The following OC Register article by Theresa Walker was originally published on August 25, 2011 and can be found online by clicking here.
Young aspiring performers in Orange County have multiple choices among local performing arts programs where they can learn to sing, dance and act their way onto the stage.
But only the Musical Theatre Academy of Orange County, or MTA as it has come to be known over its 27 years, can offer the experience of learning from Jimmy Hippenstiel.
Jimmy Hippenstiel, center, is a song and dance man who started performing at age 5. Hippenstiel decided to take a break from performing and became the artistic director of the children’s theater group Musical Theatre Academy of Orange County. He’s in his 10th year now.
Hippenstiel started out as a child, like them, appearing in scenes from popular musicals that his mother re-wrote for PTA shows. He won a talent show at age 5, crooning “Hello Dolly” to a tap-dancing “girlfriend.”
Musical theater was his passion by the time he was 8. He grew up in San Bernardino County and studied at Junior University, a program similar to MTA.
The arc of his career includes stints with internationally recognized performance groups The Young Americans and The Citrus Singers, and a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Fullerton. He has entertained vacationers on cruise ships, worked in parades and other roles at Disneyland, taught dance and choir at local schools, and choreographed shows at the Curtain Call Dinner Theater in Tustin until it closed last year.
Not only has Hippenstiel (pronounced “hip in steel”) employed his “triple threat” talent – singing, acting, dancing – as MTA’s artistic director and choreographer for the past 10 years, but the connections he has developed in show business come in handy.
“Hippity,” as his friends call him, is a big part of the reason MTA is hanging in there, despite challenges posed by the economy.
The guy who runs the Rose Center Theater in Westminster, where MTA typically stages its fall and spring productions, is a buddy of his. The folks who rent costumes at Gasoline Alley in Orange and Enchanted Attic in San Bernardino? Also friends.
Hippenstiel, 51, is not shy about looking for a good deal from his friends.
“I hate to say it, but I’m of the frame of mind that when I go out and try to do (a show) it’s as cheaply as possible,” he says.
He means cheap in terms of saving money, not production quality. The professional attitude at MTA filters down to the young performers.
During rehearsal for the summer camp final show, Hippenstiel works up a sweat as he faces a mirrored wall at the MTA studio in Newport Beach and teaches 40 kids in two lines behind him dance steps to accompany “The Lonely Goatherd” from “The Sound of Music.”
He has gained a few pounds since his “chorus boy” days and has a bum left knee from a tendon he pulled while running down stairs at an MTA rehearsal for “Chicago” 10 years ago, but the energy and enthusiasm are still there.
“‘Odl lay ee,’” he sings with them, “go right and right. ‘Odl lay ee,’ go right and left. Listen to me …”
The kids pay attention; no goofing around even when they watch others perform. “Good job, you guys,” he says afterward. And then reassuringly to a nervous boy about his solo: “Don’t worry about that ending. You’ve got that now. Just sing it in that pretty voice in your head.”
Gabi Brooks, 12, helps out as an assistant for the summer camp performance. She started at MTA when she was 7.
Gabi credits MTA for her starting school this week as a seventh-grader at Orange County High School of the Arts, where the so-called “Glee” effect produced more than 3,000 applicants in spring for about 400 spots this school year.
“I don’t think I would have had the confidence to try out if it wasn’t for MTA,” says Gabi, the daughter of successful Christian contemporary music producer Tom Brooks.
Hippenstiel, Gabi says, has a knack for getting the best out of the youngsters who come to MTA: “He can be a little stern when he needs to be, but very calm and collected. He wants you to do good, so he’ll help you every way he can. If you’re feeling a little nervous he’ll say something to make you laugh.”
The performers are divided by age and experience level: Tiny Stars, ages 4-6; Brite Stars, 7-10; Rising Stars, 10-12; and Shooting Stars, 12-18. Enrollment is limited to 40 kids per group. The program is tuition based, and kids are accepted first-come, first-served for fall and spring productions and summer camp sessions.
MTA’s advantages as a children’s performing arts program include a space to hold classes and rehearsals, a live accompanist instead of recorded music tracks, and the consistency that Hippenstiel and other longtime MTA teachers bring to training the children.
MTA also has a supportive parent base. But that’s not enough when it costs about $350,000 annually to continue operating. So the search is on for longer-term patrons.
“Everything is wonderful except we are in constant need of financial assistance,” Hippenstiel says.
Michele Trgovac, the executive director who handles MTA’s business and administrative duties, says even with the financial worries, Hippenstiel never ceases to raise the bar high for the kids who troop into the studio in a small commercial park on Birch Street.
“We think, ‘What is he doing? He’ll never be able to get them to do that.’ And then,” she snaps her fingers, “they do it.”
The kids all learn the same songs, the same dance steps, the same parts. Each child gets a chance in the spotlight, a reflection of MTA founder Margie King’s philosophy that “every child deserves a chance to shine.”
Trgovac says the training her daughter Amy, 20, got at MTA from the time she was 9 – and the life skills learned along the way – led to her being among 10 students selected to continue as a junior in Cal State Fullerton’s bachelor of fine arts degree program for musical theatre.
“She owes a great deal of what became of her to Jimmy and MTA.”
