THEATER AND FILM/Herman Wong : UCI Theater Students Trek to Great White Way

The 28 members of Uta Hagen’s Monday afternoon acting class in New York’s Greenwich Village traveled a long way to get to school: 3,000 miles, give or take, from UC Irvine.

The group, part of an annual UCI spring music theater project, is on a pilgrimage to America’s theatrical mecca to learn something of the art--and business--of big-time theater from New York professionals such as Hagen, one of the stage’s eminent actors and teachers.

“They are like any young performers, so full of energy and hope,” Hagen, 68, said of the Orange County group, whose monthlong UCI-sponsored stay in New York also includes instruction in dance, singing and audition techniques.

Like the other instructors in this UCI course--called the New York Satellite Project in Music Theater--Hagen also hands out tough advice to these students, most of whom plan to seek full-time theatrical careers.

“Our mission, yes, is to give creative discipline to their energy,” explained Hagen by phone from New York, “but it is also to temper their hope with harsh realities.” Namely: The pitfalls of entering a job market where unemployment is rampant, competition fierce and stardom elusive.

To UCI’s Prof. Clayton Garrison, leader of the Satellite Project, it boils down to on-the-spot training. “This is as intense and direct a confrontation (as) students can get with what’s really out there in the ultimate job market--New York,” he said.

Now in its fifth year, the Manhattan project is, UCI drama department officials say, the only academic venture of its kind offered in New York by a West Coast university. This year’s project, which costs $23,600 overall and is underwritten by the Harkness Foundation and several other private donors, runs from May 1 to 31.

The 28 UCI students were picked in music theater auditions conducted last fall by Garrison. Most are already members of UCI’s graduate program in music theater; the others are undergraduate and graduate drama or dance majors. The New York project is a regularly credited university course (students, however, pay for transportation and lodging).

Most classes, including those in music theater fundamentals, are at American Ballet Theatre studios. Hagen’s dramatic acting sessions are at an artists’ loft in the heart of Greenwich Village.

This is the third year in the project for Hagen, who has won Tony Awards for her starring roles in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “The Country Girl.”

The current faculty also includes choreographers Donald Saddler, Michael Shawn and Buzz Miller, and musical performers Helen Gallagher, Mercedes Ellington and Nicole Fosse. (Among the previous faculty members: producer-director Harold Prince and director/choreographer Tommy Tune.)

The pace is grueling, the schedule almost round-the-clock, including nightly theater-hopping and receptions. The students, all living in apartments near the Broadway theater district or Lincoln Center, have already seen or plan to see such musicals as “Les Miserables,” “Phantom of the Opera” and “Into the Woods,” in addition to performances by New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.

“Sure, it’s a tough, very tough program,” said 24-year-old Terrence Carey, a UCI graduate student in music theater. But, he added, that is “what makes it exciting. You’re learning the ropes from some of the biggest, best teachers in the business. You’re right in the middle of everything.”

Said 31-year-old Kim Lee Zwissig, a UCI dance major: “No one is pulling punches on how difficult it is to make it in this business, especially New York. But they are also giving us the artistic inspiration, the incentive to go for it.”

There is yet another catalyst: The dream of following in the footsteps of those UCI alumni who have made names for themselves. The best-known is Bob Gunton, who starred as Juan Peron in the New York production of “Evita” and whose recent roles have included Harold Hill in the New York City Opera revival of “The Music Man” at Lincoln Center.

Speaking of a bicoastal UCI: The Manhattan project isn’t the only foray that the Irvine school makes to an entertainment citadel. There’s also Hollywood.

Each spring UCI rents a Hollywood playhouse for a one-day “talent showcase” for students in the master’s program in drama. The audiences are representatives of Hollywood talent agencies, seeking new faces for possible jobs in theater, films, television shows and commercials.

Off-campus, school-sponsored showcases in Hollywood aren’t a new idea. USC has conducted them the past four springs--and Cal State Fullerton plans to launch its version, which would also include dancers, next year.

UCI’s third annual showcase, held May 16 at the Matrix Theatre in the Melrose Street sector, drew up to 50 agents at each of two 30-minute acting sessions. Nine students appeared in scenes from such plays as “The Art of Dining” and “Prelude to a Kiss.”

By bringing so many agents under one roof, the showcase provides a kind of one-stop tryout. “It sure cuts down on the shoe leather,” said Cynthia Blaise, one of the students, “and the exposure is such a tremendous boost for us.” The others were Steve Benson, Sarah Anne Dacey, Jim Donovan, Leslie Gray, Ron Hastings, Steven Ingrassia, Lori Thimsen and Judy Young.

UCI, however, reports no big job successes--yet--from past participants of its Hollywood showcase or New York satellite projects. No matter: The students and faculty consider these projects a boon just for the networking alone.

“The aim is to ease that enormous transition for students, from school to career,” said UCI drama lecturer Mary Anne McGarry, who directs the showcase. “We believe we’re doing just that--programs that help plug students directly into the (job-market) process.”