Shining Stars

Lowcountry teens make their mark in visual and performing arts

Much as it's loved for its beaches, fine dining and rich history, Charleston is also a great city for the arts. The Holy City plays host to Spoleto Festival USA each spring, boasts communities filled with art galleries and offers an array of performance spaces for music and theater.

But it isn't just adults who contribute to the city's vibrant arts scene. The teens we found are dedicating themselves to art in its many forms, and striving to find a balance between pursuing what they love and still succeeding in school.

Although visual and performing arts don't get top billing in most local high school curricula, Mark Davis, an eighth-grader at Charleston County School of the Arts, predicts that he and other artsy Lowcountry teens are part of a larger trend.

"Right-brained people will rule the world someday," he says.

The performer: Mark Davis

At 13, Mark Davis is a self-proclaimed "insane, creative ham."

He has been involved with acting since his debut role as a pirate when he was barely old enough to walk and talk. He was involved with several children's theaters, and then found Charleston Stage in spring 2003.

Mark saw one of its performances and began taking classes. From there, he has tackled theater productions, several commercials and independent films.

For now, he's keeping his options open in terms of choosing a performance track. Mark says that "film and stage both have their advantages and disadvantages," and he intends to continue to pursue both.

For the past few months, Mark worked with Charleston Stage on its production of "Gershwin at Folly." With more than 24 hours a week of rehearsal, Mark kept incredibly busy. The show's run ended late last month, at which time Mark said he had plans to sleep, relax and recuperate, "and, I don't know, maybe get a girlfriend."

But while he claims that he'll take a much-deserved break, it doesn't seem likely, since he also takes singing lessons and dances.

A dance major at School of the Arts, he got involved with dance after seeing a talent show on an Alaskan cruise. He saw a kid doing martial arts to music, and was enthralled.

"I was like, dude, that's mad, and I like it, and so I started tapping," he recalls.

Soon after returning home from the cruise, he began taking formal tap lessons. But that's not all: Mark is also a black belt in tae kwon do.

When Mark isn't acting, singing, dancing or chopping boards in two, you might find him in New York City. He attended a theater camp there this summer, where he continued to perfect his craft as well as watch professionals at work, attending a different Broadway show each week.

The movie star: Kimberly Varadi

Kimberly Varadi, an eighth-grader at Moultrie Middle School, has her sights set on Hollywood.

Kimberly's acting career began when she was a mere 6 years old, when she played a Munchkin for a production of "The Wizard of Oz." While working on the set, the actress playing Glinda the Good Witch suggested that Kimberly's parents find her an agent. They followed the Good Witch's advice (after all, it worked for Dorothy!), and Kimberly got an agent with Coastal Talent.

From there, the opportunities began pouring in. Kimberly's first gig was a commercial for Piggly Wiggly. Her roles have expanded since then, with her largest role coming in the independent film "The Work and The Glory," a historical fiction film that took place in the 1800s.

On that set, Kimberly fell in love with film. She prefers it to the stage because "it's more real — you don't have to shout or be too over the top." Her movie work is exciting, she says, because of so many factors: the people you meet, the process of learning lines, playing for the camera and working to really relate to the character. She has been in several other films and hopes to win more opportunities as her career continues.

She, too, worked on "Gershwin at Folly" this fall. Her involvement with the show's dance ensemble was a good fit because she's been dancing since she was 3. Music is among her performance passions, too: She takes voice lessons and plays the piano, violin and French horn.

She travels to acting seminars all over the United States, and goes to auditions whenever she gets the chance. In fact, she spends her summers in New York City taking classes and auditioning for different roles.

Each acting opportunity brings new challenges, she says.

"The hardest part is putting yourself into the character, not holding back or being fake — really being the character," she says.

For each role that she has, she tries to think through her character and decide how the character would act or react in each situation.

Kimberly hopes to pursue film as her future career, but she still plans to attend college, with law as a back-up plan.

The artists: Rebecca Plante and Betsy Cofer-Shabica

Betsy Cofer-Shabica and Rebecca Plante, both seniors at Academic Magnet High School, took part in Redux's three-week summer art program in June.

The program had 24 students who were all chosen after submitting a portfolio of six pieces and an application essay.

Each week, the program focused on a new visual medium. The first week was sculpture, the second week was printmaking, and the final week was oil painting.

Exposure to the new techniques helped the girls discover hidden interests.

"Oil painting was my favorite," Betsy says. "It was my first time using that medium and I loved it so much."

Her painting "The Ritual" depicts a sunset with the silhouette of a man hanging in the air. At the close of the summer art program, there was a gallery show of all three pieces that each student completed, and students had a chance to dress up for the event and explain their works to those who came to see the show.

Betsy got involved with the arts through classes at Academic Magnet. For, now it's simply a hobby. But even though she doesn't plan to pursue the field as a career, she says her summer class at Redux gave her skills to persevere in all disciplines.

"I learned not to give up, just to stick with it and go with it," she says.

Rebecca, however, plans to pursue art in her future. She has been involved with it since she was a little girl, taking private art lessons outside of school, classes from the Gibbes, as well as every art class at each school she has attended.

She enjoyed her time in the Redux program, but most enjoyed the opportunity that arose from it. After participating in the program, one of the artists who helped the students with oil painting, Robert Lange, offered Rebecca an internship.

Lange is the owner of RLS Studios in downtown Charleston. Rebecca has worked there running errands, preparing canvases and whatever else the job may require. Thus far, this is what she is most proud of.

Rebecca's senior thesis at the Academic Magnet High School incorporates her love of drawing: She's writing and illustrating a children's book. She is also working on a portrait that was commissioned to her and she hopes to begin selling her art.

Her advice to other young artists?

"Your art doesn't have to please anyone but you," she says. "Find your own style that you love."

The band: In This Skin

In This Skin — with John Shafer on vocals, Jimmy DiGiandomenico on guitar, Josh Lynes on guitar, Mike Mills on bass and Lee Davis on drums — is steadily finding its niche in the local music scene. The guys have played shows at venues including the Oasis on James Island and the Music Farm in downtown Charleston.

All the band members attend West Ashley High School. John, Josh, and Mike were previously in the band Fail Safe Remedy and began In This Skin as a side project. As Fail Safe Remedy dissolved, In This Skin became their main focus.

John, Josh and Mike joined forces with Jimmy and Lee, who had been playing together for more than three years. While the band has been together for only four months, all of the members have had lots of experience individually, which has made getting things off the ground much easier.

They describe their sound as "metal alternative," although the band members are still debating what or who they really sound like. Their biggest influence, collectively, is the Deftones.

They describe themselves as "a jeans and a T-shirt band," which is what they wear in their everyday lives and what they perform in.

John, who sings vocals and writes the lyrics for the band, says that he takes his influence and inspiration from philosophy, religion, politics and literature. He especially likes the writing of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, which may be the reason behind some of the lyrics' dystopian themes.

In This Skin has several major gigs lined up already and has plans to play with more well-known bands around the Lowcountry. The next step? Heading into the studio to record, they hope.

Mike, Jimmy, Josh, and John are also all involved in the jazz band at West Ashley High, and John is on the drum line for the marching band as well.

Members of the band have learned important life lessons from being in the band, cooperation being chief among them. Mike says that he's learned to just "laugh it off and to see how cool life is." Josh has learned "not to take everything too seriously. Have fun, but get stuff done."

While the members have considered a "back-up plan" for life after high school, most of them are focusing on the band.

"It doesn't hurt to dream," says John.

Sarah Peterman is a senior at Academic Magnet High School. E-mail her at ink.sarah.peterman@gmail.com.