A Critical Stage in High School

It wasn’t an act: Amanda Avila was nail-bitingly nervous as she paced the hallway Sunday waiting her turn to perform.

She was in East Los Angeles for an audition--not for a part in a play, but for a place in high school.

The 16-year-old was among 80 youths trying out for 19 openings at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.

Space at the tuition-free school is coveted by fledgling actors, dancers, musicians and artists who take traditional academic courses in the morning and specialized theater, music and art classes in the afternoon.

Courses are taught in classrooms and stages rented from Cal State L.A., which offers college credit to teenagers for some classwork. Graduates are regularly recruited by top art institutes, as well as leading universities.

But sometimes the reason for wanting to enroll at Arts High is purely personal. Like Amanda Avila’s.

“I want to come here because I want to be around people like me,” she said. “I’m loud. I’m outgoing. I kind of stand out at the school I go to now.”

Hopefuls arose early Sunday for their tryouts. Singers and dancers went in one direction, and artists lugged sample sketches and paintings in another. Actors went into a classroom building to perform short monologues before judges.

Amanda had memorized two portions of the play “Ondine” for her audition, practicing them for hours in front of her mother, Debra Avila.

She looked calm when it finally came her turn to perform in front of theater teachers Christine Deaver and Antony Sandoval. Of course, Amanda was acting.

Deaver and Sandoval told her to look past them and focus instead on the empty blackboard behind them as she recited her lines. The trick worked: The 10-minute audition was over before Amanda realized it.

Back in the hallway, she joined other auditioning students waiting for the second part of the enrollment selection process. It was an interview of students and parents by school officials.

As they waited, the talk was about stage fright--and the disappointment some of those auditioning were certain to experience as spring semester seats are filled at Arts High. The 500-student school draws from five counties.

“Of course I’ll be heartbroken if I’m not selected. But life will go on,” said Danielle Puchalski, 16, of Ontario. “I was so nervous over this. I didn’t get to sleep until 12:30 last night, and I got up at 7.”

Laura Soltz, 16, of Belmont Shore nodded in agreement.

“It will hurt a little if I don’t get in,” Laura said. “But I won’t let it hurt my life.”

Debra Avila stepped into the hall and gave her daughter a hug. She said Amanda learned the harsh reality of auditions after being bitten by the acting bug at age 4.

She taught her daughter not to take auditions personally by taking her to a toy store the first time she was rejected for a role. Amanda realized that choosing an actor for a part is like selecting a doll: Those dolls left on the store shelf are sure to eventually be embraced by other children, said Debra Avila, who works as a loan processor.

As she waited to be ushered with her mother into an interview with Arts High theater department head Vicky Silva, Amanda studied a hallway bulletin board that included a newspaper clipping about “Dharma & Greg” television series actress Jenna Elfman, a member of Arts High’s class of 1989.

When it came time for the interview, Silva had questions for both mother and daughter.

“This is not a school for everyone,” said Silva, who co-founded the drama program when the high school opened in 1985--patterned after such performing arts programs as the New York school depicted in the movie and television series “Fame.”

“The demands here will be great. We’re looking for students who are very self-motivated.”

Silva explained that applicants will be notified in writing whether they have been selected.

“This is going to be nerve-racking,” said Amanda afterward. “What if it gets lost in the mail?”

Stop worrying, Amanda. Silva and the others decided late Sunday that if your fall semester final grades pass muster and a final letter of recommendation is received, you’re in.