Twelve years ago my partner and I co-founded US Performing Arts to facilitate and promote the dreams of emerging young artists in entertainment. You see, he’s a dreamer too. In fact sometimes his dreams are so big I can’t even comprehend them but I believe in them. Just as I believe in yours.

Getting back to my thoughts on the fulfillment of those dreams, I’ve had lots of years to watch people succeed. I’ve come to realize that those who really succeed are those who learn to believe in themselves and don’t give up. Sometimes the dream is modified. Sometimes the dreamer needs to have a bigger vision. Mostly the dreamer needs someone who inspires and motivates them. They also need someone to guide them. I think that’s where US Performing Arts comes in. Our faculty is incredibly inspiring and motivational but most important they know how to guide and train the dream. It’s the training that underpins and nourishes the dream. It allows it to develop in its own way and keeps it from faltering.

Take a step towards achieving your dream this summer. Reach for new heights and attain a new level. We can help you find the workshop itinerary that is right for you. Give us a call or register online and begin to make your dream come true.

From the first look and first sounds my snobbish sophistication disappeared. The sets and costumes were gorgeous. The opera singers, many of whose names I recognized from New York, San Francisco and European stages, were absolutely first-rate. I was amazed. I could hardly wait to meet up with some of these performers to ask them why? Why Santa Fe?

Here’s what I found out and here’s why lo these many years later we finally have a summer theater camp with Santa Fe University of Art and Design. Billed as Santa Fe University of Art and Design Theatre Intensive I have no doubt it will establish embers of creativity and passion that will ignite the craft of all those who participate. Santa Fe is populated year ’round with extraordinarily creative people. Artists, actors, dancers and singers retool and refuel in Santa Fe. Best of all for our students, summer is when all the performing arts festivals take place! There is an absolute plethora of arts events. The Santa Fe Opera and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival present their seasons of world class performances, the Thirsty Ear Festival of roots music, the New Mexico Jazz Festival, the Santa Fe Bluegrass & Old Time Music Festival. If that’s not enough, Santa Fe is a favorite location for filmmakers. In fact, I have a friend there right now directing the movie The Last Stand. Santa Fe is definitely a place to stir your creative juices.

For all the above reasons, and my respect for the performing arts program, its chair and faculty, that I am so excited about this summer theatre intensive. It’s also about my strong belief that that there is a right college fit for every student and this is a special place for a special group of talented creative emerging artists. So, if you’re a rising high school junior or senior come try it on this summer and if you’re a high school drama teacher Santa Fe is waiting for you this summer.

Finally, just finally, and it took Stephen Spielberg to do it, someone has produced an intelligent character driven story about dreams, about talent, and about connectivity. The characters in Smash are so real with such real conflicts in their lives that everyone can relate to them. For those of us who happen to be in the same line of work it’s a great sense of recognition and credibility for who we are and how big we dream.

This isn’t intended to be a review of Smash but rather a discussion about the “real deal.” I’d never thought much about that phrase until the first year of our New York City summer camp workshops. Within 24 hours after the program ended I started receiving e-mails and letters from parents and students thanking US Performing Arts for what they said was the real deal. Of course I knew what they meant but I like words and phrases and I like to get to their origin. Here’s what I found out. The real deal means something or someone genuine, authentic, or worthy of serious regard. Now that was a compliment of the highest recognition.

Living up to the definition of the real deal takes constant evaluation. First it means constructing a curriculum that has professional expectations of training emerging artists in their craft. It means a staff of highly qualified authentic Broadway performers with teaching skills worthy of serious regard. It means nurturing students to success and most important it means that those teachers are dedicated to the program 100% and not just making a quick appearance so that their name may be used. Our faculty works in the trenches with kids. Year after year students have worked with faculty like Harolyn Blackwell, Baayork Lee, and Donna McKechnie to name just a few.

This year’s New York faculty is summing up to be as exciting as always. Whether you’re looking for a Broadway Styles Dance Camp, a Dance Conservatory, a Musical Theater Camp, or a Broadway Conservatory we have the Broadway experience that’s the real deal! On top of that, each camp will help prepare you for your next step – college.

For everyone who has dreams of Broadway we’re here to help you achieve them. Dream B I G, work hard at your craft and enjoy your journey.

If you’re a young actor, or a parent or teacher of an emerging artist, guiding them towards making their dreams a reality, finding the right training programs can be a difficult task. If your child is between the ages of 11-18, US Performing Arts has the perfect summer camp experience for the student who dreams to act for the camera. The team of Mary Lou Belli and Charlie Dougherty bring their professional expertise to a series of Acting for the Camera Camps at colleges and universities across the country. Mary Lou Belli is an award-winning television director who has directed everything from sitcoms to hour-long dramatic shows. She is currently directing two different half-hour series for the BET Network. Charlie Dougherty has a long career as a film and television actor and is very recognizable for his television commercial work. With experience on both sides of the camera this husband and wife duo also have children who have worked professionally in front of the camera. As parents, they are able to bring a very keen parental view to these Acting for the Camera Camps at Pepperdine University, Stanford University and University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Take an Acting for the Camera Camp with Mary Lou and Charlie this summer. Learn how to make the camera love and respect your work. Or, if you’re already earning your living in front of the camera, come perfect the skills you already have. You will spend every minute in class in front of the camera directed by Mary Lou or learning from watching your peers and listening to everyone’s feedback. Charlie will teach you how to act in under 30 seconds when you’re working on commercials. You’ll experience the world of the professional actor. You’ll leave with a sense of confidence that comes with having experienced the real thing.

• My heart sings when I hear a Broadway song
• I’ve participated in every children’s community musical theater program in my city
• I take voice lessons, dance classes, and acting coaching
• I audition for every high school musical at my school
• I want more…
• I want to be a Broadway star!

If you’ve said, “YES!” to any one of the above then you are probably ready to take the step to audition for one of US Performing Arts conservatory programs. Either the UCLA Arts Camps/Workshops three week Musical Theater Conservatory or the two week New York City Broadway Conservatory. Admission is by audition only but that’s a good start to the learning of your craft. Our conservatories are a good example of being where “dreams are trained!”

No matter which coast you choose you will be trained by exciting and motivating professionals who will take you on a journey where dreams are nourished. Is this the year you put your dream on the line and audition for one of the conservatories?

The audition process is really non-intimidating. Auditions are by video. In the comfort of your home or studio. I’ll even tell you what we’re looking for! We want to see as a real person. We want age appropriate material in both your song and monologue. We want your introduction to be a window into who you are and we want to see your passion. Your passion for being you. Your passion for life and your passion to accomplish your dream. With that, you can’t fail.

So, if you’re thinking about a summer camp this summer; a musical theater camp, a dance camp or an acting camp, be sure to add the Broadway Conservatory or UCLA Arts Camps/Workshop Musical Theater Conservatory to your wish list. It’s the challenge you owe yourself.

Martin Luther King had the biggest dream of all and last night at Carnegie Hall an incredible celebration of a great man’s life took place. From all accounts Gospel singer Wintley Phipps delivers perhaps the most powerful rendition of Amazing Grace ever recorded. He says, “A lot of people don’t realize that just about all Negro spirituals are written on the black notes of the piano. Probably the most famous on this slave scale was written by John Newton, who used to be the captain of a slave ship, and many believe he heard this melody that sounds very much like a West African sorrow chant. And it has a haunting, haunting plaintive quality to it that reaches past your arrogance, past your pride, and it speaks to that part of you that’s in bondage. And we feel it. We feel it. It’s just one of the most amazing melodies in all of human history.” Watch this performance from start to finish. It brought the audience to its feet and I think you’ll have the same reaction!

CAMP: a group of people who share the same ideas, beliefs, or aims.

So, how do we give you even more of a good thing? That’s the question we ask ourselves at the close of each year as we assess our feedback from faculty and students. From the residential students we hear less time on the subway at commute hour. From the commuter students, how can we spend more time bonding and working with the students who stay in the dorm? Well, the faculty solved this for us this year with a proactive move. An actual physical move. Our Dance Camp Artistic Director and Teaching Artist Justin Greer asked us to look at DNA Studios, a short walk from our residential housing at Pace University. We asked Charlie Dougherty and our NYC Artistic Director, Stephen Brotebeck for their opinion and it was thumbs up all the way.

Today we received word that DNA Studios, located at 280 Broadway, a stone’s throw from our summer camp residence at Pace University, has the space we need. Not only do we have the appropriate and necessary studio space but we also have a really great performance space for our “work in progress” showings! We can now officially announce that our NYC program will be held this year at DNA. A good secure building within easy access of Long Island commuters, not bad for our Jersey families, and a dream come true for our residential students! And, as always, a place where professionals are rehearsing in studios adjacent to ours. So if you want to go to a pre-professional summer camp to be part of a like-minded group at a dance camp, musical theater camp, acting camp or a Broadway Conservatory, all taught by top Broadway professionals, come join us this summer in NYC.

Dreams unrealized, because we’re led to believe they are folly, are often at the core of our need to do the very things we criticize about ourselves later on. So what are these dreams? If you look up the definition in the dictionary you’ll find that dreams are something hoped and longed for. Something ambitious and difficult to attain and is a far off reality. If ever it should become a reality.

I tend to look at dreams as something to be nourished and nurtured. Kind of like a seed that is planted in our heart that takes careful tending to come to full bloom…and therefor a reality. I believe in dreams. I believe in your dreams. I don’t want to see anyone trample on them. Including ourselves. You see I think that we can be our own worst enemy by being willing to set our dreams aside. When we tell ourselves to “get real,” or that “we don’t have what it takes” we’re really trampling on our own dreams. But when we keep the dream in front of our eyes and continually work to reach it, when we refuse to listen to the naysayers, and cherish our inner feelings, the spark will stay ignited and the dream will be realized.

To have “what it takes” in the arts takes training and practice. Repeated practice. Getting “real” means being serious about learning the craft. It means making lots of movies under the trained eye of real movie makers. It means doing acting exercises, learning choreography, and vocal training under true master teachers. Not just once or twice but over and over again building on each new mastered skill to reach the next level. It also means making contacts. Peer-to-peer, mentor to student, student to teacher.

My New Year’s resolution is to help you pursue your dream. When you think about summer camp you don’t often equate it with fulfilling a dream, but our summer camps are pre-professional training programs taught by master teachers who you can learn from year after year. The camp part is the fun you have with your talented peers doing what you love to do most. Whether you’re enrolled in a dance camp, musical theater camp, playwriting/screenwriting camp, acting camp or film camp you’re getting the best training by outstanding faculty that will help you step by step reach your dream.

To help achieve my New Year’s resolution this year, I’m extending our Holiday Special through January 3rd. Assure yourself a spot in one or more of our programs in 2012 by taking advantage of this amazing offer and registering now through Tuesday. Happy New Year!

For two years parents asked us if we would do a Show Choir or Glee camp. Last summer we succumbed and presented an awesome Glee camp at Pepperdine University. Steve Kaminski directed the workshop and Christine Kellogg was the choreographer. The students loved it.

Presenting the camp workshop again should have been a no-brainer, right? No. That’s too easy. When we met to postmortem the camp it was clear to all of us that we would be doing the students a disservice if we did that. In everything we do at USPA we ask the question, “How does that benefit the student?” If we can’t answer it then we don’t do it. We all feel our students need more training than just a glee club/show choir presentation, as worthy as it is. Our students need to be triple threats. That’s what the stars of Glee are. And that’s what are students need to be. They need dance camp, acting camp, and voice camp. They need the triple threat training of a Musical Theater Camp intensive. Mastering those ingredients will indeed make them better show choir material and certainly will give them the option of a performance career.

We’ve replaced last year’s offering at Pepperdine University with a Musical Theater Camp intensive workshop. Students will work with the same great faculty and others to be added. They will spend their hours sweating through dance classes and learning choreography. They will learn how to truthfully become a character that an audience can relate to and they will work on vocal performance which will translate to the musical theater stage as well as a show choir performance. Their master class will focus on a glee style production number too.

We’re convinced that Musical Theater Camp is the right way to go. Come see the benefits for yourself!

Nothing, but nothing reinvigorates me more than meeting with our directors and faculty about our summer camp intensives. I have just returned from a remarkable few days of meetings planning our New York City performing arts camps for summer 2012. They remind me constantly of what makes our musical theater, Broadway Conservatory, dance and acting camp intensives so special. It’s not about the studio space. Although that’s important and we always hold our intensive summer camp programs in professional, safe and secure space. It’s not about the residence hall. Although we’ve chosen an urban college environment that will give you the feel of being a student in the Big Apple. No, what really makes our program special is our faculty! It’s their professional Broadway experience. It’s their proven coaching ability and it’s their facility for building a curriculum that enhances a student’s craft and infuses them with the courage and passion to forge ahead to make their dream a reality. Think about it. This is faculty that teaches USPA performing arts summer camp intensives by day and performs at night!

This summer is again going to be a blockbuster. Never satisfied, Justin Greer, the Artistic Director for dance has devised a curriculum for two weeks of dance designed to shape a well-rounded employable dancer. The dance camps are complete one week programs but offer different curriculum so can be taken alone or linked together. The first week is a more traditional Dance Camp with classes in ballet, modern, tap, yoga, and contemporary choreography. Master classes will be taught by members of Rioult Dance Company, Paul Taylor Dance Company and others. And as if this isn’t enough, the students will go to see a dance performance.

Broadway Dance is the emphasis and title of the 2nd week dance camp. This week will be theatre dance at its best with teachers who have performed in EVITA, SHREK THE MUSICAL, ANYTHING GOES, CHICAGO, WICKED, and PEEWEE HERMAN ON BROADWAY. It’s all about styles. It’s all about storytelling through dance, and it’s all about the joy of dancing.

Listening to Stephen Brotebeck talk about the plans for the Broadway Conservatory and Musical Theater camps absolutely gave me goosebumps. How about working with teaching artists all day from WEST SIDE STORY, THE PRODUCERS, THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE, BIG RIVER, CATS, PIPPIN and GHOST and then go see a Broadway show in the evening? The Master Teachers aren’t quite set yet but you can bet I’ll do a whole blog about them when we make the announcement.

I hope this blog makes you as excited about training in New York City as I am. Take advantage of our holiday offer and make your student’s dream a reality.