The Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts has unquestionably earned a local reputation for quality theater—a reputation that’s spread far and wide. Recently, at a United States Institute of Technical Theatre convention, the conservatory was officially recognized with the Thomas DeGaetani Award for outstanding lifetime achievement and longtime contribution to the performing arts community.
PCPA’s artistic director, Mark Booher, said the award wasn’t one that an organization can apply for; it’s strictly determined by the institute.
“It was a nice spring surprise,” he said. “It’s always lovely to have the work that you normally do recognized by a national organization.”
The institute connects the performing arts, design, and technology communities, holding conferences across the country each year and bestowing the award on one regional theater within the sphere of that year’s conference. This year’s conference was held in Long Beach at the end of March.
Named in honor of the institute’s first president, Thomas DeGaetani, the award has previously gone to the Denver Center, Old Globe, the Alley Theatre, and Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Booher said the recognition is an indicator of the influence PCPA has not only on the community, but in the region.
“The award is a measurement of PCPA’s impact across time and across the nation in the way that only an outside third party can measure,” he said. “It’s not something that we can measure. We can only measure what we do today.”
Booher said one of the things he considers a highlight of PCPA’s 50 years is simply its continued existence, especially in light of the thousands of nonprofit arts organizations that folded at the start of the economic recession. He said PCPA was part of the American regional theater movement along with some of the great leading regional theater organizations, and it’s great to see the conservatory—and those renowned organizations—still standing five decades later.
He also counts the students and alumni and the success they’ve experienced as another highlight. Booher said that during the conference, he met several alumni who told him that the work they do now is grounded in the training they received at PCPA. Those comments echo similar anecdotes he hears from alumni all the time.
He said PCPA’s job is twofold: to attract talent, but also to cultivate talent. He said the conservatory has about 60 staffers and a student and intern body of about 150. He compared the conservatory’s relationship to its student body to a greenhouse with fledgling seedlings. He said a talented staff is critical to helping those students realize their potential. Throughout its five decades, PCPA has done that admirably, producing not only successful actors, but also successful designers and directors and others whose names may not be as widely known.
Perhaps the most important thing PCPA has accomplished, in Booher’s opinion, is the work the conservatory does for the community. He said knowing that the conservatory is reaching a diverse local population is rewarding in itself.
“It’s more important to me that people standing in line at Vons or Costco or the DMV appreciate what we’re doing,” he said. “At the same time, it’s great to have an outside organization say, ‘Hey, Central Coast, are you aware of the great work PCPA is doing?’”
Arts Editor Shelly Cone is aware. Contact her at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 19-26, 2012.