest Theatre space at Santa Rosa High School, including Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” earlier this month.

ArtQuest Theatre students have performed and done production work at Main Stage West in Sebastopol, The Imaginists Theatre Collective in Santa Rosa, the Raven Performing Arts Theatre in Healdsburg and the Spreckels Theatre Company in Rohnert Park, among others. Sometimes, students are even given small stipends as payment.

“The ArtQuest Theatre program was created as a professional training ground,” said Sheri Lee Miller, artistic director of the Spreckels Theatre Company. “When we hire someone from that program, we trust they are coming in with a certain degree of training.”

Lennie Dean, interim education director at 6th Street Playhouse said ArtQuest students enjoy a good reputation with the people that work in local live theater companies.

“The kids who come to us from ArtQuest have a broader base,” Dean said. “They know that it’s more than just acting. They’re not going into it just because they want attention.”

ArtQuest Theatre senior Maya Humphrey, 19, of Sebastopol, found herself moving up quickly at Main Stage West.

“I started out as a lighting intern there, and then after a while they hired me as stage manager for two different shows,” she said. “It’s such a small place that I also do a lot of work with lights and sound. I really want to stay in local theaters doing backstage work. I like it because actors can do a lot by themselves but when you add lights and sound, it all comes together. I like adding that in.”

Cortunay Minor, 17, of Santa Rosa, in her third and final year at ArtQuest Theatre, believes the program has given much more than just theater training. She has performed as an actor at parks and other outdoor venues throughout the county with The Imaginists’ annual Art Is Medicine bilingual theater tour, but also has grown as a person, she said.

“I believe I can firmly say that I wouldn’t be in the position I am academically, professionally and personally if it hadn’t been for ArtQuest. The arts have opened up my confidence and my ability to interact with people.”

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 707-521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @danarts.