Press Releases 2009 / 2010

Benefit aids foster youths in Norris Center arts program

Imagine, Dream, Believe" was the theme of the recent Rising Stars benefit at the Norris Center for the Performing Arts in Rolling Hills Estates. Following dinner, guests were treated to an original musical starring students in the Norris' Negri Learning Center program. The event raised funds for performing arts scholarships for youths in Los Angeles County's foster care program. The annual event is a collaboration between Peninsula residents Janet and Ian Teague of the Teague Family Foundation, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and the Norris Center's director of education, Debbie Martinez.

The musical's cast included 41 of the approximately 1,600 students who take classes or perform in productions annually at the Norris Center's school. Many of these performers, age 9 to 24, received scholarships for dance, vocal or acting classes from funds raised through previous Rising Stars benefits. KABC Channel 7 morning news anchor Phillip Palmer was master of ceremonies and hosted a live auction prior to the show.

Scholarship students often commute some distance to study and perform at the Norris, but they said the program far exceeded their expectations. For Inglewood resident Keenon Hooks, 24, who has been in the program for four years, it opened the doors for a scholarship to Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, from where he recently graduated.

"They bring in people who don't have a chance - like me," Hooks said. Hooks explained that the evening's musical was built around the actors' life stories. "This whole show is based on personal accounts of real-life hardships endured by kids in the cast," he said. "One of them is dealing with cancer and chemo." Others have faced abuse and abandonment. In the end, it was a win-win for all students involved, working together to stage the show directed by Jeremy Mann.

"It took a lot of courage for these kids to share their stories, but in the end we are learning that no matter how many struggles you go through, you can succeed in life," added Hook, who now teaches dance at the Norris. Hook was one of four Rising Stars ambassadors for the evening, along with Layli Kayhani, 22, a San Pedro native who danced her way through high school but never had a chance to act until she became part of the Negri Learning Center family. "Because my mother was ill and unable to work, I could not afford the show tuition without the aid of the scholarships. It was the Negri Center that exposed me to acting as a profession," said Kayhani. The other two student ambassadors were Teague Foundation scholarship winners Cynthia Chavez and Tyrone Stokes, who both were in the county Foster Care system and are now fifth-year students at Cal Poly Pomona.