Midsummer Arts at Qualia:
A Workshop for Dreamers and Creators

Qualia: The School for Deeper Learning, a middle and high school dedicated to deep intellectual pursuit, out-of-the-box thinking, and passionate engagement, introduces its inaugural Summer Arts Program in 2022. As we forge a path into a post-pandemic world, a deep sense of connection to ourselves and others and the ability to process what we have individually and collectively experienced will be crucial. The arts offer just such a pathway to reconnection and renewed purpose. This summer at Qualia, we invite local teens to find and embrace their voices as creators through passion-driven programming in theater, music, and visual art. May these young artists harness the power of deeper learning and creative engagement to help the world write (or paint or perform) our collective next chapter.

Introduction to Musicianship, Performance, and Recording
(in-person)

Instructor: JC Wright

Dates: July 25-August 19, 2022 (Monday- Friday, 9am-3pm)

Program Description:

This class is designed to improve the musicianship of beginner and intermediate instrumentalists. Students can expect to learn the fundamentals of listening, reading, performing, and recording music. Band members will collaborate on designing a setlist, and the class will culminate with both a live performance and the release of a short recorded album!

Week 1: Reading Music, Ear Training

Week 2: Rhythm, Harmony

Week 3: Songwriting and Improvisation

Week 4: Recording Techniques and Performance Rehearsal

Instructor Bio: 

As a multi-instrumentalist improviser and music theorist, JC was arranging and performing music with Jason Mraz in front of audiences of 20,000 people when he was 15 years old. JC has been in marching bands, jazz bands, pit orchestras, and improvisational bands for dancers and silent film festivals. JC’s inspirations include James Brown, Vulfpeck, and Pink Floyd among many others. He believes the best songs are those with grooves that make you move!

 

The Power of Play: Acting for the Stage
(in person)

Instructor: Anne Butler-Swiech

Dates: June 20-July 22, Monday-Friday 9am-3pm (excluding Monday, July 4).

Age Range: Rising 8th-12th grade students

 

Program Description:

What makes a performance joyful and moving for actors and audience members alike?  Over the course of this individually-tailored summer acting workshop, passionate theatrical novices and seasoned young performers alike will generate and experience their own answers to this question.

Through vocal and physical work, comedic and dramatic improvisations, character and text work, classical and contemporary monologue and scene study, and participation in a culminating performance project, students will develop a personal actor’s “toolkit” that will enable them to perform in a playful, focused, connected, and passionate manner. Guest lectures by theatre professionals will also introduce students to the non-performance aspects of theatre: directing, dramatic writing, stage management, dramaturgy, sets, costumes, props, sound, and lighting.

This 5-week workshop will give each student a deeper connection to the characters they embody; a visceral understanding of the deep-rooted significance of theatrical performance to the human story; and a more developed ability to work collaboratively to create believable worlds on stage.

Week 1: Introduction to performative storytelling, dramatic action, and subtext
Week 2: Uniting body, voice, inner life, and impulse to create character
Week 3: Acting as Reacting
Week 4: Setting the Scene: Creating Full Theatrical Worlds
Week 5: Becoming Tellers of the Human Story

Instructor Bio:

A passionate performer and arts educator, Anne Butler-Swiech holds an MFA in Acting from UCLA and a BA in Theater Studies from Duke University. Her professional regional and Los Angeles theater credits span the classical, contemporary, musical theater, poetry-in-performance, and children’s theater genres, and she has taught acting at UCLA, The American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and The Identity School of Acting, as well as coordinated drama and arts education programs for Los Angeles-area high schools and theater companies. She is currently a member of the Arts and English faculties at Qualia: The School for Deeper Learning and has created Qualia’s Summer Arts Program to help teens acquire the artistic tools they need to tell important stories in a transformative and joyful way.

VISUAL ART: Introduction to Digital Drawing and Painting (online)

Instructor: Sarah Pan 

Dates: July 25-August 19, 2022 (Mon-Fri, 1-4pm)

Required Materials:  Student-provided Apple iPad Pro with pen OR a free digital drawing program (e.g., Krita); Student-provided computer and drawing tablet 

Program Description:

Learn how to bend light to your will and render the 3D form on a 2D digital surface! In this introduction to digital painting, we will be covering the basics of how to use digital tools, as well as how light affects objects to finally create a polished piece.

Instructor Bio:

With a background in traditional drawing and painting, Sarah has been creating digital art for almost a decade when it first emerged as a prolific practice. Her passions in art range from portraiture, character design and landscape painting, in both digital and traditional mediums. She graduated with honors from Laguna College of Art and Design in Game Art and started to pursue a newfound passion in art education. At Qualia, Sarah works with students to bridge the gap between art technique and creativity with the ultimate goal of unlocking a unique artistic voice.

Find Sarah’s art portfolio here: https://www.artstation.com/sarahypan

Please fill out the information below and we will be in touch with enrollment forms and/or more information.