14 • GCU TODAY
W
hoever said, “Opportunity
knocks but once,” was never
a student in the College of
Fine Arts and Production at
Grand Canyon University.
Now in Year 6 since resurrecting its theatre
and music programs after a four-year closure,
the college is peppering students with myriad
chances to learn everything in their respective
arts fields, which now also include dance, digital
film, digital design and advertising design.
It’s rare to find a COFAP graduate who can’t
tap-dance, sew a seam, build a set, memorize
lines, demonstrate perfect pitch, light a stage,
direct other students, choreograph, make
a film, design a web page and style Bride of
Frankenstein hair — or at least hasn’t had
occasions to try.
“This is a laboratory of education that has
a public audience,” said Dean Claude Pensis,
who started and was a leader of the arts
program for 20 years before it was shuttered
in 2006 because of the University’s economic
woes. The administration reopened it in 2010,
with Pensis at the helm.
“The goal is to work with students in such a
way that minimizes shortcomings that may occur,
while maximizing their successes,” he said.
Pensis said COFAP has been blessed with
talented, smart, hard-working students who
are drawn, at least in part, because of the
reputation the University has built for its
commitment to Christian values, educational
excellence, expanded athletics and a heart that
beats loudly for the community and the world.
“People from other educational institutions
or other theatres remark that there’s a buzz
here, an excitement, and that extends to
the arts program,” Pensis said. “There’s an
electricity around what’s going on.”
And growth: At the April 2016
commencement, more than 160 COFAP
students are expected to graduate, a twentyfold
increase over five years ago.
They will face a challenging job market,
but there is hope and precedent. GCU’s 2015
theatre and dance education graduates fielded
multiple offers from schools, its musicians and
actors are working onstage and backstage, and
its film students are transferring their skills to
jobs in journalism — yes, journalism!
Let’s meet five of them:
Maria Anderson
Teacher, Verrado High, Buckeye
When COFAP’s doors swung back open in
2010, Maria Anderson was among the 30
students who walked in.
“You needed to do everything — build
sets, be in the shows and get great grades,”
Anderson said. “The seniors said you had to
keep pushing on what they’d started, and so
there was definitely a sense of pressure to let
the program bloom.”
Anderson acted in shows, directed other
students and was a founding member of Alpha
Psi Omega, the honorary theatre fraternity.
GCU alum and theatre instructor Michael
Kary assured Anderson she would find her
calling, and he was right: teaching. She did
her student teaching in Paradise Valley High’s
drama program, which was built by COFAP
alumna Joan Colson, applied for dozens of
teaching jobs, and had three offers before
graduating in 2014 with a theatre education
degree. Anderson chose the young drama
department at Verrado High in Buckeye, Ariz.,
where in addition to teaching classes she directs
three plays a year and is the improv coach,
Variety shows
How GCU’s arts
program sets
the stage for
students to
entertain different
career paths
B Y J A N I E M A G R U D E R
