APPLICATIONS POUR IN TO ARTS HIGH SCHOOL

More than 250 students have submitted applications to the Orange County High School for the Performing Arts, which plans to open this fall on the Los Alamitos High School campus, program organizers said Friday.

Thirty-five of the applicants have been tentatively selected for the musical theater and dance programs, said Jean Cross, the Los Alamitos Unified School District administrator for the tuition-free arts school, the first of its kind in the county.

Since most of these 35 students live in other districts in Orange County and Long Beach, they need permission from their districts to be full-time transfer students in the Los Alamitos district, Cross said. An official tally of those students who have received transfer approvals is not yet available, she added.

The Los Alamitos district, which is establishing the arts school, has received a $194,700 operating grant from the state, but Cross said $200,000 to $300,000 is still being sought from private supporters in order to provide a “full-scale” program.

Cross said the arts school hopes to have 150 students when it opens Sept. 10. Specialized instruction will include visual arts and video, as well as vocal and instrumental music, dance and technical theater.

Dance auditions will be held from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Aug. 2 and Aug. 23 at UCI’s dance studio. The auditions will be conducted by Anita Mitchell, who earned her master’s degree in dance at UC Irvine and has studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts.

A tryout for musical theater applicants will given from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 16 at Los Alamitos High School. The session will be supervised by Dave Green, a musical director with the Young Americans organization. (Call the district office, (213) 430-1021 for further information.)

Cross said Green and Mitchell have been hired as full-time specialists. Additional artists are being sought as part-time instructors.