Raise the curtain: A performing arts school makes its debut at Sugden Community Theatre Sept. 2.

The Naples Players Academy of Dramatic Arts will offer high school diplomas through Florida Virtual School academics, blended with a half-day of grounding in all aspects of performance and production.

It is under the wing of The Naples Players, the city’s community theater of 72 years, and will have its campus in the expanded and improved Sugden Theatre, which now has three performance theaters and a total of 45,000 square feet.

TNP already has an education department that offers classes for children ages 2 to 17. The academy is different in that it will be a full day school, operating on a trimester calendar and aligned to the holiday schedule of Collier County Public Schools. There’s an open house for the Academy May 20 at Sugden Theatre.

Hunchback of Notre Dame

Offering choices early

It is different from most other performing arts schools in the U.S. The academy is open to students from sixth through 12th grades rather than solely grades 9-12. In Florida, few performing arts schools offer that broad an age spectrum.

“I have felt this way in my entire career: Middle school kids don’t yet know what they love and what they don’t love. So the middle school curriculum is going to expose kids to everything from ballet to lighting and marketing and financial literacy and the business aspect behind what happens at The Naples Players,” said Steven Caruso, chief administrator for the Academy.

In the upper grades, students will be able — and will have experienced enough — to assemble a schedule with specialty classes in their interest, he added.

Caruso, former head of school at Seacrest Country Day School, has a background in school administration and academics. He served in both capacities at Palm Beach Day Academy for 20 years before coming to Seacrest in 2013. Caruso’s decision to join the Academy came from conversations with Bryce Alexander, CEO and executive artistic director for The Naples Players, who challenged him to analyze the concept.

“I started thinking about the options of the schools in the area. I quickly realized that this wasn’t just something that would work — it was something that was necessary. It really would fit a niche for the community,” he recalled.

Jennifer Price, Naples Players director of education, will become the academy’s program director after serving as the director of drama for Gulf Coast High School, where her students have won more than 50 thespian awards. Both she and her children have been in a number of Naples Players productions.

Price said she came to The Naples Players staff with a learning center like this in mind.

“In my first discussion with Bryce, I said I would like to open a school, that I wished there were a more specific magnet program around for the performing arts. And he had already also kind of had that thought, so … things just progressed really quickly.

“It’s just such an arts-rich community,” she said of Naples. “There are so many arts programs for after school for kids, but there is nothing focused on it during the school day. And I believe that that is just the one little piece missing for those students who want to go the extra mile.”

42nd Street

Blending experience and academics

Price will organize the academics in two segments:

• Its FLVS core platform, including daily in-person instruction support by onsite certified teachers, mentors and experienced faculty to guide academic planning.
• All aspects of theater: dance, music, production, scenic design, costuming, financial operations, accessibility and technical fields such as lighting and sound.

“They have a certified teacher teaching each of their classes online. However, we will also have teachers in the classroom with them during the day to support,” emphasized Price, who was a teacher in Collier County schools for 16 years. The academy is also lining up subject specialists in core courses such as math: “So I feel like any student, even if they’re struggling in a certain class, we’ll be able to get them the support that they need.”

The Naples Players has its own staff of professionals for each of the dramatic arts specialties. Instructors may be brought in for specific needs such as some types of dance or vocals and, eventually, instrumentals, she said.

Tuition for The Naples Players Academy of Dramatic Arts will be $18,000 annually. There is financial support from various sources, including the Florida Department of Education’s Personalized Education Program’s Education Savings Account program. (Information can be found online at fldoe.org by typing in personalized education program FAQs.) There are other scholarships available, as well.

“We do not want the tuition to be a barrier for anyone,” Price said.

Hadestown

Looking for the right students

The Dramatic Arts Academy is not a recent development, according to Alexander. It has been in conceptual form since 2018. When The Naples Players created its expansion and remodeling for the Sugden Theatre, the idea of incorporating classrooms was quietly incorporated into the design.

In fact, the multi-use design has won it a slot on America ByDesign: Architecture, a Saturday CBS program that explores unique approaches to building design. The show is expected to air in July, but no date has been set.

“We saw that there was a real opportunity to serve the Southwest Florida community in a way it hadn’t been served yet,” he said.

Collier County has career academies for a good number of fields. Collier County Public Schools organizes career academies under themes including business, technology and computer sciences, health sciences, law and public safety, engineering, culinary arts, finance and television/communications. But nothing existed for dramatic arts, he pointed out.

Alexander said he had looked at other models, but little existed in the type of academy this will be.

“This one is based a little more off some the sports models, and how students who participate in sports have the opportunity for deeper sports training, and so what we liked about this model is that it was a little more available for members of the community to participate in,” he said.

Students will audition but there are no pre-requirements of extensive experience. To keep the Academy from any show of favoritism in casting for The Naples Players after-school youth theater productions, the academy will have its own productions, but students may work in technical roles in the other productions.

He characterized the Academy “an intensive, arts-focused experience that blends academic success with hands-on training and access to professional-level technology, facilities and performance opportunities.”

The academy has a CCPS representative on its board, Caruso pointed out.

“They [public schools] can’t be everything to everybody. We want to partner with the public schools. We want to partner with the local independent schools if we can provide something for their students that they can’t.”

The academy has a CCPS representative on its board, he said.

Don’t expect a battalion of Fame school students creating their own professional-quality, large-scale productions as were popularized in the film and TV show based on a fictional performing arts high school. At least not yet.

“For our first year, we’d like to keep it small if we can,” Price said. “We have the capacity to go much bigger, but I would prefer to keep it around 20 to 30 students the first year.”

A peek behind the curtain

What: Open house for The Naples Players Academy of Dramatic Arts

When: 7 p.m. May 20

Where: Sugden Theatre, 701 Fifth Ave. S., Naples

Information: naplesplayers.org/tnpa or 239.434.7340