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SOPA ALUMNI
SOPA is so proud of our alumni. Many of our students have gone on to pursue careers in the field of the arts.
Jake McGuire
Jake was here when the doors opened to The Studio in 1993. He was involved in the drama department for 10 years. He was also involved with The Studio Players for almost all productions. Jake worked as an assistant director to Shannon Lowrie up until 2003 when he moved to New York to pursue his dreams. He was hired on at The Irish Repertory Theater where he worked for three years. He also worked for MTV as a production assistant. We are very pleased to announce that Jake is returning to The Studio this October and will be the artistic director.
Donica Schmidt
Doncia danced at The Studio for 10 years, 6 of them competitively. She was also involved with the drama department and performed and choreographed for several Studio Players Productions. During her last few years at The Studio she taught many classes and continues to teach during the summer. Following graduation in 2003, Donica headed to Long Beach State where she was accepted into the dance program. Donica is doing extremely well and was chosen to be a choreographer in the undergraduate performance. Donica is also the recipient of a dance scholarship in 2005. She is very missed.
Marni Brewster
Marni began at The Studio the day it opened. She was involved with the drama department until the day she left. She began teaching and directing drama her senior year of High School. Marni became a competitive dancer in 1998 and later went on to direct one of the groups and became a platinum award winning choreographer. After graduating AG High in 2002 she chose to remain on the Central Coast and attend Cal Poly as a theater major. We are so glad she decided to stay in town for awhile because she continued to teach, choreograph and direct a competition group at SOPA for the next four years. Marni is a fabulous choreographer and directed numerous drama productions for SOPA and local schools. When she graduated CAL POLY in 2006, Marni was accepted into the Masters’ Program at Cal State Long Beach and will be getting her masters in Theater Management. Although we miss her dearly we are so proud of her accomplishments.
Randyn Spear
She went on to dance competitively for 6 years. Randyn too decided to stay on the Central Coast following her graduation in 2004. Her senior year she received a Dance Scholarship award. She is now 20 years old and a student at Allan Hancock College. She is currently working on her Associates Degree in dance. She attends Allan Hancock College and performs regularly with the Alan Hancock Dance Program. During the summer of 2006, Randyn was accepted to the South Street Ballet Summer Intensive Program in Santa Barbara. She hopes to attend UC Irvine in the fall of 2007 as a dance major. SOPA is very excited that she will be joining our staff this October and sharing her talents with our current students.
Andrea Ford
Andrea started dancing with us at the age of 5. She became a competitive dancer at the age of ten up until she graduated in 2005. She is also an active participant in the Alan Hancock dance program both as a performer and choreographer.
Samantha Ford
Samantha Ford is one of the studio’s HIP HOP masters. She began dancing at an early age and hasn’t stopped. Sam has overcome many obstacles in her life but nothing has stopped her from pursuing her dreams and dancing. She began student teaching when she was a teenager then took a brief hiatus to live in Europe for a year. She returned to the Central Coast and SOPA in the fall of 2006 and is back to dancing and teaching.
Alicia Matosich
Alicia danced at The Studio for 9 years and was a competition dancer for 6 of them .Alicia headed to UC Davis following graduation in 2005. She continues to dance whenever she can and has joined as many dance activities as she can find. She is majoring in Exercise Biology with a Psychology Minor and works at Willett Elementary School as the "playground aide." Alicia also has an internship at the local hospital helping the nurses on the Med-Surg floor. Somehow she manages to find the time to help with Sunday School at her Church and work on setting up an after school cultural dance program for a local elementary school. She will soon be auditioning for an on-campus hip hop group. You can look for Alicia and our other Alumni to appear in the Alumni number of our annual holiday show!
Alea Bolt
Alea grew up at the studio, dancing, acting, singing, performing and competing. She is now going to school at the University of California, Santa Barbara as a psychology major, but she refuses to lose dance in her life. She started out at UCSB as a dance major, but soon realized that it wasn't for her. With the competitiveness between the other dance majors, the dryness of solely focusing on technique, not being able to express anything through dance, all the fun was sucked out. After taking approximately a nine month break from dancing, Alea couldn't stay away from it any longer. She is now taking classes at a local dance and fitness studio as well as a modern class at UCSB. She hopes to always have dance as a part of her life, teaching and performing. She'll be up on stage with Andrea and Alicia tap dancing at the studio shows when they are little old ladies.
Heather Malcolm
Heather started out at The Studio in 1997 when she auditioned for a role in The Studio Players production of Annie. Since then she was enrolled in our drama department until she graduated in 2006. Heather has performed with many local theater companies and is now a student at Cuesta College. She continues to act as much as possible. We are sure to see her on Broadway someday.
Justine Bailey
Justine is one of only 4 accepted in UCLA’s performing Arts Major. She began at The Studio in 2000 with our drama department. Shortly thereafter she began dancing and did so until she graduated in 2006. Justine’s favorite form of dance is tap and she is staying as active as possible with the UCLA tap scene. We wish her good luck in her career!
Chris Rienicher
Chris is also one of 4 accepted in to UCLA’s performing Arts major. Chris began his acting carrier in The Studio’s drama department in 1999 performing in such productions as “Grease” and “Annie.” He graduated in 2006 and we are sure to see more of him soon!
Zach Efron
Zach was involved in our drama department in 1998. He performed in our production of Little Shop of Horrors. Zach went on to act professionally soon after that and got his big break when he landed the lead role in Disney’s “High School Musical.” Zach is also one out of four accepted into UCLA’s performing Arts major. He is currently working on the motion picture “Hairspray,” where he will be playing the teenage heart throb “Link” We wish him continued success!
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