Immersive arts-for-all program enters third year at CSUMB.

In late June, a Broadway star, several Grammy-nominated musicians, an enigmatic sound sculptor, an award-winning graphic designer, a team of Nickelodeon animators and other notable artists will make a temporary home at the CSU Monterey Bay campus for this year’s CSU Summer Arts program. The artists will teach intensive, two-week courses open to everyone from high school students to senior citizens (though the majority will hail from the CSU system). Even those Monterey County residents who don’t sign up for the 17 courses will be able to enjoy the 32 public art events put on by the Summer Arts’ esteemed guest teachers and talented, up-and-coming students.

The CSU Summer Arts program began back in 1985 and has been hosted by CSU Long Beach, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Humboldt State University and CSU Fresno.

In 2012, the series moved to CSUMB for five years. “This has been a real boost to their [CSUMB’s] arts program to bring Summer Arts here,” says Rob Klevan, CSU Summer Arts’ community relations specialist. “They bent over backward to do that.”

The 17 courses include workshops on acting, dancing, playing music, creating sound sculptures, sketch comedy writing and more.

Five-time Grammy-nominated percussionist John Santos, who will be helping to teach a class titled “Drum Talk: Rhythms from Cuba and Brazil,” has been a part of Summer Arts twice before and believes it’s different from other teaching jobs he’s done elsewhere.

“Summer Arts is a great program, because it is intense,” he says. “We really get a chance to dig in.”

James Grace, who will help present a sketch comedy-writing workshop, feels the same as Santos about the program. The artistic director of the Los Angeles based iO West Theater and a comedic actor whose credits include Super Troopers, Beer Fest and Curb Your Enthusiasm, Grace taught a Chicago improv comedy class at CSU Summer Arts two years ago.

“Usually when you teach like in L.A. here, you’ll have a class that will be once a week,” he says. “When you get to class each week, a little bit will have slipped away. It takes a little bit to get that back like two steps forward, one step back. When it is two straight weeks like we are doing this time, you really just build exponentially because you have that momentum and you are just there and that is what everyone is doing all the time.”

“They will see how I behave. They will see what we can do together.”

Students in the “Broadway Boot Camp: From Sondheim to Glee” class will have the chance to share the stage with Broadway star Susan Egan, who originated the role of Belle in the Broadway hit musical Beauty and the Beast, and garnered a Tony Award nomination for it.

Egan has upwards of 40 recordings, including seven solo CDs. But as evidenced by her plan for Summer Arts, she embraces the collaborative process. When Egan does a public performance at CSUMB’s World Theater July 10, students of her two-week course will be joining her.

“I am going to do my concert, but I am incorporating the students into that concert,” she says. “I will do some numbers on my own. They will do a couple of numbers on their own as well. I will do some group numbers with them. I will also do duets and trios and group numbers with smaller groups of them.”

Egan feels that getting onstage will be an integral part of the students’ learning process.

“I want them to experience something live, where when things go wrong, they will see how I behave,” she says. “They will see what we do together. They will see that we rehearse things one way, but it never ends up exactly that way in performance.”

One way the CSU Summer Arts program distinguishes itself is by putting its students in close proximity to their accomplished teachers. “In this case, they are living with the students,” Klevan says of the guest artists. “They are eating meals with the students. In some cases, they are going to a bar afterward [with the students].”

The program can result in important connections for the students. Grace, for example, has several Summer Arts students from two years ago currently performing and studying at the iO West Theater in Los Angeles. A number have interned and taken classes for free through their internships; they also are on teams performing and creating their own shows.

“I say to people, if you come down to L.A. let me know, and I’ll hook you up,” Grace says. “It’s a really nice funnel for people who are interested in eventually getting down to L.A. to have the connection with me and the theater down here.”

As for Monterey County residents, they get to benefit from all the unique performances put on by the guest artists, whether it is a lively show by urban circus troupe Lux Aeterna or an evening of storytelling by Moth Story Slam host David Crabb.

“There hasn’t been one guest artist,” says Klevan, “that didn’t wow me.”

The CSU Summer Arts program takes place from June 30 to July 27 at CSU Monterey Bay. Call 582-3499 or visit http://blogs.calstate.edu/summerarts for more information.