Young performers set to take Segerstrom Center stage for 25th summer show
For 25 years, Bill Brawley has looked forward to two weeks out of the year.
Those weeks are spent at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa working with students, many of whom have never set foot on a stage, to produce a musical show during the annual Summer at the Center program.
“The young people get to be heard, and their realness is so attractive,” said Brawley, artistic director for the show. “Maybe one kid is shy for the two weeks, but by the end of the show he finally steps out. You just have to be there to support them, and in the end, they teach us.”
To help him instruct the students, Brawley brings in artists he knows.
The 25th anniversary Summer at the Center session started July 18 with 44 youths and will culminate with a Broadway-style revue at 4 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Samueli Theater at the Segerstrom Center. The performances are open to the public for free.
The 14- to 17-year-olds had never participated in an arts program before, said Talena Mara, vice president of education at the center.
They were invited to the program while studying under the Orange County Department of Education’s Access program.
School districts across the county refer students to Access if they are struggling in class or the traditional school setting has not met their needs, said Sidra Gaines, coordinator for educational programs at the department.
“The creative process helps [them] understand how to move forward in life with more positivity,” Mara said. “We feel a sense of gratitude for the collaboration between the center, OCDE and the artistic staff for the opportunity to serve high-risk students for so long.”
This year’s show includes a compilation of songs from the program’s past.
The dozens of performers came together Tuesday in a rehearsal room at the Segerstrom Center to run through the entire show for the first time.
Tunes from “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” and “The Lion King” echoed through the room. The students also stepped and swayed to pop songs such as Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” and Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend,” a song Brawley said really speaks to the young participants this year.
“The kids involved here really open up and push to have the confidence to be themselves,” said Daisy, a student in the program. “Music can bring out what you have inside of you. I’ve learned that I can do more than I think I’m capable of.”
Some students said they had never sung or danced on a stage before coming to Summer at the Center.
“At first I didn’t feel like dancing,” Ian said. “But I realized this is about coming out of your comfort zone and having fun. It feels good talking to different people we’ve never met before, and whatever needs to be worked on, we’ll work on together.”
Students this year even wrote their own lyrics and created their own choreography for numbers in their final performance. Words such as “‘Cause when you have a dream, never say no,” are theirs.
For Saturday’s performances, a video of staff members and past students sharing their memories of the program will be shown in the lobby of the Samueli Theater.
Luis Castillo, who participated in the video, remembers singing and dancing to songs from “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Grease” and “Oklahoma!” when he was a student for Summer at the Center in 1995.
“I could only describe it as magical,” said Castillo, 40, who now works with an agency that helps youths on probation. “For some of us, it was the first time someone was actually telling us we were good at something. It still makes me happy to see other kids at least participating and looking for a doorway for guidance in any way. What’s better than the arts?”
