NEWPORT BEACH : Art Is Life For Teens in Theater

On stage they are monarchs and peasants, cops and robbers, lovers and heartbreakers.

The rest of the time they are teenagers just trying to take home good grades and perhaps test their endurance for a career in show business.

“We are just as normal as everyone else,” said Sara Robinson, 17, a junior who is active in Newport Harbor High School’s theater department.

For her and her colleagues, however, “normal” means spending an average of three hours a day in rehearsal and as long as seven hours a day during the week before a major production.

The payoffs, students said, are many: being part of a drama department highly regarded in the community and having a visible role on campus and perhaps a shot at stardom.

Among well-known alumni of the program, firmly established since the 1940s, is movie actress Kelly McGillis.

“We have an awesome amount of talent here,” said Gail M. Brower, who has headed the theater department for three years and recently produced the musical “Merrily We Roll Along.”

The school’s program includes a beginners class, known as “baby drama,” and an advanced section. Each group stages an average of five plays or musicals a year and offers training not only in acting but also in technical work such as lighting, scenery and sound.

“I have 40 kids in each class,” Brower said, “and I work with them for a year” to develop their strengths.

Though magnet schools for the arts might offer more concentrated training, students in Newport Harbor’s program said they enjoy the atmosphere.

“This is more relaxed than the art schools,” said Kasey St. James, 16, who attended two art schools before transferring to Newport Harbor. “Here, you can develop closer friendships than in a competitive environment.”

She and other thespians say the drama program has the same campus cachet as sports, academics and politics at typical high schools.

“We don’t worry about what other people think or if they make fun of you,” said Sara, who has been in all 10 school productions in the past year. “We just say, ‘Ha! You paid to come see us!’ ”

The characters that she and her friends portray, she said, become “manifestations of ourselves.”

When the young actors learn foreign accents for a show, she said, “we can’t lose them for weeks.”

To make the point, her classmates broke into monologues and songs. “Drama,” one aspiring actress declared, “is a state of mind.”