CALVIN ROYAL III (Dancer, 17)
What makes him special? “In one word, he’s brilliant,” says Suzanne Pomerantzeff, chair of the ballet program at PCCA, where Calvin’s a junior. “There’s just such a purity there,” adds Patricia Paige-Parks of the dance faculty. “Every step in class he brings nuance and small detail.”
And he learns fast: Trained as a classical pianist at the John Hopkins middle school arts magnet program, he started doing Chocolate Nutcracker in the fourth grade and took tap and African dance. But he’d never studied ballet before entering PCCA. After just five months of training, he was admitted to the highly competitive summer program at the Rock School, a leading pre-professional dance institute in Philadelphia.
He’s resilient, too: During the second semester of his sophomore year, a car accident left him with two bulging discs, sidelining him from dancing for two months. And this past Christmas break, his house was damaged by fire. “We’re coping,” he says. Paige-Parks is in awe of his attitude, which she sums up as, “‘You want me to rehearse all day? My back hurts? My house just caught on fire? No problem.'”
Where you may have seen him: He played a leading role in Chocolate Nutcracker at Ruth Eckerd this season, doing a pas de deux as the Brazilian prince. And he was in the St. Petersburg Ballet’s Nutcracker, too.
What’s he like about dancing? “Just being able to express yourself through movement without words — and seeing what others can create. It inspires me as an artist.”
Did he ever worry about being mocked for doing ballet? “Even in middle school I had insecurities about how people would view me. [But] if this is what I believe God has put me here to do, everyone else’s opinions don’t matter.” His father, an Iraq vet who works for UF, and his mother, a nursing student, are both very supportive.
So what’s next? He’s been accepted for the Alvin Ailey summer program, and he’s auditioning for several other prestigious summer gigs. And next month comes the Youth America Grand Prix. The winner of that competition gets a contract with American Ballet Theater’s second company. “His potential,” says Pomerantzeff, “is unlimited.” —David Warner
T. SCOTT WOOTEN (Actor/director/playwright/dramaturg, 24)
Hitting the ground running: Wooten was hired by American Stage artistic director Todd Olson fresh out of Arkansas State University and came to St. Pete in September 2003. He does a little bit of everything. Wooten has acted in six of the company’s plays — including Moon for the Misbegotten, Spinning Into Butter, Drawer Boy and Much Ado About Nothing — and been assistant director on most American Stage productions. On his own time, Wooten has written 22 plays, many of them brief, and had his Mr. Wooten’s Big Night — a series of one-acts — produced at Studio@620. He directed The Santaland Diaries for American Stage. And that’s just part of his budding resume.
What the boss says: “He’s kind of quirky, not your average kid,” says Olson. “His plays have a unique bent to them — they’re a bit absurd and crazy — and [as an actor] he makes interesting choices on stage. If I held an audition only looking for males 20-25, and I saw Scott in that population, he would stand out.”
On being a generalist: “It’s been beneficial to my long-term goal. I am interested in becoming an artistic director at a company. I’m learning every single aspect of the ins and outs of how a theater company works as a team. I get a better sense of how each cog works in the machine.”
What jazzes him most right now: “The last seven months have been really good to me as a playwright. I definitely think that, at the end of the day, I can always be a writer.”
His favorite acting role: “I played a fop character, Foigard, in The Beaux’ Stratagem, which was a comedy of manners written by a guy named George Farquhar in the 1700s. It was the final mainstage play I was in at college. I was this effeminate, androgynous character. Foigard is an Irishman disguising himself as a Frenchman, so I had to somehow speak all my lines in a French accent while doing an Irish accent underneath it on certain words. It was a challenge. But it was a very broad piece, so I had full reign to play it as over the top as I wanted.” —Eric Snider
JENNIFER MEDINA (Bass player, 19)
Why bass? “I was an oboe player, doing classical music, but when I was 15, I was starting to feel like I couldn’t really express myself through the instrument. I was in the gymnasium [at Gibbs High School] one day and heard the concert band and the PCCA [Pinellas County Center for the Arts] jazz band. I hadn’t had much exposure to jazz, and I was thinking, ‘That’s so much fun. They get to improv and actually fully express themselves.’ I was drawn to the bass because of the role of what it does. It really controls almost all the chords.”
Acoustic or electric? Both. Jennifer plays electric and, being petite, a 5/8th-size upright (most jazz bassists use a 3/4 size). “Both are my favorite,” she says. “I don’t feel the need to choose.”
Jazz or rock? Both. She plays in the St. Pete College jazz ensemble and is a member of the local rock outfit Fall on Purpose. “I joined my first band when I was a sophomore in high school,” Jennifer says. “It was a ska band called The Wheelchair Getaway Drivers. We actually got together through PCCA. I got to play outside of school, at the time a really cool thing to do.”
Bass heroes? “A lot of other people know a lot more bass players than I do. I spend most of the time practicing and not as much listening to other people. I do love Jaco Pastorius. I know there are other great bass players but I don’t remember their names. People will ask me about a bass player on an album with Wayne Shorter whenever, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know.'” —ES
JOSH SULLIVAN (Cartoonist, 24)
Why he’s not waiting to blow up: “I don’t really care if anyone knows me — I just want to make people laugh,” he says. Plus, being big in comics doesn’t mean being big anywhere else. “No matter how mainstream comics get, it’s always going to be an underground world.”
Where his love of comics started: Somewhere between Jughead, Veronica, Mr. Weatherbee and a washing machine. As a kid, Sullivan would go looking for quarters in laundromats so he could stock up on Archie comics.
When he self-published his first book: In 10th grade. He sold 100 copies at a dollar a piece, the same price his books are today.
How many he’s self-published since then: 128.
Why he wants to get out of self-publishing: The distribution with an indie comic publisher or zine would be much wider. “I’m only one person — I can only get my stuff out there so much.”
Why his comics are rad: Sullivan’s single-panel pieces — the ones he’s most proud of — are filled with cheery, cute-as-a-button characters you’d expect to see in a Family Circus. It’s just that in Sullivan’s comic, they’re talking about fucking each other in the belly button. “You read them and you’re like ‘Holy shit!'” Sullivan says. “What’s wrong with him?”
What’s wrong with him: Nothing.
Where you can check him out: Comics, paintings, animations and everything else the guy has ever done (he’s a bit anal about cataloguing it all) are at joshcomics.com. He’s also the lead singer of the ska band Can’t Do It; upcoming shows are listed at cantdoit.net. And if that ain’t enough, he’ll be at the world-renowned comic book convention MegaCon, in Orlando, from Feb. 24 to 26.
Where you can check him out if you’re thirsty: Sullivan works at The Globe in St. Pete.
Where he wants to be in five years: “Hopefully on a lovely path of making a living off my art and not working a regular job. I really like St. Pete … but who knows. —Max Linsky
ROSHARRA FRANCIS (Singer/actress/dancer, 17)
Where you may have seen her: Musicals at the Palladium. She was in Godspell at 13 — “I was younger than everybody” — and recently stopped the show with a rendition of “Ghost of a Chance” in Macabaret, in which she played a Thriller-esque ghoul.
Why she’s surprising: “When people first meet her she’s kind of quiet, low-key,” says Rosharra’s mother Sharon, an IT manager for the City of St. Petersburg and a church choir director. “But when she goes on stage, she transforms.”
What she sounds like: A pure soprano with a warm lower register. At the Planet photo shoot, she tossed off a perfectly pitched rendition of “My Eyes Are On The Sparrow” with no accompaniment.
The long commute to PCCA: The family lives in Odessa, so Sharon had to get permission from both Hillsborough and Pinellas school systems to get Rosharra admitted to PCCA. She’d been at Central Christian, which Rosharra describes as “pretty sheltered.” But PCCA “was cool. I really fit in.”
Her latest achievement: She was one of 160 finalists (from more than 6,500 applicants across the country) in a talent search run by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. That meant an all-expenses-paid, weeklong trip to Miami for master classes, auditions and the chance to mingle with celebrities like Vanessa Williams and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Next up, college: She’s applied to many places (“I think I’m in the teens”), and in the wake of her NFAA auditions, some colleges have been pursuing her.
And after that? Broadway, gospel, a recording career, television and film acting — she wants it all. “My dreams are huge.” —DW
DYLAN GLATTHORN (Composer, 18)
Why his name might be familiar: His first musical, The Way It Goes — the story of a 20something film composer living with friends in Brooklyn — was a smash hit at the Palladium in January 2004. Dylan also staged and music-directed it. The St. Pete Times profiled him, and the theater had to find extra parking space to accommodate all the cars. He was a junior at PCCA at the time.
Was the musical any good? “The music itself was amazing and mature,” says PCCA theater chairperson Kevin Renken. “I just couldn’t believe a junior in high school wrote that stuff.”
But by that time he’d already been at it a while. Dylan started composing when he was 6. “I knew there was something that needed to be said that wasn’t being said — because I would listen to a piece of music and thought I would do it differently … I remember I always aggravated my piano teacher a lot. She would be teaching me these pieces, and I would always start to rewrite them. She was like, just read the music.”
Why write about 20somethings when you’re a teenager? “If I wrote a story that was just about 14-year-olds, no one would take it seriously.”
Musical family? No. But his father, chief of security at All Children’s Hospital, and his mother, who works for the City of Clearwater, are very supportive.
What’s he doing now? A freshman at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Music, he just won first prize in a composing competition (mostly against graduate students) for two pieces he wrote for string quartet and woodwinds.
How’s he feel about Sondheim? Loves him, particularly the revival of Sweeney Todd now on Broadway. “That kind of rebirth is what we need in the musical theater — innovation without alienation. When we innovate, we don’t want to just throw up all over the audience. “
And what’s his next show? Manifesto, a big romantic saga of love lost and regained in turn-of-the-century Ireland against the backdrop of the Easter Uprising of 1916.
Any plans to stage it? Yes, and soon. Bob Devin Jones of St. Pete’s Studio@620 has offered him a day to workshop Manifesto this summer, and then Dylan hopes to get it mounted Off Broadway “in the next two or three years.”
Before you’re even out of school? “Yes. I think I have enough talented friends that it could happen.” —DW
DAVIS RIDEOUT (Visual artist, 17)
His biggest achievement to date: As a sophomore he won a national art award from Scholastic for a self-portrait he drew in ballpoint pen.
And he’s already selling: In ninth grade a circle pot he made sold for $300 at the Florida Craftsmen gallery, and the next year he sold two more. He’s also doing portraits of kids at his church, Christ United Methodist; that little cottage industry has brought in about $600 so far.
It runs in the family: His grandmother and great-grandmother painted “wonderful landscapes.” An older cousin was another inspiration; he gave Davis a drawing he’d done when he was around Davis’ age, which helped him envision himself as an artist.
What makes him special: “He has very highly developed skills,” says PCCA art teacher Larry Miller. Yet he doesn’t rest on his laurels. “He really wants to get better at what he can do. He never balks at trying new stuff.”
What keeps him interested: “Everything’s based off of observing — seeing what’s there, getting it through my mind and getting that on paper … As I’ve matured, I’m able to add my imagination to it.
His favorite medium: “The base of all my art is graphite, is pencil — that gives me a structure to work with.”
But there’s so much more going on in his life: He’s a member of the track, cross-country and wrestling teams. He’s a drummer, and plays in two different bands. And he’s a devout Christian who helped organize a daily prayer circle in the school courtyard. But he emphasizes that he’s not the leader of the group. “It’s really a God-led thing.”
God’s work: “If I don’t necessarily draw something that’s about Him, He’s my inspiration. He’s given me everything I know.” —DW
ALANA CLAPP (Stage manager/lighting designer, 17)
Where you’ve seen her: Not on stage. She prefers to stay behind the scenes, calling cues from the booth, and has already worked professionally as a stage manager for Ruth Eckerd Hall’s education department and for the Palladium. She did have a moment in the spotlight recently, during a PCCA techies-only fashion show in Pass-A-Grille in which she wore the whore’s costume — a hot pink number, complete with corset — from a production of Ah, Wilderness! “We had our share of costume pain.”
How’d she get to be a techie? She got her start “doing tech things” when her middle school, John Hopkins, built a new theater. She snagged her first stage management gig as a freshmanat PCCA, working with a summer dance project. “Being so young, it was really cool to be accepted by people who appeared so much older than I was.”
Does theater run in the family? Her parents, a public defender and a retiree from Verizon, are very active in PCCA, but “I’m going to be the only one in my family to do anything in the performance world.”
What suits her about stage managing? “I don’t like conflict. A stage manager has to keep other people calm. I think I’m good at that.”
Her boss agrees: “Alana is one of the best stage managers I’ve ever worked with of any age,” says Kevin Stone, the production manager at Ruth Eckerd. “It’s hard to come into a venue like this one where we have a unionized local crew, but the guys here would do anything for her. She can do it all — and with a smile on her face, which is sometimes hard to do in this business.”
But doesn’t she ever have to lay down the law? “I’ve never had to be hard on anyone,” says Alana. “It’s more a communication thing — making sure everyone is working around the central concept as given by the director.”
What’s next? NYU or Carnegie Mellon, she hopes — and then, when she gets out of college, a job on a national tour, maybe Cirque de Soleil, which she got to know recently while working as a VIP hostess.
But what she really wants to do? “My secret ambition is to be a rigger. I have the handbook.” —DW
DAVID BRINKMANN (Director/playwright/lighting designer, 16)
Where you’ve seen his lighting designs: He did three shows in November, all paid jobs — including lights for Macabaret and the St. Pete Ballet’s Nutcracker at the Palladium.
What appeals to him about doing lights and sound: “It’s the rush you get from working in a show … and to get paid for it as well was cool.”
But he’s even more interested in writing: He switched from the tech theater program to literary theater at PCCA, and is currently working on a play called Ten Soldiers about post-traumatic stress disorder. He’s interested in finding a way “to make a switch between reality and dream on stage that makes sense.”
Post-traumatic stress disorder? What was the inspiration? His half-brother is a Navy medic and a vet of Iraq and Desert Storm. “I don’t know if I want him to read it or not.”
Another big project: He’s the assistant director and dramaturg for PCCA’s March production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The director is his teacher Rod Hansen.
David may seem quiet, but… “He sees things between the lines that other people don’t,” says Hansen. “I thought he was mute at first, but he has all these wonderful things to say. He has wonderful insight into character and relationships.”
One possible source of that insight: His father, David says, is a “mechanic with a master’s in anthropology,” and his mother’s a nurse at Bayfront.
And what else is coming up? He’s applying for an internship with American Stage; he’s hoping to mount his play at the Palladium; he’s sending his play out to contests … “I take too much on my plate.”
When to see PCCA in action: Raisin in the Sun, directed by Kevin Renken, will run Feb. 7-11. Rod Hansen’s Twelfth Night runs March 14-17. —DW
This article appears in Jan 25-31, 2006.
