Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 51

SECTION High School for Creative and Performing Arts has risen to stardom in 20 years I This year at CAPA, there were 99 students enrolled in music, 63 in art, 43 in dance, 56 in theater and 17 in literary arts. At left, LuciTedesco, 15, a sophomore from Morn-ingside, plays violin during afternoon session with the Strings. Below, Josh Levenson, 17, a senior from Squirrel Hill, carries an oil painting by fellow student Steven Miller to the school's gallery for display. An i jf nn inn pt xwL3ea if fjk pop orrosriCQ I 1 1 1 I 'n viltmmr Aaaiiaai 1 1.. By Adrian McCoy Post-Gazette Staff Writer ormer high school principal Harry Clark recalls sitting in an empty building in Homewood with "one desk and a phone that didn't work." But 20 years down the road, that empty building has been transformed into a place where the best and brightest young artists in the city come to learn their craft.

Although housed in a standard-issue school building, there's something a little different about the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, or CAPA, as it's come to be known. It goes deeper than the occasional blue- or flame red-haired student walking the corridors. Bold oil paintings line the corridor walls over the lockers. Sounds of music and the rhythmic tapping of feet waft through the building in the afternoons. It's a place where creativity is nurtured and thriving.

Like the New York City school of "Fame" fame, CAPA is a place where high school students with big talents and big dreams get professional training in theater, dance, music and literary arts. Some grads have gone on to big things. There's Billy Porter (class of '87), whose stage credits include the revival of "Grease" and the original cast of "Miss Saigon." Other theater folk who got their start there include actors Keena Dorsey and Dan Krell and producer Joe Delien. Metropolitan Opera mezzo soprano Mary Ann McCormick went to CAPA, as did jazz singer Maureen Bud-way. Former CAPA musicians Paul Thompson and Richard Goods are bass players with the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra and GENE COLLIER It's not easy making top 100 list When this column first appeared to a storm of indifference last summer, the first thing we did was get our list in order.

At the time, the media was in a listing frenzy the 100 greatest books of the century, the 100 greatest cooks of the century, the 100 greatest crooks of the century, et al as though none of us would be admitted to the 21st century without some kind of accounting of what had gone on in the 20th. Not to be outdone, but, as ever, not wishing to do any actual work, our debut column was a short list of the most influential people of not just the century but the entire millennium. As a service to our busy reader, and after a solid hour of research, we picked only five people, two of whom we don't remember. But three of the five Joan of Arc, Mozart and Thomas Aquinas are conspicuously absent from a slightly more studious work, Dr. Michael H.

Hart's "The 100, A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History." The first thing that leaps from the contents of this 500-pager is that, of the 100 most influential persons in history, apparently none was involved in the just-completed Mario Lemieux Celebrity Invitational. Such is the first crack in Hart's credibility. To his credit though, Hart's book is not millennium driven. He first compiled it in 1978, in fact, and then revised it in 1992, dropping Chairman Mao from 20th to 89th, adding Mikhail Gorbachev (95th), Henry Ford (91st), and the scientist Ernest Rutherford (56th), and dropping Niels Bohr, Pablo Picasso and Antoine Henri Becquerel right off the chart. To a dreadfully unreconstructed sports columnist with so little regard for himself that -he thought nothing of poring over the Division I-AA lacrosse rankings in a past life, this kind of thing is fascinating.

What did Rutherford do, for example, between 1978 and 1992 to go from being unranked all the way up to 56th in the Hart Poll, leaving Jefferson (64th), Caesar (67th) and Bach (72nd) choking on his vapor trail? Well, nothing really. Rutherford died in 1937. Hart merely overlooked him the first time. And what of our own validated influentials, Wolfgang, Joan and Tom? Mozart made Hart's "honorable mention" list, as did Joan of Arc, and Aquinas did earn a two-paragraph explanation for his omission from the top 100, something about his writings being tied to too many metaphysical and abstract questions. Guess he should have been a plumber.

No matter. Ben Franklin didn't make Hart's top 100 either, nor did Gandhi, Hippocrates, Lincoln, Churchill, or Marco Polo, inventor of the popular swimming pool game. The most conspicuous "honorable mention," though, has to be Frederick the Great. What a disappointment for Fred. Almost universally, anyone with "the Great" at the end of their name made the top 100.

Hart green-lighted Constantine the Great (21st), Alexander the Great (33rd), Cyrus the Great (87th), and Peter the Great (88th). I'm sure this isn't lost on you expectant parents. Go with Tiffany the Great. Why fool around? William the Conqueror made the list (68th), but after that, the names became a little more demure, which doomed Henry the Navigator and the Virgin Mary to honorable-mention status. Jesus, for you Christianity fans, got ranked a disappointing 3rd, apparently because he didn't live terribly long (yeah, that crucifixion can hurt ya) and because St.

Paul (6th) did much of the building of the religion. Muhammad was No. 1 in the Hart book because "he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels." Isaac Newton was No. 2, but I don't imagine he's stuck there. There's always that second revision.

Gene Collier's e-mail address is nmummmmwm 3 iUttr.burnl) Wednesday, June 16, 1999 INSIDE For Father's Day, a children 's book might be the perfect present, as it will give him an opportunity for read-aloud time with his children. PAGE E-3. The American Film Institute has issued its list of the 50 greatest film legends 25 men and 25 women. Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn top it. PAGE E-3.

Beth Trapani, who co-anchors the morning news on KDKA Radio, is leaving for a new job as morning news anchor at a Philadelphia station. RADIO, PAGE E-4. Comedian Margaret Cho, whose ABC sitcom "All-American Girl" died in 1995, is taking her one-woman show to off-Broadway. PEOPLE, PAGE E-5. ALSO INSIDE television E-4 Life Support E-5 Horoscope E-7 Classified E-8 Rogers is off.

"Brewed on Grant will return next week. P3 Or pi led Darrell SappPost-Gazette photos the Mulgrew Miller Trio, respectively. Percussionist James Johnson Jr. plays with Ahmad Jamal. So yes, CAPA is a little different the foundation of many an artistic dream, you might say.

That dream factory is about to close the door on Friday, to be exact on its second decade. The school recently celebrated its 20th anniversary at Manchester Craftsmen's Guild with an awards ceremony for people who have made significant contributions to the arts community. But the milestone anniversary year also saw the launch of an artists-in-residence program, which the school hopes to continue. At CAPA, the philosophy is that all kids can learn through their teachers' high expectations. The school's mission is to devel- SEE CAPA, PAGE E-2 Ryan Boody, 15, a sophomore from Beechview, sings "Mr.

Cellophane" during rehearsals for "Chicago" at CAPA's auditorium. from New York, California and points in-between. The "Sculpture and Crafts" division, in the PPG Wintergarden, is the most dynamic, partly because of the way the three-dimensional artworks move into the viewer's space, and vice-versa, and also because they are so tactile. Juror Murray Home, curator of The Wood Street Galleries, says that in reviewing works SEE FESTIVAL, PAGE E-2 1- VfcV- Arts Festival's juried section harbors surprises By Mary Thomas Post-Gazette Arts Writer The juried section of the Three Rivers Arts Festival is of mixed quality and has broad stylistic range, but that makes room for some surprises in three exhibitions that have great populist appeal and offer a chance to catch a rising star. One of the founders' goals for the juned exhibitions, according to festival executive direc- ART REVIEW tor Jeanne Pearlman, was to "serve artists at all points in their career." Its equal opportunity policy encourages young artists to apply and they do, often with some of the festival's most innovative works.

Once confined to artists living in Pittsburgh, applicants are no longer geographically restricted and work exhibited this year has come Local company helps mold worldwide project for U.N. By Caroline Abels something: Next year, a New York City artist will create a sculpture with it at United Nations headquarters in Manhattan. It is hoped that all 185 member countries of the United Nations will provide clay for the Common Ground World Project, which is being led by sculptor Neil Tetkowski and has been endorsed by the United Nations. The sculpture is meant to celebrate the millennium with messages of unity and sustainability. And the clay's first stop? Stan- SEE CLAY, PAGE E-2 Post-Gazette Cultural Arts Writer Pieces of Greece, India, Nepal and Jamaica are sitting in a warehouse in Carnegie next to pieces of Bahrain, New Zealand, Japan and the Czech Republic, underneath pieces of Laos, Kosovo, Denmark and Qatar, above pieces of Libya, Bolivia, France and Chile.

The pieces are nothing more than clay, stuffed in bags or shut tight in boxes, inconspicuous and labeled only by country. But it's clay waiting to become Martha RialPost-Gazette At Standard Ceramics in Carnegie, Graham Tumbull, top, and from left, operations manager Lee Grice, technician Julie Hregdovic and plant manager Mike Delprato are mixing clay from all over the world..