Jazz Music Intensive Week with Rodney Whitaker is a five-day workshop consisting of combos, improv,
jazz history, studio work and big-band rehearsal. The week culminates with concerts from students and
faculty members.
aul Canaan can identify with the
hopes, dreams, fears and frustrations
of the aspiring musical theater
actors who eagerly sign up for Take
It From the Top Broadway Week, a program
he created a decade ago.
With a maximum of 90 students, Take It
From the Top is the largest of the Dr. Phillips
Center Florida Hospital School of the Arts
Summer Programs. But, not surprisingly, it’s
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“I was one of these kids,” says the 41-yearold
Canaan, whose resumé boasts six Broadway
shows. “I was a theater kid who lived for
these opportunities.”
Canaan’s credits include Legally Blonde,
Miss Saigon, Thoroughly Modern Millie, La
Cage Aux Folles, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
and the Tony-winning Kinky Boots, for which
he served as dance captain.
But these days, he’s more focused on educating
the next generation of theater kids.
And there are plenty of them in talent-rich
Central Florida.
56 artsLife | SUMMER 2018
Take It From the Top, which runs June 11–15,
is designed for two age groups. Students between
ages 10–13 and 14–19 can learn acting,
music and dance from seasoned pros,
such as Canaan.
There are, as usual, a wide variety of summer
programs being offered at the arts center.
About 500 students participated last year,
says Dana Brazil, senior director of education.
New this year is a two-week Musical Theater
Production program, during which up
to 44 students will stage a full-scale musical
in the Alexis & Jim Pugh Theater. It sounds like
an old Mickey Rooney movie come to life
— but Mickey didn’t have a venue this nice.
Tuition for summer programs starts at $275.
Because class sizes are limited, registering
early at drphillipscenter.org/education is rec-
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need are available, and application information
is at the website.
Take It From the Top, which Canaan found-
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star Laura Bell Bundy (Legally Blonde, Hair-
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