PERFORMING FOR GOOD

Annual Children’s Concert

In collaboration with the LMU Family of Schools, CFA’s Department of Music brings students and families on campus each year for the Annual LMU Children’s Concerts, which are free and open to the community. The Family of Schools is a university program dedicated to developing partnerships between the university and schools in the Westchester area. Children of all ages are invited to enjoy and participate in the performances presented by LMU students from the Chamber Ensembles, Sinatra Opera Workshop and other ensembles.

The performances include music, stories, puppets, costumes, dancers, and integrate participation from elementary school performers, utilizing them as narrators, actors, artists and musicians. These children work closely with LMU faculty, students and professional artists in creating exciting, accessible concerts of classical music for all ages.

YOLA at HOLA

In 2017, LMU Department of Music began a collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic to benefit under-served music students. In the first visit of what promises to be an expanding level of involvement, Music faculty members took string and percussion Music students over to the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) participants at HOLA (Heart of Los Angeles), one of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s celebrated after school music education programs.

Located in the Rampart District, YOLA at HOLA serves hundreds of students with intensive afterschool orchestral instruction five days a week. The LA Phil and its community partners provide free instruments, intensive music training, and academic support to students from under-served neighborhoods, empowering them to become vital citizens, leaders, and agents of change.

The partnership both gives our music students with an additional performance opportunity in an alternative setting, and provides those who are interested in pursuing music education with a valuable and professionalizing experience. Going forward, LMU Music students plan to regularly visit YOLA at HOLA as volunteer instructors and teachers’ assistants, working in small group settings to offer more individualized instruction to struggling students as well as to those that may need an additional challenge.

HIV/AIDS Awareness

Since 2006, the Department of Theatre Arts has hosted an annual fundraiser event to benefit local AIDS charities called Stages of AIDS. Held in conjunction with World AIDS Day in early December, the theatre production is performed by students and is intended to educate and inform the audience about AIDS, with donations collected at the door to benefit organizations such as Project Angel Food, AIDS Project Los Angeles and AIDS Healthcare Foundation of Los Angeles.

Recent performances include The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel, A Staged Reading of Angels in America by Tony Kushner, and Raft of the Medusa by Joe Pintauro. These performances serve a dual purpose, first of which is to expose both theatre arts students and the audience members to an up-close look at the AIDS crisis. The second purpose is to use this awareness to achieve the goal of ending discrimination against those currently affected by the disease, and instilling an appreciation for early victims who faced demonization before the illness was fully understood. LMU’s CSJ Center for Reconciliation and Justice often hosts a post-play discussion and reception, where audience members can come together to discuss the complex themes brought up in the often emotional performances.

Scholarship Fundraising

LMU’s Department of Theatre Arts hosts a pair of fundraisers each year in remembrance of Sam Wasson, a beloved student who died when he was a sophomore theatre arts major at LMU. The fundraisers include Crosswords, a series of one act plays performed by LMU alumni and other professional actors, and BTLS4SAM, an event where the LMU community gathers outdoors to play and listen to Beatles music.

The proceeds from these events directly fund a scholarship given each spring to a student who is involved in both the performance and technical side of theatre, and who also embodies Sam’s warm, funny, and open-hearted spirit.

Shakespeare on the Bluff

William Shakespeare was a playwright with profound themes, complex characters, and heightened language who illuminates the human condition through his work, reinforcing the concept of theatre as a mirror for society and an effective tool of social change. Ever since its start in 2018, the mission of the Shakespeare on the Bluff Festival has been to enrich LMU’s neighboring communities of Westchester, Playa Vista, Marina del Rey, Venice, Playa del Rey and Inglewood by presenting accessible, interesting and innovative theatre experiences that educate, inspire and entertain. LMU Theatre Arts aims to not only provide a training ground for the next generation of artists by allowing them to perform classical theatre, but also to work with community partners to ensure free, exciting, userfriendly Shakespeare to benefit and entertain our local communities. Shakespeare on the Bluff has brought to life many classical Shakespeare works, including As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, and Pericles, delighting thousands of audience members of all ages – and counting – in the process.