School for Creative and Performing Arts
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The School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) is a selective arts school servicing grades 4-12 (with plans to expand to K-12) in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, and is part of the Cincinnati Public Schools. Many famous performers are alumni of the school, including Nick Lachey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rocky Carroll and Carmen Electra.
The school consists of seven majors: dance, drama, technical theatre, instrumental music , vocal music, creative writing, and visual art. Musical theater was also a major, but as of the 2005–06 school year, the major has been cut for budget reasons. The school produces nearly two hundred productions encompassing all of these majors, including a main stage season.
[edit] The season
The main stage season usually consists of three plays, two ballets, and two musicals. The season begins with a play, usually for junior high students. It is produced in the smaller black box within the school.
Soon after the first play, schoolwide auditions for the large musical begin. In past years, the school has produced Ragtime, The Music Man, Fame, Anything Goes, and in the 2005–06 season, Beauty and the Beast. These shows can by quite complex. In the 2004–05 season, the production of Seussical included over three hundred members of cast, technicians, volunteers and staff.
The dance department is responsible for two ballets, The Nutcracker and a ballet from repertoire later in the spring. Both happen in the school's auditorium.
After winter break is the high school drama, another large event. Past productions include The Diary of Anne Frank, The Madwoman of Chaillot, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Noises Off. The high school drama takes place in Cincinnati's Aronoff Center, within the Jarson-Kaplan Theater specifically.
After this is the small musical in the auditorium, which is sometimes only for younger students. Finally, rounding out the year is an elementary school drama, usually based on a folktale or widely-known story from literature.
[edit] New building
Projected to be ready for students in the 2009–10 school year, SCPA is promised a brand new 250,000 square foot building. It will be the first and only arts school in America to service grades K-12.
