Mon Valley Performing Arts Academy
Keeping arts education alive in the community
When Michele Pagen was growing up in the Mon Valley, she could only dream of having a special place to go to study music, theater and all sorts of performing arts.
“I grew up in this area and always knew that if I was given the opportunity, I would start a program such as this,” says Pagen, now the Artistic Director of the Mon Valley Performing Arts Academy (MVPAA). “The only one around me when I was young was in Pittsburgh and, for my parents, that might as well have been Europe. I also wanted to be sure that we were able to bring our services at low or no cost to families. I know our region has always had its economic struggles. I wanted the MVPAA to be a beacon and not a burden.”
Some form of the MVPAA has existed since 1997 with the name officially changing to its current form in 2015. Pagen has been involved for 29 years and now helps oversee a program that averages between 40 to 60 students during the academic year with an average of 60 students in the summer program.
“While we do want to keep our numbers low in order to better serve each student, we would love to expand our offerings in order to serve more students,” says Pagen. “Our hindrance there is a lack of our own facility. We currently share a philanthropic relationship with PennWest University and have for many years. We do need to be attentive to the university students and their needs as well, so we don’t want to burden them by putting too many programs in those spaces.” MVPAA has its eyes on a building for expansion into its own space and is currently raising funds to purchase it.
The group’s most popular program is by far the Summer Experience, which is a two-week musical and technical theater boot camp for youth ages 8 to 17. Students take classes each morning in acting, voice, dance, and technical theater (if performers) or have a three-hour workshop on a technical area each morning (if technicians). The afternoons are spent in rehearsals for the end of the year production, which is a fully staged junior musical. Last year, they performed Seussical Jr. and the year before was Godspell Jr. This year’s production is High School Musical Jr. MVPAA also offers a one-week program for 5- to- 7-year-olds.
“Our academic year programs vary in popularity,” Pagen says. “Our improv classes were quite popular, but our instructor left the area and we haven’t been able to offer that in a while. Our musical theater performance classes are popular. Our acting classes fill easily as well. Typically, as long as we can pay the instructor, we let the classes run no matter the size.”
Keeping arts alive
Why is MVPAA so passionate about keeping arts education alive and well in the Mon Valley community?
“The arts provide so much more than pretty things,” Pagen explains. “The confidence, collaborative ability, ability to lead but also be a member of a team are vital to everyone no matter where life takes them. The exposure to different people and ideas helps create civically minded and empathetic people. The academy also does not support creating stars. We create ensemble. Each person is equally important and all roles are necessary for success – whether tech or performance.”
Making the productions and classes happen takes both funding and volunteerism.
“We will never turn away a volunteer for our community events,” Pagen says. “We have a small group of loyal parents that we call the Curtain Raisers because they truly help us to raise the curtain on our programming.”
As for donations, MVPAA would love the community’s help in fundraising to buy its own facility and the group is open to all sorts of ideas about how to make that happen.
“Naming rights would obviously be negotiated into any major assistance,” says Pagen. “However, we always need sponsors and have various levels established. We have had to do more fundraising this year than ever and it has not been easy. I do not like burdening our parents by needing their assistance as much as we did this year.”
A place to belong
Besides providing arts education that is increasingly being pared from public school curriculums, MVPAA has also created a community for students interested in performing arts.
“It is common for our students to tell their parents that they feel like they ‘belong’ at the academy,” says Pagen. “Perhaps they have struggled to find their people, but realize they are with us.”
Now, the next goal is to find MVPAA its own space so they can embark on adding other services.
“We also have bigger goals that we cannot begin to realize until we have our own space such as tutoring services, a study room, a human and pet food bank, a social worker and a nurse on site once a week or bi-monthly.”
If you’d like more information on MVPAA, its programs and how to volunteer or donate, please visit mvpaa.com.