Students major in one art area where they work intensely for five weeks: visual arts (including photography), creative writing, dance, music or theater arts (including technical theater design). Students pursue elective classes in a second art area to broaden their knowledge of the challenges and processes involved in other art forms. The faculty is comprised of arts practitioners and educators largely drawn from the greater northeastern portion of the United States.

Students major in one art area where they work intensely for five weeks: visual arts (including photography), creative writing, dance, music or theater arts (including technical theater design). Students pursue elective classes in a second art area to broaden their knowledge of the challenges and processes involved in other art forms. The faculty is comprised of arts practitioners and educators largely drawn from the greater northeastern portion of the United States.

CURRICULUM

The art department at the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts encompasses two divisions: Visual Arts (including drawing/design, architectural design, ceramics, media arts, painting and sculpture) and Photography. Students make separate applications to visual arts and photography.

Both visual art majors and photographers take drawing and design classes to establish a habit that is fundamental to expression in the visual arts: the habit of looking, seeing and expression perceptions in graphic, painterly and plastic form. Students study drawing as a recording of what is seen and observed and as a visualization of what is nonexistent (imagined forms). They learn to sharpen their powers of observation and tap into their creativity.

Additionally, the development of critical thinking skills, historical knowledge and aesthetic awareness is stressed in group critiques, discussions, slide and video presentations, field trips and guest artist presentations. A formal session on careers and informal individual mentoring on higher education and career concerns are also included in enrichment activities.

I. Visual Arts Division: In addition to drawing, students enrolled in the visual arts division select one art area to pursue in depth. They are encouraged to select an area with which they may not be familiar, to extend the exploratory processes and increase their creativity in another medium as much as possible during their time at the program. Students rank their preferences for an area to study at the time of being interviewed as semifinalists. Because the goal is to balance out small class size across the areas of study, it is not always possible to grant first preferences.

A. Architectural Design: Students study the role of design and concept in the construction of an object or building and the ways in which design affects a community. They discuss the interrelated roles of citizen and artisan and learn how to evaluate the world around them.
B. Ceramics: Students explore the visual and tactile processes of interpreting their world through clay. They explore various techniques such as hand building and wheel work, coloring, texture, surface design, raku and traditional firings. Emphasis is placed on building vessels or other forms, from the wet clay stage to the finished product.
C. Graphic Design /Commercial Art: Students will focus on imagery and color through hand-drawn design and the digital environment. Emphasis is placed on forming a union with the different art disciplines and, in turn, placing these ideas, both two- and three-dimensional drawn from drawing, illustration, photography, sculpture, etc., by using the computer as a visual arts tool. Students manipulate text, imagery and form using various applications, scanning devices and digital cameras. Preliminary sketches are considered essential to all assignments.
D. Painting: Students gain experience in still life painting, figure painting and self portraiture, landscapes, expressive use of color, and social themes and commentary in art. They explore effective composition, how to collect ideas and references, and the scope of materials and techniques available to painters.
E. Sculpture: Students explore a variety of sculptural materials and processes, with an emphasis on the additive, reductive and constructive methods. Assignments allow for experience in representational and abstract expression. Students use several different media in the studio.

II. Photography Division:
The chief objectives of the PGSA photography class are to clarify and expand how the artist “sees,” to explore the way in which the world is viewed and how a camera can be used to frame and thus transform what is seen into an expressive idea, to provide a technical foundation that will allow a full range of expression, and to develop a student’s individual style and creative sensibility. Students are provided with Kodak Tri-X black and white film and Ilford Variable Contrast R.C. paper. All darkroom chemicals are provided. It is the individual student’s responsibility to bring a 35mm SLR camera with a light meter and manual exposure capability, and extra batteries. Course elements include:

A. Camera controls.
B. Depth of field and the aperture.
C. Movement and the shutter.
D. Light meters and exposure.
E. Relationship of camera controls to exposure.
F. Black and white film development.
G. Black and white printing with variable contrast filters.
H. Relationship of film development to contrast.
I. Push processing film.
J. Digital images.
K. Intro to PhotoShop software.
L. Dry mounting, presentation and storage.

CREATIVE WRITING
Within the creative writing department, students major in fiction or poetry. Students are assigned to one area or the other depending on the preference they have expressed in the semifinalist interview process. Poets and fiction writers have separate classes and studios, but come together for readings, presentations by guest artists, and discussions. Everyone studies the development of ideas, criticism and analysis of poems and stories, performance and editing. Students are exposed to important texts from traditional and contemporary writers, and to specific techniques of criticism and analysis. They learn how to judge the works of published writers and their own work. They prepare personal collections of their work and a group anthology. The program also gives students several opportunities to learn how to read their work aloud to a large audience.

Daily blocks of classroom time include formal class hours, round table work, structured and individual writing time, and one-on-one consultations with teachers and teaching assistants.

Principal Areas of Study in Creative Writing

I. Poetry Major: Topics include the meaning of technique and craft, traditional and fixed forms as well as the discipline of writing free verse, writing from individual experiences, practicing the process of revision and keeping notebooks and journals. Critical faculties are developed through reading and interpreting samples from poetic literature in English, primarily American writers, and through critiquing student work in class.

A. Week I: Introduction to poetic terms, to content and narrative; writing exercises to develop understanding of imagery; introduction to round-table workshop, the rules, expectations and possibilities for critiquing; and an overview of assignments, with the expectation of three to four new poems or revisions each week.
B. Week II: Discussion of open forms, a variety of writing exercises, workshop emphasis on voice.
C. Week III: Discussion of figures of speech and poems based on work and other experiences; writing poems with strong sound patterns; workshop emphasis on rhythm.
D. Week IV: Discussion of techniques and revision; writing list poems and poems from images; workshop emphasis on independent criticism.
E. Week V: Discussion and writing exercises revolve around revision and editing processes; student anthology editing; exploration of publishing and literary magazines, education and career possibilities.

II. Fiction Major: Individual writing skills are developed through understanding the meaning of technique and craft; creation of specific detail in narrative, metaphor and simile; developing character, conflict and resolution; practicing dialogue by transcribing and then imitating patterns of human speech; studying traditional narrative story structure; practicing revision; exploring the possibilities of writing from individual experiences; and keeping notebooks and journals. Critical faculties are developed through reading and interpreting samples from literature, largely contemporary American; learning the conventions of verse and prosody; and critiquing student work in class.
A. Week I: Exploring the elements of fiction (concrete detail, realism, truth, scene, conflict and resolution); writing exercises emphasize tangible and emotional accounts, writing scenes of conflict, writing “truth.” Individual conferences and individual writing projects begin.
B. Week II: Emphasis on revision and story structure, and methods of setting, place and time. Conferences continue; group workshops begin.
C. Week III: Reading and writing assignments emphasize revision, characterization, point of view and dialogue.
D. Week IV: Revision processes receive continued attention; readings examine language, rhythm, tone and voice; workshops and conferences continue.
E. Week V: Revision continues to receive emphasis; discussion of genre fundamentals; discussion of publishing and editing of anthology; final conferences.

III. Readings and Performances: Writing deserves to be heard as well as read, in an atmosphere that respects both the nature of the art and the character of specific pieces. To this end, students participate in “works-in-progress” readings in class at the end of each week as well as two formal presentations presented to the entire PGSA community. Students also read their works as part of the Friday night Interdepartmental presentations and theme sessions. Faculty and staff assist students with learning techniques for reading aloud.

IV. Personnel

A. Faculty: There is a master teacher for poetry and a master teacher for fiction. Both are professional writers who share their work with students.
B. ATTRAs: Two ATTRAs (Assistant To Teachers/Resident Assistants) are assigned to the writing department. These are PGSA alumni who are pursuing degrees and careers in the writing field.
C. Guest Writers: Each summer approximately three guest writers visit, read from their work, critique student work, and discuss aspects of their art, background and careers.

V. Leadership: Students are encouraged to share their knowledge and talents back home. They are guided through the process of determining what their local community needs and learn the basics of teaching poems and stories to classes at various levels. Students learn about starting and maintaining writers’ groups, reading and discussion groups, literary magazines and other publications.

VI. Career and College Counseling: Young writers benefit most from wide reading, a strong liberal arts education, balanced by specific work in writing and an appropriate measure of experience outside of formal education. With this in mind, the writing department offers advice on colleges, majors and careers, and information on the large variety of jobs and vocations that require writing skills and can support the writing life. Students are introduced to publishing, particularly in the realm of small literary magazines.

Within the dance department, students are assigned to major in ballet, jazz or modern dance. Everyone receives at least two intermediate level classes in each of the other non-major dance areas each week. Emphasis is placed on the theory and practice of refining and enhancing dance technique, understanding and applying corrections and stimulating creativity within each student. Workshops include improvisation, choreography, dance history, dance theories and career-related alternatives.

At the heart of the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts (PGSA) dance department is the concept of movement as an art form. Emphasis is placed on helping the student learn how movement is translated into visual imagery. Technique, movement vocabulary, and creative and critical intellectual processes are the focus of the program.

Students selected to participate in the PGSA dance department are assigned to major in ballet, jazz or modern dance. Each student receives the most intense instruction in their major dance area, but also participates in classes in the other two dance areas. Students also participate in a number of workshops designed to explore the many facets of dance as an art form.

Because of the high level of physical involvement (as much as 5 ½ hours a day), the Governor’s Schools require that students who are accepted to participate in the program obtain physician clearances for enrollment.

Principal Components

I. Major Dance Classes:
Students refine and enhance their dance technique through the theory and practice of dance. Emphasis is on developing a fuller understanding of dance through applications of kinesthetic awareness, proper body alignment and placement, using the muscles correctly, exploring the range of movement flow and presentation. Instructors explain the corrections, concentration and discipline required in dance while students work on expanding and understanding their movement potential and personal style. Attention is paid to the individual student’s future goals and needs.

A. Ballet: The ballet major follows a combination of the Vagonova and the Royal Academy of Dance syllabi. The class emphasizes proper ballet alignment (bones and muscles), weight placement, turnout, shift of weight, port de bra and performance quality. Students work on pointe at least three times a week. Pilates floor work, the barre and center practice are included in major ballet study.
B. Jazz: The jazz major is a high intermediate level of contemporary jazz dance study. It is a modern approach to jazz dance and emphasizes an organic root to movement as well as increased physical, spatial and kinetic awareness of the body in stillness and movement. Yoga, the “Luigi Style,” and the Laban and Graham techniques are synthesized for an expanded dance vocabulary. Attention is paid to strengthening the body, improving alignment, using internal body impulses to initiate and sustain movement and to the integration of breath and movement control. A variety of jazz styles are presented and improvisational games and class projects are used to develop creative instincts.
C. Modern: The modern major is an intermediate-advanced level technique class. It draws on a variety of modern dance techniques to prepare the student for a career in contemporary dance or further studies in a university degree program. Emphasis is on correct alignment and movement efficiency; enhancing muscular strength, flexibility and cardiovascular capacity; developing a kinesthetic awareness of the body; understanding breath control; developing creativity; and using imagery.

II. Minor Dance Classes: Students participate in intermediate level study of the two dance forms that are not their assigned major. Students receive several classes in each minor area per week.

III. Additional Classes and Workshops

A. Core Conditioning: This course is designed to tone, stretch and strengthen the major muscular groups of the torso, arms and legs, introducing the dancers to a systematic program of physical conditioning.
B. Dance Technology: The Lifeforms software program is introduced as a choreographer’s tool. Students create their own complete dances using computers.
C. Dance Improvisation: Through structured exercises and free improvisation, students explore their own movement potential and learn to interact with others in an ensemble.
D. Career/College Counseling: Students become acquainted with dance performance careers, alternatives in dance and higher education programs and dance conservatories.
E. Voice: Students receive group lessons and individual coaching in the proper use of voice. They learn how to develop an audition piece suitable for a musical theater audition.
F. Resume Writing: Students learn how to create a resume specific to dance.
G. Contemporary Partnering: An exploration of non-gender based partnering in contemporary choreography.
H. New Directions in Contemporary Dance: Classic American modern dance is placed in a historic context then compared/contrasted with the development of European, Canadian (Quebec) and Asian contemporary dance forms, including dance-theater, European ballet and Japanese Butoh.
I. Dance Composition: Students are introduced to the three basic tools of choreography: space, time and manipulation.
J. Eurythmics: The class focuses on understanding and moving to a 5-beat meter in a series of physical and vocal exercises.
K. Leadership: Students learn how to refine ideas into projects to share dance at home.

IV. Personnel

A. Major Dance Area Instructors: There is a master teacher for each of the three major dance areas.
B. Accompanists: In addition to pianists, the dance department uses percussionists as accompanists.
C. ATTRAs: There are three Assistants to Teachers/Resident Assistants (ATTRA), one for each major area of dance, who assist in coaching and also serve as hall counselors in the dorms. These individuals are 4th-year PGSA alumni who are pursuing dance or dance-related education and careers.
D. Career/College Counseling: Each year, the Governor’s School invites leaders in dance performance, dance education and related careers to the campus to give master classes and share their knowledge and experiences.

V. Performances:In the 4th week of the program, dancers present a recital of their choreography and of faculty repertory. Additionally, dancers participate in the Friday evening interdepartmental programs that feature student works in progress from all PGSA departments.

VI. Student Conferences:Students meet individually with their major teacher during the second week of the program to discuss their concerns in relationship to dance. Students are encouraged to write in their journals on a regular basis. They meet frequently in small groups with a faculty member to discuss their work. Each student has a final conference with the major dance area instructor to assess their own progress in the program and discuss their career goals and other options. Students may request additional counseling as necessary.

All instrumental, vocal and compositional areas can be accommodated at PGSA except organ, harp and unusual instruments such as bagpipes or hammered dulcimers. Students develop their own schedules for study. They receive one intensive private lesson in their applied area each week and divide other time among small ensemble experiences, individual practice and courses in music fundamentals, improvisation, ear training, theory, music history, music criticism, conducting, contemporary music and many other optional classes. Vocal music studies emphasize classical and operatic experiences. Percussion emphasizes non-mallet performance.

The program seeks well-trained musicians who are creative, adventuresome, mature, willing to explore new musical and artistic activities, and who are capable of self-direction. It is the faculty’s avowed intention to expose students to new ideas and experiences. Students are asked to keep an open mind, to experience everything, and then to take it home and digest it. It is important that faculty and staff be viewed as musicians who wish to share their artistic experience and expertise, not as supplanting teachers at home. The master teachers and adjunct faculty serve as guides, coaches, facilitators and sounding boards.

I. Applied Music Areas:

A. Voice: All ranges. The curriculum emphasizes classic and operatic voice study. An applicant must demonstrate the ability to handle music of this level.
B. Composition: The applicant must be competitive in an applied music performance area in order to be accepted as a composer.
C. Instrumental:
1. Piano
2. Strings: violin, viola, cello, string bass.
3. Guitar: acoustic and electric, classical or jazz.
4. Brass: French horn, trombone, trumpet, tuba.
5. Woodwind: saxophone, clarinet, flute, oboe, bassoon.
6. Percussion:The emphasis is on drum set (non-mallet) percussion in the program, with occasional workshops on mallet instruments, including marimba.
Instrument study not offered at the Governor’s School: Organ, harp, hammered dulcimers, bagpipes and other unusual, non-ensemble instruments.

II. The Program of Study

A. Private Lessons: Each student receives at least one weekly private lesson in his/her major music area.
B. Classes: Available classes generally include music theory and ear training, music history, conducting, composition, music analysis, instrument repair, reed making, jazz theory and improvisation, art song class, vocal diction, opera workshop, voice class for instrumental majors, piano workshop, electronic music and studio recording techniques, world music, music criticism and computer notation.
C. Required and Elective Courses:
1. Students must attend classes and activities which directly support their major area of musical interests, such as art song classes for voice majors and jazz ensemble for brass majors. The department chair and the master teachers will assist students in developing a schedule of required classes.
2. Students must attend all scheduled lessons and rehearsals of ensembles to which they are assigned.
3. Students must attend all elective classes for which they register. The department chair and the master teachers will assist students in developing a schedule of other music courses in addition to those that directly support their major performance or composition studies. A student has control over the number to add to the schedule.
D. Ensemble Experience: Since many students have had opportunities to participate in large ensembles such as chorus, band and orchestra in the course of the school year, the PGSA music program concentrates on solo and small ensemble experiences. Typical ensemble activities include the range from duets to octets for various combinations of instruments and voices, madrigal ensembles, opera workshop and large and small jazz ensembles.

III. Personnel

A. Master Teachers: Master Teachers are full-time instructors, including a string specialist, a woodwind specialist, a brass specialist, a piano specialist, a voice specialist, a composition specialist and a jazz studies specialist. Master teachers teach various music classes in addition to giving private lessons.
B. Adjunct Master Teachers: Adjunct Master Teachers are part-time instructors who give instruction in areas where a full-time teacher is not required.
C. ATTRAs (Assistants to Teachers/Resident Assistance): ATTRAs (Assistants to Teachers/Resident Assistants) are college-level alumni of the PGSA music department who are pursuing music degrees. They assist in coaching and teaching where appropriate. They also serve as hall counselors in the dormitories.
D. Support Staff: Support Staff include a music librarian and other assistants.
E. Guest Artists: Guest Artists are invited to attend the program and give master classes, workshops, clinics and performances.

IV. Schedule and Commitment: Music majors report to the designated music facilities from 8 a.m. to 11:45 a.m., Mondays through Saturdays, and either afternoons or evenings., Monday through Friday. Private lessons, classes, ensemble practices and in-house recitals take place during these hours. A student is expected to use unscheduled time during these hours to practice in the music facilities. Practice rooms are open for students during weekends and other unscheduled time as well.

Students should not come to the program planning to spend long periods of practice time preparing works for performance outside of Governor’s School. Students may not participate in outside performances during the program.

V. Performances: There are several different kinds of performances which occur during the length of the program. Students perform informally in closed master classes and critiques sessions. There are weekly intradepartmental concerts and formal evening recitals presented to the entire Governor’s School community of students, faculty and staff. Music students also perform in the Friday evening interdepartmental programs. The master teacher will help assess a student’s readiness to perform and the appropriateness of the material to be presented.

Students are accepted to major in performance (acting) or technical design theater arts. Actors study acting technique and text analysis, improvisation, movement and voice. Design students study play analysis, research, drafting, rendering, painting, carpentry and state management. An emphasis is placed on the student's creative problem solving and knowledge of language, ideas and culture. All students participate in daily warm-up exercises.

Performance Theater

The PGSA theater department’s goals for performance majors include fostering creative growth, developing interpretive and critical powers, building a knowledge of dramatic literature, and strengthening performance and verbal skills. This is achieved through three areas of instruction and performance activities that integrate the skills and knowledge developed in class.

I. Acting Technique and Text Analysis: Acting is understood as an active task of doing and responding, not as mere emoting. The Governor’s School applies the fundamentals of the Stanislavskian approach to creating and performing a role. Through “personalization,” actors learn to seek, touch off, and reveal their own genuine experience of life within the context of theatrical expression Students work towards specificity, active choices, and active listening/responding to a scene partner. Through “characterization,” study the outer specifics of behavior arising from cultural and societal demands and the inner dynamics of basic drives and personal objectives. Students study scenes from published plays to improve play-reading skills, and learn rehearsal techniques.

II. Movement and Voice Training :The actor’s tools are the body and voice functioning together. The Governor’s School strives to develop awareness of the body’s own expressive language and how it is connected to the imagination, spirit and emotional world of the creative performer. Individual and group exercises emphasize technique and improvisation. All students participate in physically vigorous routine warm-up exercises.

III. Improvisation: Improvisation is the art of creating a story while acting it out. The Governor’s School introduces improvisation as a tool to be used in creation, with or without text. It is not the same type of improvisation associated with comic entertainment. The principles of ensemble work are emphasized as crucial to a scene’s success, and exercises focus on trust, the structure of improvisation, spontaneity, story telling and the creation of character.

IV. Ensemble Practicum, Rehearsals and Performance:
A. Original Work: In the third week of the program, students present a series of original “sight-specific” performances. Working in ensembles, they identify a site on campus and integrate it into the dramatic context of pieces they create based on their experiences and exercises in the three instructional areas: improvisation and masks, movement and storytelling, and improvisation and personal narrative. The audience rotates to the three separate sites to view the performances.
B. Whole Ensemble Practicum: Drawing on their course work in scene work, movement and voice training, dramaturgical research and text analysis, all acting students working together explore a classic dramatic work and present their own version.

Theater Design/Technical Theory :
The PGSA theater design program includes a combination of classroom and production projects aimed at developing design and technical skills. All students pursue set design and lighting. Students use Computer-Assisted Design (CAD) and rendering software, focusing on technology as a design and visualization tool. Design students practice design, technical skills, stage management, set construction, electrician and perform crew work in coordination with the actors’ performance pieces. In addition to learning to adapt to unique, non-traditional site-specific challenges, design students have the opportunity to work in a large, state-of-the-art performing arts center for the traditional text presentation and the interdepartmental and dance department presentations. Together, the design students conceive and build all design elements for the presentation of a classic text in the whole ensemble practicum. Each student has an opportunity to function as stage manager, lighting designer, sound operator, and stage crew during the five weeks.

Schedule And Performances

The PGSA theater major is physically as well as artistically demanding. Students are in warm-ups, class and rehearsals from 8 a.m. until 11:30, Monday through Saturday, and again in afternoon or evening blocks of time, Monday through Friday. Theater students stage two major presentations during the five weeks that run from 9:15 until 10:45 p.m. on their respective nights. They also contribute scenes and monologues to the Friday night interdepartmental programs. Additionally, Technical Theater Design students work on the interdepartmental productions.

LEADERSHIP
All Governor’s School students participate in leadership seminars designed to help them learn how they can become advocates of the arts in their local communities. Students learn to speak expressively about their experiences as artists, develop specific projects to implement at home and brainstorm strategies for handling unforeseen obstacles when putting their plans into action.

ELECTIVES

All PGSA participants select one elective art area to pursue during weekday afternoons. They select the area after being accepted to the program. Students are required to go outside of their major art department to select an elective. In addition to the five major art forms, recent offerings have included film criticism and musical theater.