Evolution We Change With You

Santa Ana , California

June 2016

From Trailers to Towers : OCSA ’ s Turning the Big 3-0 !

Jack Murphy Co-Editor-in-Chief

1987 : Gas was 87 cents per gallon , average rent was $ 395 per month , “ The Simpsons ” premiered on TV , and Orange County High School of the Arts was launched as an after-school arts program at Los Alamitos High School ( LAHS ).

2016 : Average price of gas is $ 2.30 , average rent is $ 1,200 , “ Fuller House ” premiers on Netflix , and OCSA adds the DMS to become a state-ofthe-art , eight-building campus across three city blocks serving 2,150 students .

To kick off the 30th anniversary , “ Celebrating 30 Years of Pure Imagination ,” alum Matthew Morrison will host “ Season Premiere ” at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach in September . Along with Morrison , the show will feature other alumni , as well as some of his fellow colleagues from past projects .

Throughout the year , various alumni are expected to appear in performances , lead master classes , guest direct ,

and even perform in an original song at Season Finale .

The annual Gala fundraiser ’ s tagline will be “ Expect the Unexpected ,” planning to draw the year-long focus from alumni to current students . The show will include musical numbers highlighting the best of the past five Galas , as well as a flashback to 1987 with Dr . Opacic , OCSA founder and executive director , and some alumni .

Those early days in the late ‘ 80s might be a pretty hard picture for current students to believe .

Ralph Opacic with students at a piano circa spring 1987

“ I taught in an electronics closet when I first started at OCSA ,” said Creative Director Cindy Peca , on staff since 1989 . “ We had to sweep it and we had to move the cords and everything away before we could have a dance class in there .”

Besides the infrastructural differences , Peca believes a huge change since the LAHS days has been formation of community .

“ Even though we had a few departments back then , we never saw each other ,” said Peca .

The campus was

spread out over LAHS and a nearby middle school , so students from different conservatories did not interact and work with each other like today .

Another noticeable difference over the past 30 years : growth . In 1987 , there were only 120 students ; currently , there are 2,150 .

Integrated Arts Director Heather Stafford , on staff since 1994 , not only noticed the schoolwide growth , but the growth within the conservatory she built up from its beginnings . “ The first time I had graduates we only

had three ,” she said . “ Now , we have about 40 .”

Before becoming the director of IA , Stafford taught Advanced Acting for Musical Theatre . She started the conservatory at a desk in the arts office hallway with a phone and computer , recruting staff members to teach .

With the move to Santa Ana in 2000 came substantial changes in financial operations . Opacic said , “ we went overnight from a $ 750,000 business to a $ 10,000,000 business .”

The new financial obligations came with serious burdens : “ Within the first two years , we found ourselves $ 4 million deficit . We were near bankruptcy ,” said Opacic .

The school was close to shutting its doors for good .

Now , administration is in early-stage conversations with school districts in the San Gabriel Valley and South Bay . The plan for the first campus in San Diego County , which was delayed in December , is still in the works , in hopes of securing real estate in downtown Oceanside .

OC Register Artists of the Year

Nikki Rosenbloom Staff Writer

Every year , the OC Register accepts nominations from high school teachers across Orange County for the title of Varsity Arts Artist of the Year in theater , dance , instrumental music , vocal music , visual arts and film .

This year , there were 391 submissions . In the end , 60 finalists were chosen with 10 artists representing each category . Two OCSA students won the Varsity Arts Artist of the Year in their discipline : senior Amanda Sun ( CCD ) for dance and junior Yeo Jean Song ( VA ) for visual arts .

Among the finalists at OCSA were Sydney Dardis ( CV ), Brian Dinh ( VA ), Hannah Kim ( IM ), Claire Offenberger ( FTV ), Sabrina Rincon ( CMD ), Jason Risdana ( CV ), and Jemelee Wang ( IM ).

Sun ’ s dance audition drew inspiration from various sources . She wanted to “ share [ her ] love for

Amanda Sun Photo Courtesy of Amanda Sun

dance and science , and thought that this opportunity would be perfect to create something new ,” she said .

“ My first piece that I auditioned with was exploring the connections between literature and the brain through dance . I was inspired by my AP Literature class , where we were reading “ The Sound and The Fury ” by William Faulkner . The second piece that I created was an exploration of classical Indian dance , where I learned different hand motions and incorporated them into the modern dance ,” said Sun .

Classical and Contemporary Dance ( CCD ) Director Steven Hyde reflected on Sun ’ s success

Yeo Jean Song Photo Courtesy of OC Register

due to her individuality : “[ Sun ] possesses mature body awareness--physical manifestations of expressive spinal articulations accented through dynamics . Basically , Amanda is able to morph her body into shapes that emotionally connect [ with ] and move those observing her .”

For visual artist Song , her main purpose in participating was to receive constructive feedback on her artwork .

“ I thought it was a really cool opportunity , and I could get some honest criticism from it ,” she said . “ Am I actually good , or are people just too polite to tell me I ’ m awful ?”

Song bases her art on the storyboards of films and games .

“ I try to reveal as much of the story as possible in one snapshot , while leaving some details hazy to make it interesting . It usually ends up having a strong solitary light and shaded backgrounds . Sometimes my art doesn ’ t even make sense , even to me , because I try to make the most bizarre story ever ,” she said .

Song has also used her art form to hold onto a connection to her father , who also was an artist and whose job , at one time , took him to South Korea from Song and her family in the OC .