Over the summer, students with an interest in musical theatre from all across Cayuga County came together at Cayuga Community College to experience what being a college theatre major is like. Among those 45 students accepted to the CAP21 program were Weedsport’s own Kierstin Davis, Ashley Nemier and myself. For two weeks in August we gathered at 8:30 a.m. for vocal warm ups, and then were split into three sections based on dance ability. From 9 o’clock to 6 o’clock we took classes based around acting, singing, and dancing. Classes like Vocal Performance, Acting and Dance Improvisation were among the favorite courses offered.

You’re probably wondering, What is CAP21? Well, CAP21 stands for Collaborative Arts Project for the 21st Century. CAP21 is a conservatory for Musical Theatre out of New York University (NYU). We actually got to work with real professors from NYU. The chairman, Dr. Pamela Phillips, had Stefani Germanotta, better known as Lady GaGa, in one of her classes and Bill Daugherty, our vocal performance and my audition technique teacher, had Anne Hathaway in one of his first classes! The founders of CAP21 are, Frank and Eliza Ventura, who created the conservatory 20 years ago to bring acting, singing, and dancing together for a musical theatre degree. Before CAP21 students would have to go to different conservatories for each. Mr. and Mrs. Ventura made a guest appearance in our last week of Audition Technique and showed us what a real audition would feel like, each of us having to prepare 16 measures of a song and perform our number, and our slate. A slate is basically your information for the audition, you tell them your name, what you will be singing, what show it is from and who wrote the piece. Singing for them was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had as a singer, and I’m sure if you asked anyone else they would tell you the same.

One thing this program did was get us all ready for college auditions. “With not having a lot of experience, it really caught me up,” recalls WHS Senior Ashley Nemier. “I was glad I participated. It realistically showed me what the career requires in such a short amount of time. It was worth it, because it also helped me decide that is what I want to do as a career.” While Ashley aims for Broadway or being in movies, Kierstin also aims for Broadway, but would also like to pursue a career in Opera. As for me, I would love nothing more than to be on Broadway, but I’ll be happy as long as I’m acting, singing or dancing (maybe all three) on any stage, large or small.

What stuck with us the most? The three of us agreed the breathing techniques Heather Petruzelli, our Vocal Technique instructor, showed us will be permanently engraved into our minds. Bill Daugherty is the teacher that we will all remember, that pushed us out of our comfortable singing range, making us challenge what we see as a “high” note and where we think we should switch from our head voice, to our chest voice.

The classes we took were sometimes challenging but very helpful. They included:

• Vocal Technique- Heather Petruzelli

• Vocal Performance- Bill Daugherty

• Audition Technique- Bill Daugherty/ Douglas Hall

• Acting- Douglas Hall

• Jazz- Lori Leshner

• Ballet- J. Austin Eyer

• Dance Improvisation- J. Austin Eyer

• Acting Improvisation- Douglas Hall

• Vocal Improvisation- Heather Petruzelli

I think Kierstin summed up our experience when she called it “fantastic”. I’m so glad that the three of us were able to represent Weedsport, and we all made close bonds with like-minded students from local school districts. Each section became a family and there were many tears shed when the last day had finally approached. I would not take back those two weeks for anything, CAP21 is something I will never forget.

If you are interested in applying to NYU’s CAP21 Convservatory, or just want more information on what type of programs they offer you can go to: www.cap21.org/cap21