SOME of the best performing arts colleges in the U.S. have opened their doors to Marianas High School’s junior and senior students who showcased their talents in the Thespian Nation Live last month.
About 30 colleges, some of which are high-ranking performing arts schools in the states, noticed the talents of seven MHS students who participated in the workshops and audition events in the virtual festival.
Among these colleges are the Juilliard School where Robin Williams, Kevin Spacey and Christopher Reeve have graduated; the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, which produced popular music artists like Jason Mraz; and the National Theatre Institute, the alma mater of Jennifer Gardner and Elizabeth Olsen.
The MHS students who passed the audition process are juniors Amy Soliman, Jody Coloma, Jonathan Wolf, Juliet Inocencia, Jzl Santonim, Vladimir Palma and senior Keghani Chaparian.
Their advisor, Harold Easton said Inocencia received calls from NTI and 19 other colleges; Wolf got offers from Juilliard and 16 other colleges; Soliman got a call from Drake University, AMDA and 15 other colleges; Coloma got offers from Drake, Miami University and eight others; Chaparian had a call from University of Nevada and eight other colleges; Santonim also received recognition from University of Nevada, Drake and eight others while Palma has to choose among Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana State University and three others.
Wolf responded to all the colleges that emailed him, he said.
Now that they passed the audition these students have to apply and get admitted and hopefully receive scholarships.
“They are now being recruited to the schools for admissions and we’re hoping this leads to scholarships and opportunities for them to go to colleges where they can practice the theater arts,” Easton said.
These admissions and scholarship offers, he added, “validate [that] they have the skills. It means that there are colleges that are really interested in them and some of these colleges are extremely well-known.”
Now, he said it is a matter of going through the admission process and that these students begin to make decisions.
Easton said the students at the same time appreciate the help and guidance they have received from their coaches, Kristine Wolf and Jojo Alepuyo.
First crack
Because they are still juniors, the MHS students, except Chaparian, will be applying for 2022.
“The juniors still have one year to decide so these colleges are not going to be pushing quite as hard now since they’re going to be looking at the seniors like Chaparian for Class 2021,” Easton said.
“But if these students begin to apply for 2022, they get into early admission programs. Early admission, he said, has a lot of benefits for students. They get the first crack of everything,” he added.
“Now that they know that performing arts colleges want them, these students know that they have the talent, and now it is a question of which and how well it works for them, something they ultimately are going to do.
“And there’s a lot of different ways they can do it. They are not being locked into anything. Nobody is trying to push them down any particular road. They have a lot of different ways they can go and it’s now up to them to see what they want to do,” Easton said.
As for MHS, he said, “Part of our jobs is we just try to help them move on down the road.”
“Our job is to create opportunities,” he added. “And then, we are here to help them take advantage of them as best as we can.”
A career of their choice
Confronted by a “bunch of opportunities” to advance the career of their choice, the students shared how they feel about the offers they received.
Wolf, who performed a monologue in the Thespian Nation Live, said he has not decided which one to choose among the 17 colleges that made him offers.
But those that he contacted were the Juilliard School, Yale School of Drama, AMDA, Loyola University New Orleans and University of Nevada, Reno. “I’ve contacted them, and I really like the schools. They’ve major colleges and their offers are amazing,” he said.
“All these [colleges] opened a whole bunch of opportunities for me to pick from and, I’ll see which one I would prefer,” he said.
Inocencia, who did a solo musical, said NTI is among the colleges that reached out to her. Just a few days ago, she participated in NTI’s online workshop during which she learned “understanding the song,” among other things. “It was really fun,” she added.
The University of North Carolina’s School of Arts reached out to her, too. “I kind of replied to them because they also have a school for teachers and the arts.”
Soliman, who did a dramatic monologue and a comedic monologue, said she got emails from 17 colleges, but the one that “stood out” to her was NTI.
“They asked me if they were the school of my choice so they gave me a free application to any program of my choice,” she said. Since she won’t be going to college until 2022, Soliman said she’s looking at attending NTI’s summer program that year.
Chaparian, who will be graduating from high school this year, said she and her family are moving to California so she has to see which of those colleges that are requesting application have a campus there.
Santonim, an MHS Glee Club member, said she got a request to apply from 15 colleges and one of them asked her to apply for a $16,000 scholarship grant.
“I was really surprised by that one. I am excited and I am really happy that I did this audition process,” she said.
Palma, who’s into film making, submitted his works to several colleges and received calls from a few of them.
“What made it difficult was that there is no special category for filmmaking in the festival. They only have for the singers and actors and nothing for filmmaking,” he said.
He received calls from five colleges. “It was a surprise to me up to this day because my works were not even a category,” Palma said.
“I am guessing they liked my films,” he added.
Marianas High School students who received recognition from various performing arts colleges in the U.S. pose for a photo with their advisor Harold Easton. From left, Julia Inocencio, Keghani Chaparian, Jzl Santonim, Amy Soliman, Vlaidmir Palma, Jonathan Wolf and Easton Not in the picture is Jody Coloma.
Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano
