Overview
The Magnet is composed of students 9grades 9—12) interested in six content areas: drama, dance, instrumental music, vocal music, video production, and stagecraft and live production technology. Classes which will enrich but not duplicate those offered in the traditional school will allow students to explore the influence of the performing arts in all aspects of the high school curriculum.
The school is located on the campus of Van Nuys High School in the heart of Van Nuys. Also on the campus is a Math/Science Magnet and a Medical Magnet.
Configuration
The Performing Arts Magnet is an ethically diverse program drawing its student from a large number of the district’s high school areas. The total enrollment is 461 students, many of which have been identified as gifted. The Magnet student ethnic composition, as per the original court order and organizational chart, is 40% white and 60% minority
Educational Philosophy
The Performing Arts Magnet will challenge talent and encourage the pursuit of excellence in aesthetic fields. The emphasis will develop students who will perform, appreciate, understand and be curious about the arts inherent in a diversity of cultures. Activities emphasizing the relationship of arts and the culture will be included. For example, dance classes will learn dances from various cultures, mime will be used to show the commonality of cultures. The school has many students who, although they may not become professionals in the arts, will be adults who will contribute to and esteem the cultural arts of our society.
Differentiated Objectives
The curriculum of the Performing Arts Magnet satisfies all requirements and objectives of the District’s comprehensive high school, plus the following:
English
Students will:
- Gain experience in oral readings of plays and literature, to which compositions and other assignments will be added.
- Learn how to participate in group discussions pertaining to the genre of literature assigned.
- Acquire competency in role playing
- Learn oral research techniques
- Be able to create dramatic effects through acting activities.
- Understand poetry through oral interpretation.
- Acquire the ability to critique.
- Develop the ability to participate in forensic activities
- Develop the ability to share their assignments orally
- Develop the ability to communicate ideas, using the body as the instrument of expression.
Music
Students will:
- Perform in a concert setting
- Understand the subtleties of performance and intepretation
- Develop a sensitive approach to music performance
- Become aware of historical periods of music
- Experience solo opportunities
- Learn rehearsal and conducting skills
- Be selected to conduct various performing groups
- Perform off campus for community events.
Dance
Students will:
- Develop strong bodies for good dance form.
- Develop original works, thereby gaining self-confidence.
- Develop a working vocabulary of dance concepts.
- Learn problem solving through movement
- Develop rhythmic expression
- Be prepared for audition opportunities
- Learn to critique professional dancers
Drama
Students will:
- Learn stage vocabulary
- Learn audition techniques
- Learn memorization techniques
- Learn voice projection and stage movement
- Be able to understand the script form
- Be able to interact with others
- Learn how to take direction
- Experience solo and group work
- Be able to apply stage make-up
- Learn fundamentals of set design, staging, lighting, publicity and costume design in a professional setting
- Enter festivals and perform in front of audiences.
TV/Video Program
Students will:
- Learn terminology for proper coverage and construction of a scene for documentary and narrative film
- Be technically proficient in the use of the video camera and video edit system
- Become aware of various genres of film and video and apply this knowledge to the production of original video works
- Learn teamwork through production work in small groups
- Be able to understand narrative story structure through analysis of films and apply this knowledge to original work.
- Be able to write evaluative essays on media related topics.
- Present original work in school wide showcases and city, state and national festivals.
- Study film aesthetics and apply this knowledge through the production of original work.
Stagecraft and Concert and Theatrical Sound and LightingStudents will:
- Learn construction practices for building sets.
- Learn to move and store stage props and set items.
- Learn to assemble and disassemble stages.
- Learn to hang and store curtains
- Learn to design sets
- Learn to safely handle lighting and sound equipment.
- Learn to design lighting schemes
- Learn to move sound and lighting equipment from one venue to another
- Learn to perform sound checks
- Learn how to maintain and tune musical instruments.
Expectation of Student Performance
Several types of students will succeed at the Performing Arts Magnet
- The college-bound student who is talented and interested in pursuing a career in a performing arts field.
- The college-bound student who is interested in the appreciation of the arts and wants an avocational experience in the field.
- The non college-bound student who is talented and wishes to enter the field during or immediately after high school.
Students will be expected to complete the course of study prescribed by the University of California and/or the Cal State University systems. In addition, students are expected to be in performing arts classes each semester. Students must also meet the district eligibility requirement of a GPA of 2.0 or better in order to appear in or work in performances.
Multicultural Activities
All productions will be cast without regard to race or color,
Performers from all ethnic groups will be invited to conduct workshops with the students.
A mariachi instrumental group has recently been developed into a class.
Students will
- Understand the unique features of individual works of music, art, dance and drama as they reflect their cultures.
- Perform materials that are unique to various cultures.
- Understand the commonality of music, art, dance and drama in diverse cultures.
- Perform material that shows the link-up of all cultures through the arts. They will, through instruction and performance, realize that the arts are a language that transcends differences between cultures.
Special Curriculum
- In every classroom in the Performing Arts Magnet, the teacher is aware that the arts are a part of the curriculum. Oral presentations, debate, play reading and music appreciation are brought in through the history, English and performance classes.
- Students will se professional dancers perform and will join dancers for master classes on site and off.
- Students will hear professional musicians perform and joint musicians for master’s classes on site and off.
- Students will perform music, dance and drama on site and off.
- The instrumental and vocal groups will perform in other schools and at various community functions (such as the Northridge Hospital Volunteer Luncheon).
- Students will be given tickets to performance in all areas they become available.
- Students will be given auditioning opportunities.
- Students will be given backstage passes to professional concerts to watch how lighting and sound preparations take place.
- Students will listen to speakers within the concert industry cover the fine points of equipment care and maintenance.
Auditorium Renovation:
The school’s auditorium is nearing the completion of a major renovation that began in 1999. After significant contributions were made by the Integration Office, local Board Member Julie Korenstein’s Office, the Magnet Parents’ Association and the Korean Parents’ Association, and the addition of equipment for the Live Concert Academy, the Donna Hubbard auditorium is the finest performance venue in the district. In the first year after its rededication it has been the site for the District Orchestra Festival and the District Choreography Festival.
The renovation of the pipe organ, the addition of state of the art stage lighting and sound system enables the students in the Stage Technology track to learn and develop skills that are marketable upon graduation. This innovation has also heightened the value of the facility as a filming site for outside organizations. A recent commercial shoot left a brand new Marley dance floor that is custom fitted to the stage. The dancers now have their own floor for performances.
New seating, a new concession stand, sconces, new curtains and a new marquee have contributed to the experience of students, parents and community members as they attend our performances.
Parental and Community Involvement
The parents of students in the Math/Science magnet along with the parents of the Performing Arts and Medical Magnets have collectively formed the Van Nuys High School Magnet Parents Association, a non-profit organization for support and advocacy. Through rigorous fund raising they support a number of projects that cannot be funded by the district. They have been instrumental in the renovation of the auditorium and in acquiring board support on a number of relevant issues. The affairs of the group are managed by an elected board that meets once a month independent of the general body.
The group conducts monthly meetings that cover topics relevant to the magnet community. The meetings also allow parents to form connections. The organization also publishes a monthly newsletter that keeps parents informed of activities and important dates for the students. They also represent the magnet programs during the articulations with the middle schools during December and January.
The Performing Arts Magnet has formed a liaison with the Zappa Institute of Technology which sponsors the Live Concert Academy program on the campus through the R.O.P. program. The majority of students are Performing Arts Magnet students, and the course teaches students how to effect sound and lighting technology for the live performances of our students. This provides our students with the opportunity to learn professional theatrical techniques that makes them employable immediately upon graduation. Manufacturers of musical instruments and lighting equipment and professional technicians and musicians regularly come on campus to provide lessons to our students in the Live Concert Academy.
We have also recently formed a liaison with one of the producers of the television network series Malcolm In The Middle, who is also a Van Nuys High School Magnet alumnus. Alex Gutenmakher has lectured to our Performing Arts students and will soon be taking our video students through the post production process for his series.
These two community liaisons have enabled us to form a connection with the entertainment industry that should provide us with further opportunities in the future.
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