SPARC Sets the Stage for Success

Wherever you look in RVA these days, there’s SPARC. The School of the Performing Arts (SPARC) has been on a roll, from their “Minds in Motion” performance on Brown’s Island during this summer’s Fireworks on the James event to its “LIVE ART” performance at the Carpenter Theatre with a surprise appearance from multi-Grammy winner Jason Mraz.

Children of all abilities performed alongside touring musicians as part of a groundbreaking new 20-week educational program called LIVE ART for students with and without special needs.

Since 1981, the School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community has enriched students’ lives with an appreciation for the arts. SPARC’s students are diverse racially, socioeconomically, and geographically with 50 percent of the 2,200 participants coming from minority populations each year.

“We teach the kids confidence, self-esteem and the ability to articulate their thoughts,” says Ryan Ripperton, SPARC executive director. “We use art to teach those skills so the kids enjoy their time, but they’re really learning.”

Mechanicsville-native and multi-Grammy winner Jason Mraz, a SPARC alum, joined students on stage as part of the organization's efforts to integrate performing arts curriculum with special education to create a major performance event. — Mechanicsville-native and multi-Grammy winner Jason Mraz, a SPARC alum, joined students on stage as part of the organization’s efforts to integrate performing arts curriculum with special education to create a major performance event.

As a non-profit organization, SPARC offers more than $25,000 in tuition waivers and reductions, allowing students to participate in performing arts programs regardless of their family’s financial need. Students can choose between courses that focus on singing, acting or dancing. If a student hopes to turn their hobby into a career, they are strongly encouraged to develop their skills in all three areas.

Ripperton points to SPARC’s 23rd annual competition for New Voices for the Theatre as an example of the organization at its finest. As a nationally acclaimed statewide high school playwriting program, New Voices for the Theatre sees writing talent from across Virginia come to RVA to work closely with professional theatre artists during a two-week residency.

Over the course of their stay, students bring their original one-act plays to life on the stage, with eight winning scripts selected. This program culminates every summer in a Festival of New Works at the Firehouse Theater (see http://www.sparconline.org/newvoices for a New Voices documentary).

The learning doesn’t stop there; SPARC continues to unleash a variety of courses that focus on perfecting skills or performances. There are also audition-based classes for the seven productions each year. Students can choose to audition for musicals or plays and are divided into two age groups: 8 to 13 and 14 to 18.

Summer camps and workshops offer additional options for students to broaden their involvement with the arts. These classes range from sing-alongs for the younger children to summer intensives in acting, writing or design for high school students preparing to graduate from SPARC to pursue their performance goals.

Best of all, over half of the students SPARC reaches are involved in their community outreach program. STAGES provides in-school and after-school enrichment programs to 27 Richmond-area schools and community centers. These programs focus on life skills, like public speaking, and encourage students to be confident and express themselves through art. Ripperton says that students involved in these programs show a 32 percent growth in their language skills over the course of a year.