CalArts Sjjummer Students Learn Price of Dreams

Tamar Shavit sacrificed a trip to the Soviet Union. Heather Ross sacrificed a trip to the television set.

And Aaron Bonnell gave up a chance to fatten his thin teen-age wallet.

Goodby summer of vacation and vegetating. Hello summer of discipline and discovery.

These three, along with about 350 other talented teen-agers from throughout the state, are wrapping up their studies at the third annual California State Summer School for the Arts in Valencia.

The intense, four-week session, funded by state and private donations, forces students to match their dreams with dedication. For many, it’s their first glimpse of Life After High School. Do they have enough desire to become a professional artist? Do they have enough talent?

They arrive with some talent, having passed an audition at one of 19 locations throughout the state. The California Legislature established the $1.2-million program in 1985, and Gov. George Deukmejian allocated $580,000 as the state’s present share.

At CalArts, students attend all-day classes in the discipline of their choice--music, dance, film, video, creative writing and visual arts--and, if they want, go to sessions outside their main interest.

Classes are held six days a week, and most students use the day off to polish their skills. About 150 instructors take part in the program, which is designed to develop the potential of the state’s young artists. Robert Jaffe, the deputy director, said the program tries to maintain a ratio of nine students per teacher.

In the evening, students attend films, concerts and lectures. Among the summer’s well-known guest speakers: Charles Haid, formerly of “Hill Street Blues”; James Edward Olmos of “Stand and Deliver,” and John Ritter.

The $1,000 fee includes room, board and tuition.

Bonnell assumed that he would spend the summer in his native Yuba City in Northern California, flipping hamburgers at McDonalds. Summer school at CalArts seemed as likely as starring with Tom Cruise in his next feature.

“I thought it would be like ‘Fame’ and way over my head,” said Bonnell, 16, who dreams of becoming an actor. “I didn’t think I was good enough to make it. Now I have found out that I am.”

Like many others, though, he was initially terrified. It’s one thing to prosper in the surroundings of such small towns as Yuba City; it’s quite another to impress peers from throughout the state. The pressure got to Bonnell in his first few days.

“I was never so nervous in my life,” Bonnell said. “I had an audition to do, and that night, I threw up. Being here was something I had looked forward to for so long, and now that I was here, I got scared. It took me a while to realize that I belong with them, that they weren’t some separate group I looked at from the outside.”

At the same time, the program can be a sobering experience, an early, helpful hint that perhaps an artistic career is not one’s destiny.

“Some people see how much work being an artist takes and see they’re not as excited about it as they thought they were,” said Bill Cleveland, the program’s director. “And that’s an equally valuable lesson to learn. Better that they know this now.”

Ingrid Mulhall, 15, of Nevada City in Northern California isn’t ready to abandon her acting ambition, but she’ll leave CalArts with a greater awareness of its demands.

“There are so many people here better than me, and that is scary,” Mulhall said. “I have to get a lot better. Maybe I won’t have the desire. I really wouldn’t mind becoming a veterinarian.”

In any case, Cleveland said it is important that the program’s instructors instill a dose of realism into the students without completely shattering their hopes and dreams.

“How many times have people been wrong in making that judgment?” Cleveland said. “All we expect is them to live up to a standard of hard work. If they’re not, that’s when we say something.”

As Peter Kors, 42, an acting instructor, sees it, his role is to give students useful, practical information about the profession.

“I want them, if they are handed a script, to be able to know what to do,” Kors said. “Most of them have a certain amount of overall discipline and commitment. What they need to learn is what the exact nature of acting is, and how they can use their bodies to respond naturally and spontaneously to situations around them.”

Kors teaches them that mastering the relationship between their bodies and the space around them will make them more natural actors. He employs many techniques, including a long exercise session at the beginning of class to get the teen-agers in shape.

“Let’s get stoked,” he tells the students. “If you’re serious about acting, you must take care of your bodies.”

Shavit is serious about acting. When she arrived at CalArts, she feared that her parents’ dream-- her nightmare--of becoming a lawyer seemed inevitable.

“I came here thinking acting wasn’t going to be my life,” said Shavit, 15, of Sherman Oaks. “And now I know nothing else can be my life. People here told me I have talent, and I have been studying for nine years and nobody ever told me I had talent. I only kept doing it because I loved it.”

She is prepared for the long struggle.

“We’ve heard about people who have roaches in their apartment, but go to the theater every night, and that excites me,” Shavit said. “I live in a yuppie Sherman Oaks home, and I can see giving up my VCR, my Dustbuster, my garage door opener. I have changed here.”

Dancers at the summer school are equally motivated. Ross, 17, of Redlands, who wants to be a dancer, is attending the school for the second time. After returning home last year, she fully appreciates the difference between CalArts and Redlands.

“You’re lucky back home if you get two classes a day,” Ross said. “Here, you have at least six hours a day and usually more because you practice so much. You really live the life you dream about.”

Ross had no trouble sacrificing part of her summer for another chance at CalArts. “I would have just sat in front of the tube and grabbed something from the refrigerator.”

And neither did others, like Shavit, who could have seen other parts of the world and had a great experience.

“But this is what I want to do with the rest of my life,” Shavit said. “This is where I had to be.”

As Ross puts it: “One day, someone in this group will be famous. You look around and you just wonder who it is.”