UB, Everyman Theatre, Hippodrome Foundation Form Partnership to Create New College Opportunities for Local High School Artists
May 23, 2016
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
Each year, hundreds of Baltimore high school theater students successfully matriculate into college to pursue a degree in their field. Most are planning to make the theater industry a career and will focus on securing a degree in the performing arts. But historically, many others who have undergone the same rigorous high school performing arts curriculum at Baltimore School for the Arts, Carver Center for Arts and Technology, Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts, along with other schools, will not advance to college. These students have been trained and have strong skills, but financial and other barriers make college an unlikely choice. Many give up on their dreams of pursuing theater, taking jobs in unrelated fields and moving in another direction.
To address this problem, the University of Baltimore has formed a collaboration with the Hippodrome Foundation and Everyman Theatre to establish a new option for these specific students: a pathway entitled Performance Studies: Baltimore. Based on the ensemble model of performance training and launching at UB this fall, this collaboration expects to provide a college opportunity for students who might otherwise not pursue a degree. Their UB experience will give them a platform of enhanced postsecondary educational opportunities to further develop their careers through experiential learning, rigor and mentoring. Everyman Theatre and the Hippodrome will provide access to experts to make this model one of the most unique college-level theater options in the country.
The Hippodrome Foundation works to introduce Maryland students and community members to the arts and all the assets of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center. Everyman Theatre is an intimate Equity theatre with a resident company of artists from the Baltimore/Washington area, dedicated to producing high-quality plays that are affordable and accessible to everyone.
"In the same way that Baltimore needs its smart young people who want to work in science, business, law, government and education, we also need those talented youth who hope to become actors, musicians, painters—artists of all kinds," said University of Baltimore President Kurt L. Schmoke. "I am thrilled that we are building on our existing degree program in Integrated Arts and collaborating with the Hippodrome Foundation and Everyman Theatre to see that even more performance opportunities are available to these students. We want them to continue their studies in the area of performing arts and we want to remove barriers that might have prevented them from doing so."
Performance Studies: Baltimore will be an extension of UB's existing Integrated Arts program in its Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences. UB will be responsible for the curriculum, which will focus on the experiential potential of a guided, performative ensemble. Everyman Theatre and the Hippodrome Foundation will offer mentoring opportunities, lectures and residencies with artists on a visiting basis. Everyman Theatre company members will not only mentor but will teach special topic level courses in voice, movement, scene study, and improvisation. The Performance Studies: Baltimore curriculum will focus on the "teach to performance" model; the University’s performing arts series, Spotlight UB, will promote each ensemble’s spring semester performances.
"Mentoring is a respected tradition in education and nowhere is this more important than in the arts. Our program will unite young gifted performing artists with experienced, respected, practicing professionals whose artistic tap root is in Maryland," said Donald Hicken, retiring chair of the drama department at Baltimore School for the Arts and the originator of the idea for Performance Studies: Baltimore. "Each student will develop his or her craft through nurturing guidance and shared process provided by current actors, directors, writers, composers and designers with years of practical experience in the many worlds of professional theatre. There is a compelling need for such a program in Baltimore. The city continues to yield talented young performers who hunger for the opportunity to hone their skills and practice their craft in their own hometown."
Jeffrey Hoover, UB Integrated Arts program director, said, "This performance studies initiative, partnering with Everyman Theatre and the Hippodrome Theatre, is a wonderful opportunity for both students and the University of Baltimore. A great strength in this collaboration is while students are working with theater specialists, through the course offerings in the Integrated Arts Program at the University of Baltimore, they also learn about presenting the arts, managing the arts, and continuing on their own personal growth path in the context of today’s evolving arts scene. UB is dedicated to providing real-life experience such as this for its students."
"We congratulate Donald Hicken for bringing us all together to fill a void for students who might not otherwise move forward to pursue a college degree," said Olive Waxter, executive director of the Hippodrome Foundation. "We look forward to working with UB and Everyman and know that together we will be a very positive force in students' lives."
"I salute UB and Donald Hicken for creating a dynamic university training program that integrates a conservatory environment with access to top professionals in their field," said Vincent M. Lancisi, founding artistic director of Everyman Theatre. "This fits right into Everyman Theatre's mission of employing local professional theatre artists."
Learn more about the initiative via coverage of the partnership's June 6 official announcement on WJZ-TV.
UB Admissions Office will sponsor a Performance Studies: Baltimore information session for potential students and feeder school guidance staff on Tuesday, June 21 from 6-8 p.m. in the Wright Theater at the University of Baltimore. For more information, contact Kimberley Lynne at klynne@ubalt.edu or Jessica O'Keefe in the Office of Admission.
Find out more about Performance Studies: Baltimore, the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences and the undergraduate major in Integrated Arts at UB.
Learn more about Spotlight UB.
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the College of Public Affairs, the Merrick School of Business, the UB School of Law and the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences.