Danville Performing Arts Academy Adapts To Zoom

Danville, CA — Andrea Johnston opened the Diamond Academy of Performing Arts in Danville, California in 2019, just months before the pandemic would force her, her fledgling business and her students into a remote-only reality.

Prior to opening the academy, Johnston taught speech, arts and drama in Vancouver, Canada, where she experienced first-hand the real-life advantages the dramatic arts can impart to kids.

“I wanted to embark on opening the Academy because I had seen what benefits speech, arts and drama had given to my students back in Vancouver, and I knew that I wanted my children to have those same benefits and have a community,” Johnston said. “I actually opened the business in 2019, none of us knew what was in store, and I was starting to build my business.”

In addition to offering live recitals, the Academy also offers independent studies where students can work to take the Trinity College of London exams in speech and drama.

“This opens the doors to really have each individual student develop their performance, presentation, communication skills,” Johnston said. “And that’s been a goal of mine with the Diamond Academy: to take theatre training, what you do on the stage, and how can you do it in everyday life. We have fun, we do productions, but we also open the door to individual study, where the kids can delve deeper into the work, develop their creativity, their leadership skills and their communication skills, using drama as the vehicle to learn all those skills.”

The structure of her speech, arts and drama classes allows for an in-depth look and analysis of those three categories. Generally, classes begin by examining poetry, then gradually build up to taking on a full production, all while understanding the meaning of what it is that they are performing in addition to vocal and expressive techniques.

“We have so many avenues of materials — poetry, prose, drama, public speaking — to work with, so we’re not just boxed in by a play,” Johnston said. “I start with all my kids doing a poetry piece because poetry lays the foundation — poetry is a great way to start learning how to apply the vocal expression techniques. With poetry, because the poets have spent time finding the most precise, perfect words to express their thoughts and feelings, and we can pick smaller pieces so it’s not overwhelming, it’s challenging but it’s bite-size for [the kids] to dive into.”

Beginning with comprehension skills of what physically a poet may be trying to convey, classes then move to the exploration of how best to communicate this to an audience.

“We work on exercises: ‘how do we breathe properly; how do we fill the room with our voice; how we do we articulate; how do we bring the words to life so that they reach an audience, so that it’s not just reading, it’s communicating,’” Johnston said.

Working with small groups allows Johnston to tailor each group’s specific lessons to their needs, something that carries over to the productions that each group undertakes — in these productions, Johnston writes out parts with a goal of allowing each student to hone their own skills.

Right before the pandemic forced international lockdowns, the Academy was in the middle of rehearsals for a production of Aladdin. Immediately following the initial shutdown — one that Johnston did not expect to last longer than two weeks — she brought her classes and rehearsals online, via Zoom.

“When it became obvious that we weren’t going to be able to perform it in the traditional way, I got Zoom backdrops, I delivered the costumes to the kids, and we started filming the production,” Johnston said. “We edited it together and then did a premiere of it so the families could watch from home. And it was actually a really exciting experience for them because they got to be in the audience and watch with their family and friends. The takeaway for my students was ‘something unexpected happened and it wasn’t the way we wanted it, but how do we work through and come out on top when things don’t go according to plan.’”

Once entrenched in this new virtual environment, Johnson shifted her class structure, changing the group classes to private lessons, which she has been offering since.

“The nice thing about speech, arts, and drama is that it translates really well via Zoom because the focus is on the student and their development and there’s so many exercises and skills we can learn,” Johnston said. “I also think for my students, the interactive Zoom classes give them skills and tools that they can bring when they’re online doing schooling. Having this experience where it’s interactive, you get used to working through the camera and connecting with people, and I think that’s helped my students with their schooling in this setting as well.”

And while the Diamond Academy has figured out a way to weather a remote-only environment, as a new business, the onslaught of the pandemic and the lockdowns that followed have slowed down its momentum.

“For me, being a new business and Covid hitting, I’m moving at a slower pace than I thought I would be,” Johnston said. “I was building a little bit of momentum, I was going to go into the summer and do a musical, and then the shutdown happened.”

And because it is a theatre program geared toward children — an age group that does not yet have a definitive vaccination deadline set by the government, and a setting that likely will not be safe for a while longer — there are a lot of uncertainties regarding when the Academy could begin to move off Zoom.

“There’s a lot of unknowns going forward, so I’ll be baby-stepping it,” Johnston said.

Johnston is also piloting some new, more specifically focused classes, all held via Zoom, all going well, so far.

“I’m doing a podcast class, and that’s working really well on Zoom, I’m doing a film and television acting class,” Johnston said. “I don’t think that will ever go away because you’re working with the camera so it’s actually the perfect fit.”

“And I think with speech, arts and drama, there’s a community that’s building,” Johnston added. “You can do this work on the computer. I’ve had some students that have started with me here in California, and they moved away and they’ve continued with me, so they found value in the classes and they want to continue, even though they know they won’t be able to come back in person. I’m slowly working out what that future looks like when everything opens up.”

By the very nature of being remote-only, not only is Johnston able to keep students who are no longer in the area, but she has also opened the Academy to students across the country and even the world — she has a student from Australia and several from Texas, something she is hoping to tap into more in the future.

“I’m hesitant to say what the future will hold because it’s just been an unknown year,” Johnston said. “I do know I will continue with the students I have; I’ll launch my new website to see if I can grow the online Zoom model, and we’ll see. But it’s a big unknown.”