CHARLES COUNTY, Md. – For James Gray, a performer doesn’t have to be pitch perfect, but they have to have confidence in themselves.
“You are unique,” Gray said to students attending a Dec. 5 workshop at St. Charles High School. “There is no competition between you and anybody else. No competition.”
The workshop was open to students in the Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) All-County Theatre Troupe. Earlier this school year, the group staged “The Addams Family Musical: School Edition.” The production brought together performers and backstage talent from the seven CCPS high schools.
When representatives of Open Jar Studios, an audition and rehearsal space on 48th Street in New York City, reached out to CCPS theater teachers about running a workshop, it sounded like a good fit.
“Any opportunity students have to meet performers in the professional world, to learn what their life is like, what their story is … it gives our students a chance to understand if this is something they want to do,” Tessa Silvestro, theater arts teacher at North Point, said.
Ben Simpson, a theater arts teacher at St. Charles, agreed. “It’s a great opportunity for our kids,” he said. “Any time they get to hear a different perspective on theater and that professional viewpoint, it’s a good thing.”
Not all students at the workshop have dreams of center stage. That didn’t matter to Gray. He said the techniques he shares easily translate from the audition room to the board room.
“When you walk through those curtains and stand center stage, when you walk in to meet the dean or the faculty at the college you hope to go to or you go through a door for an interview for the job … you gotta love yourself. Ugh. I know, throw up,” Gray said.
“But you gotta know who you are. You have to have no care what anyone thinks about you.”
Sony Alvarez, a St. Charles junior said, started joining school productions last year. At St Charles, he’s been part of “The Laramie Project,” “Shrek: The Musical,” “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: High School Edition,” and has been cast as the male lead in the school’s spring jukebox musical, “Punk Rock Girl!”
He started theater last year and doesn’t know if it’s something he’ll pursue full time, but hearing about the life from someone who lives it was interesting. “I wanted to see the more professional side of theater,” Alvarez said.
CCPS high schools are preparing for spring shows. More information about productions will be shared at www.ccboe.com closer to show dates.