The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
12 weeks of total arts immersion
‘This is not campfire songs and painted toenails’
MIDDLETOWN — Sixtyeight Center for Creative Youth students from across the country and beyond demonstrated the skills they had gleaned in just seven days of intensive arts studies during a community share day Friday at Wesleyan University.
During one session, theater students, led by instructors Diana MollerMarino and Joni Weisfeld, performed vignettes for the audience, including classmates and members of the public who gathered at the Patricelli ‘92 Theater were clearly impressed by the showcases, erupting in loud applause and shouts of encouragement after every one.
In one, a pair of students, one acting as the aggressor and the other assuming a docile role, were allowed to use only three words: “hey,” “hi” and “hello,” to communicate with each other during a scene.
These two young ladies, among their 14 to 17yearold peers, circled one another in the center of the stage, using physical expressions and those three words to act out simple interactions, producing a powerful dynamic.
They were able to show a remarkable range of character, as, for example, one confronted the other with a defiant “hello,” following around the stage her classmate, who shyly walked away or offered a soft “hey” in response.
After about 10 seconds, their instructor called out “switch,” and their roles were reversed.
This summer, after 42 years of hosting the program on campus, Wesleyan has taken on the programming from Hartford’s Capitol Region Education Council, making CCY an official program of the university.
CREC founded the first interdistrict magnet school, which were later replicated across the country. The initial one was created as a result of the landmark civil rights claim made on behalf of schoolaged residents in Hartford, according to CREC.
“What better partner than the Capital Region Education Council, which also created Sheff v. O’Neill (the lawsuit), than a university like Wesleyan that also prides itself on diversity and community service?” asked Lisa Foss, CCY program manager.
Following several years of state cuts which slashed CCY funding, it became increasingly difficult to continue the monthlong summer initiative, Foss said. That’s when Wesleyan stepped in, offering to take over the program entirely last October.
“It’s really intended as a college experience with an arts immersion, so even though it’s classified as a camp, this is not campfire songs and painted
toenails. This is serious instruction,” Foss said.
“It’s basically a crash course in being a college freshman: You eat in the dining hall, you do your laundry, you live in the dorm, you take courses, you have a schedule ,“she added.
Other instructors are Wes professor and music teacher Noah Baerman, creative writing teacher Carole Flanagan Flynn and visual arts instructor Maggie Gagliardi.
The program, founded in 1976, allows students from a wide swath of geographic, ethnic, economic and racial backgrounds, many of whom have limited access to arts training or enrichment programs, to “grow and learn together through the commonality of art,” according to the CCY website.
Share day also provided an opportunity for those studying music, theater, creative writing, musical theater, visual arts and other disciplines to give their peers a glimpse of what they were learning.
Students choose one of those disciplines as a concentration, and additionally spend two weeks taking part in two electives, such as songwriting, photography, lyric poetry, stop motion animation and West African dance/drumming.
These young people travel to the Middletown campus from all over the United States and the world, including three from Spain, Barbados and Costa Rica. Graduates include Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and her son Tristan.
This is the first year the university is offering a day program, which allows students who live nearby to commute. The majority, however, take part in college life by living on campus for the month.
Everything they need is at the ready when they arrive.
“The supplies that you need are costly. That can exclude people if you can’t afford the stuff that you need to practice your art, it can really prevent them from excelling. Having programs like this is absolutely essential,” Foss said.
CCY is always accepting donations. For details, visit wesleyan.edu/ccy/ donate.html. For more information, email ccy@wesleyan.edu or call Foss at 8606853341.