The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts’ Community Partnership Program involves a long list of community groups and agencies who, with a nominal membership fee each season, receive discount tickets to select events and activities at The Wallis. Also, community outreach courses at The Wallis include Dancing Through Parkinson’s; Miracle Project; Creating Musical Theater: A Collaborative Lab; and Broadway Dreams. For more information on any of these programs, see events and courses at The Wallis website.
In January of this year, Stage Raw and GRoW @ The Wallis: A Space for Arts Education formed a partnership to create a professional mentorship program for young journalists who are in high school or college. This initiative for young journalists is an expansion of the Wallis’ Student Arts Reporters program which has been in existence since the 2015/2016 season through GRoW @ The Wallis. Both programs have been underwritten by philanthropist Z. Clark Branson.
Debra Pasquerette and Mark Slavikin of The Wallis spoke to this in a November 7, 2019 article in Broadway World Los Angeles. “GRoW @ The Wallis has been offering teens an opportunity to experience the role of an arts journalist since our 2015/2016 Season, and interest in this program has expanded,” said Debra Pasquerette, GRoW @ The Wallis’ Manager of Community Engagement. The Wallis’ Director of Education, Mark Slavikin, added This collaboration takes our efforts to a whole new level thanks to the partnership with Stage Raw. These aspiring young adults will receive individualized guidance and personalized attention by a local working journalist which is an invaluable learning experience.”
Stage Raw Founding Editor Steven Leigh Morris was quoted in the same article as saying, “The Initiative’s larger aim is to nurture credible arts coverage from young journalists, in order that they can influence and invite their generation into our arts institutions.”
The first session of this program included four students and ran through June 2019, focusing on theater reviews. The original four students have been joined by an additional four and the assignments have been expanded to include feature articles, interviews with artists, and to give the participants the opportunity to attend and review music and dance performances. Professional journalists from Stage Raw and The Wallis’ education staff work with these young journalists to instruct them on the process of covering local music, dance and theater events. They guide them through the rigors of traditional journalistic ethics, deadlines, seriousness of their contributions, and how to formulate a clear and coherent analysis. Once mentors have been assigned a mentee and assignments have been determined, the mentee’s articles and reviews are posted on Stage Raw. Another plus for this wonderful program is that both mentor and mentee are compensated for their work.
(From left) Dana Martin (mentor), Estela Avalos (mentee), Julia Stier (mentor), Debra Pasquerette (The Wallis), Jannelys Santiago (mentee), David Cruz-Chevez (mentee), Marlena Becker (mentee), Steven Leigh Morris (mentor), Socks Whitmore (Mentee), Julia Lloyd George (mentor), Ezra Bitterman (mentee), Vanessa Cate (mentor), Audrey Schlief (mentee) – Photo by Christine Sloane
Theater Critic at the Los Angeles Times Margaret Gray and I were guest speakers at December 7th meeting with Founding Editor of Stage Raw and mentor Steven Leigh Morris; Debra Pasquerette, Manager of Community Engagement at The Wallis, along with the mentors and their mentees.
Gray spoke about how she became involved in writing about and reviewing theater and I described my path to becoming a dance writer and reviewer, and co-founder of LA Dance Chronicle following a long career as a dancer, choreographer and teacher. Gray and I each talked about the process and perils of the interviewing process, relating specific stories to get our points across. Morris asked me to explain how I went about describing dance movements so that readers without a dance background could understand the action taking place. We shared our views on what the job of a review/critic is and how negative comments should be approached. Gray and I both also shared a couple of incidences when we were contacted by an artist or their representative that we criticized. The meeting only lasted for an hour and a half, so we were unable to go into great depth on any one subject, but from the comments afterward, the young writers appeared appreciative about the information and stories that we shared with them.
Mentorship for young journalist panel discussion – (L to R) Jeff Slayton, Margaret Gray, Steven Leigh Morris – Photo by Debra Pasquerette, courtesy of The Wallis
I enjoyed listening to the students/mentees speak about their areas of interest and their hopes for a future in journalism, and as the co-founder of LA Dance Chronicle, I am thrilled that future theater and dance writers are entering the pool of creative and critical journalism. Kudos to Stage Raw and The Wallis for creating this mentorship program. It is a priceless opportunity.
Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.
For more information on GRoW @ The Wallis, click here.
To visit the Stage Raw website, click here.
Featured image: Stage Raw and GRoW @ The Wallis mentorship program for young journalists panel discussion with Jeff Slayton and Margaret Gray – Steven Leigh Morris Far right – Photo by Debra Pasquerette, courtesy of The Wallis.
