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Uinta Center for the ARTS offers summer workshops

The Uinta Center for the ARTS, 30 N. Main in Kamas, is dedicated to inspiring and training youth for a professional career in the performing arts.

One way is through its summer workshops, said director Pamela Lockwood.

"We don’t want kids to be able to just get up on stage and recite lines," Lockwood said during an interview with The Park Record. "We want them to develop skills they will use when they start auditioning for the Shakespeare Festival or begin attending schools in New York or California."

This year, the UCA will offer two workshops — REEL School Real School, Summer Stock — and an opportunity to participate in a performing arts group, Sound Machine, Lockwood said.

"The REEL School Real School is a 12-week session that will give students an opportunity to learn how to make a feature film that already has distribution," she said. "The film’s producer is iStabilizer who is working with our film-production company, Magic Fingers."

Students will learn all aspects of filmmaking and will work with professional filmmakers who will teach them skills in front of and behind the camera.

"They will also learn how to edit film and how to be an art director and director of photography," Lockwood said.

The film itself, which has yet to be officially titled, is a musical.

"The crazy thing is we’re shooting it with smart phones, which has been done before," Lockwood said. "There have been a lot of documentaries and music videos that have been made with smart phones."

The feature film, ‘Olive,’ directed by Hooman Khalili and Pat Gilles, and starring Gena Rowlands, that was released last winter was the first to be shot by using a smart phone, Lookwood said.

"The film we’re doing is going to one of the first musicals to be filmed with a smart phone," she said. "Mike Wisland at Utah Valley University and his class have already recorded some of the musical numbers for the film, and we’re already in production."

Wisland, an associate professor of digital media at UVU, said the music was recorded

"I’ve known Pam for about 20 years," he said. "She’s had this school for the performing arts in various forms over the years, and I had recorded some things for her back then in my old studio in Cedar Hills."

That’s how the two got acquainted, and they have helped each other on various projects ever since.

"When I became a professor at UVU, part of my curriculum was to do a project every semester that helps the community," he said. "Pam had this wild and crazy idea for this film and she needed a soundtrack."

Wisland thought it was the perfect project for his studio-recording classes.

"We brought in Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band, a local band, and we recorded at least five tracks and I have signed up two former students of mine to complete the project," Wisland said. "We’re excited for it."

On June 3, the UCA will open production up to summer workshop participants, who will work until Aug. 17.

"If the film goes somewhere, all the students who were involved will get a small percentage of the profits," she said.

Registration fee for REEL School Real School is $469 before May 20 and $539 after May 20.

"If kids come in from out-of-town, we have host families who will take them in," Lockwood said.

The second UCA summer program is called Summer Stock, an intensive theatre program where students will present five shows in 10 weeks, with three days between each show.

"The theme is ‘Swashbuckling Summer’ and we are selecting the shows to do," Lockwood explained.

The prospective performances include:

  • "The Three Princes," which is the story of Rapunzel, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty from the prince’s point of view.
  • Shakespeare’s "Much Ado about Nothing,"
  • "The Princess Bride," which is based on William Goldman’s children’s book that was published in 1973, and Rob Reiner’s 1987 comedy.
  • "Tristran & Isolde"
  • "The Pirates of Penzance"

    "The last two shows are still under debate," Lockwood said.

    Auditions for the performances will be May 25, at 11 a.m., in the Kamas Theater 30 N Main.

    "The students who pass auditions will learn all aspects of theatre from acting to stage combat to tech to running the house," Lockwood said. "They will learn all these things so theatre will no longer be a mystery to them, So, when they get out of Summer Stock, they know what theatre is really about."

    While the Summer Stock program is free for those who pass auditions, Lockwood will still demand commitment from each student.

    "All I want is people dedicated to it, and they have to sell tickets to the shows," she said.

    The last summer project is audition for Sound Machine, the Uinta Center for the ARTS’s traveling performing arts group.

    "We’re trying to get a spot performing at Disneyland, and our group is quite good, but we need 15 members to do so," Lockwood said. "Right now we have seven, but these kids are doing such a great job. I really want to take them there."

    For information about the Uinta Center for the ARTS summer programs and auditions, email uca.kamas@gmail.com.


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