HSPVA’s Young Artists Rock YoungArts

Claudia Heymach, reading "Dissection" on the last day of YoungArts. 

Every year, the National YoungArts Foundation admits a select handful of the best high school and college students specializing in the performing, visual, and literary arts to spend a week in Miami, Florida. This year, four students from HSPVA were accepted for the YoungArts scholarship: creative writer Claudia Heymach, vocalist Tyler Resto, and thespians Olly Sholotan and Raven Moore.

First, Claudia describes to me her everyday writing schedule at the event. The writers spent the majority of their days in master classes with any of their five main panelists - Rebecca Walker, Danny Rothschild, Campbell McGrath, Adam Falkner, and James Grippando - doing writing exercises, discussing their craft, and receiving critiques. They also attended interdisciplinary master classes, where they made interpretative dance-like short films, among other things. Then there would be time to attend shows of other disciplines in the evening, such as the theatre and vocal performances. One writing performance culminated the last day, at which Claudia read an excerpt from her audition piece, a short story entitled “Dissection” about an orphan girl’s search for identity, written in her lushly lyrical style. The overarching experience, Claudia tells me, was invaluable.

“I just liked being surrounded by people who are so dedicated to their respective areas,” she clarifies, wary as writers often are of the prospect of stating a cliché. “And I loved having a whole week to do just what I was passionate about.”

Vocalist Tyler Resto is equally passionate about the YoungArts experience. A rich baritone, he was given the opportunity to take master classes with voice teachers from New York University, Boston Conservatory, and Juilliard along with seven other classical voice finalists. After long days of rehearsals, private lessons, master classes, and “partying with Josh Groban,” the vocalists would hang out and nosh at an event known as Snacks by the Bay.

By the end of the week, their hard work resulted in two performances, the US Presidential Scholars Nomination, and a second recital leading to rankings and prize money, at which Tyler sang pieces by Tchaikovsky and Bellini.

“Everyone says that YoungArts is life-changing,” Tyler admits, “but the underlying reason it’s so great is the connections and the people. I’m talking about networking: over 700 people I’ve met here could be helpful friends and connections for the rest of my life.”

Actor Olly Sholotan would not disagree. Having been accepted to YoungArts via a video audition of four memorized monologues - from the plays Topdog/Underdog, The Brothers Size, and Shakespeare’s Richard II and Romeo and Juliet - Olly claims to have received his effort’s worth. He was thrilled by the Shakespeare master classes, having dutifully over-prepared with two soliloquies, and also enjoyed the first three days spent perfecting his four audition pieces. After enacting the four for a panel of instructors, they selected the one he would finally perform: the Booth monologue from Topdog/Underdog, a play depicting two black brothers who struggle with poverty and racism in urban New York. He was drawn to the role, he explains, because of how unlike his life that of the character Booth was.

“I was born in Atlanta,” Olly says with a somewhat bashful shrug, “and I’ve had a fairly privileged life. When I saw a scene from Topdog/Underdog someone playing the character other than mine, actually, I was immediately entranced by the characters and the desperation of their circumstances: how gritty, how earthy, just how real it was.”

The whole YoungArts experience, moreover, was even beyond what someone at an arts school would expect. “I would walk into a master class,” Olly continues in awe, “and the teacher would have been in a big picture, like, three months ago. James Kaan was there, for instance. He was in The Godfather, for Christ’s sake!”

“And especially,” Olly says, as if afraid that his tesimony differs too much from Tyler’s, “I love networking. I’ve gotten to work with people literally all over America. I have seen and will no doubt continue to see unbelievable amounts of creative collaboration across the nation. And what’s more, if I get an unexpected gig in NYC, you can bet I’ll have a couch to sleep on.”

See more videos of HSPVA students' final performances: