Mentor program graduates its first class
- LPAC
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
LPAC is built around LaGuardia Community College students, not just as audience members, but as emerging artists and future leaders. Whether it’s creating job opportunities, opening doors to professional connections, New York City is the cultural capital of the country, and one could argue the entire world as well.
Administrators at LaGuardia College – specifically the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (LPAC) – know this. And what better way to educate students in the performing arts than pairing them with older, working artists and technicians in New York City?
They did just that with the LPAC Mentorship Program which started this school year, and graduated its inaugural class in July.
“LPAC Mentorship is still in its infancy,” said Evelyn Lowmark, the interim executive director.
“The program is small, with only five students, primarily because we funded it ourselves. On the surface, it may sound like other internship programs,” she said.
“Still, it’s unique because of the built-in, peer-to-peer relationship commitment from our team to their skill development and experience – experience with external community members – and because they get to try many different aspects of the performing arts industry so they can decide what works best for them. If they complete their training, they go on to more advanced training.”
All five mentees work (either part-time or full-time) at the LPAC theatre, mostly in “front of the house” positions, such as ushers, or in administrative positions and a little tech work.
Campus News spoke to four of the mentees.
Savannah Spence already graduated from LaGuardia as a film and television major and is currently enrolled at Brooklyn College studying film production. Because she works at LPAC, she qualified for the mentorship program.
“For the first section we focus a lot on lighting design,” said the 30-year-old. “I think that was my most fun part. I’m very interested in lights from being in film.”
The mentor for lighting design was Casey Duke, who currently works for the Lighting Design Group, which is the company that lights all the biggest news and talk shows in New York.
Duke has an MFA in lighting design from Virginia Tech.
As the initial mentor signed up, she referred to herself as “the first guinea pig” of the program.
She had worked on an LPAC production in February of 2024 and was approached regarding the program which hadn’t begun yet.
“They told me at the time that they were working on this mentorship program where their students could sign up – it would be like an internship sort of thing – where they could learn skills that they would then use in the program,” she said.
Kevin Liu is also a film and television major at LaGuardia.
“We’re very hands-on with the way we’re taught,” said the 20-year-old. “In April, when we were working with the lighting designer, we had hands-on experience with playing with the board.”
This section of the program included stage managing.
“We had the stage manager and the lighting designer co-create a project for us to follow and also be graded on,” Liu said.
That project was the play, Almost Maine, which was to be presented to Lowmark and Handan Ozbilgin, LPAC’s artistic director.
The actors for the show were the LPAC ushers and it lasted about three hours.
“We designed the lighting cues as well as some sound cues,” Spence said. “Each and every one of us had two sections of the play. I light designed for two and stage managed for two and all the other mentees did that as well.”
So how did the live presentation go?
“Everybody did pretty great,” she said. “We were all supportive of each other.”
Since Lowmark was unable to attend the performance, they produced a second one for her.
Spence is looking to become an assistant director in film. (For clarification, this position is not an assistant to the director, but a command position unto itself. The first and second assistant directors run the set.)
She sees the similarities between a stage manager in theatre and an assistant director in film.
“Learning how to do stage management was very helpful,” she said. “They kind of fit together perfectly.”
“I really am thankful that I was chosen for [the program],” she said. “I gained a new love and appreciation for lighting in a different format.”
Iyleen Torres is not currently enrolled in school but was a liberal arts, math and science major when she attended LaGuardia. Liberal arts, math and science are a far cry from performing arts.
“My first major was anthropology. Then I jumped to biology,” said the 23-year-old with a laugh.
Prior to LaGuardia, Iyleen attended SUNY Adirondack where she took a theatre class.
“From that time I was really inspired and so when I came to LaGuardia – although I was a biology major then – that was two years ago – I wanted to get back into the theatre somehow,” she said.
Torres discovered LPAC, found the people running it, and the technical director “gave me a shot,” she said. “I’ve been here ever since.”
So why hasn’t Torres changed her major to theatre?
“It’s about the money thing; it’s about the money thing,” she said. Torres knows that making a living in math or science is far more likely than being successful in theatre.
However, she said she’s still “teetering the fence” with the possibility of changing her major to theatre.
“I really love being here,” she said. “And from being at LPAC, I’ve grown so much and in so many ways in my managing skills and how I speak to people and how I present myself.”
Juanita Herrera is a 19-year-old music recording technology major and is also in a band that performed in LPAC’s Little Theatre in May. She presented the concert as “an extra thing” for some of her fellow mentees “to participate in” and they did.
Liu and Torres designed the lights and Spence recorded the audio and video.
The graduation was strictly a Mentor Program event and was completely separate from the school’s graduation. Two of the participants will return to class in the fall.
“Our new mentees will either be current students at LaGuardia Community College or recent graduates,” said Ozbilgin.
“We are very proud of our mentees,” said Lowmark. “It’s beautiful to see how they help and encourage each other. The LPAC’s mission is to serve as a bridge between artists, students, and the community; this mentorship program does exactly that.”
By Dave Paone, Campus News
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