{"id":326,"date":"2026-05-20T23:36:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=326"},"modified":"2026-05-20T23:36:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:36:40","slug":"lachsapalooza-celebrates-40-years-of-l-a-s-star-making-arts-program-this-school-is-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=326","title":{"rendered":"LACHSAPalooza Celebrates 40 Years of L.A.\u2019s Star-Making Arts Program: \u201cThis School Is Special\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tThe prolific Los Angeles performing arts high school that helped launch the careers of Josh Groban, Zoey Deutch, Haim and Phoebe Bridgers, among many more, is celebrating 40 years of fostering the arts the way only a program of its stature could: a concert at the Greek, emcee\u2019d by Anthony Anderson and headlined by the likes of Ozomatli and Fitz and the Tantrums.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more The Hollywood Reporter Launches Australian Edition in Partnership With Raine Media<\/a><\/p>\n

\nLACHSAPalooza, as the show is being called, is set for May 30, in honor of the eponymous Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. The event is part-anniversary, part-fundraiser, as LACHSA \u2014 a public, tuition-free school \u2014 looks not only to honor its past but secure its future, seeking an ambitious $2.5 million as public arts education continues to face mounting challenges across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis school is special,\u201d Anderson, part of the school\u2019s inaugural class of 1985, tells THR. <\/em>\u201cLACHSA helped me in my transformation to becoming an artist in a way I\u2019d always envisioned since I was young.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLACHSA is one of the most highly-regarded performing arts programs in the U.S. \u2014 up there with the likes of New York\u2019s LaGuardia High or Michigan\u2019s famed Interlochen Arts Camp \u2014 with a unique structure that puts focus on entertainment. Along with more traditional liberal arts courses, LACHSA students study in programs for dance, cinematic arts, music, theater and the visual arts among others. And thanks to its proximity to Hollywood, LACHSA has access to more upcoming talent than almost any other city on the planet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFormer Saturday Night Live <\/em>cast member Taran Killam, who graduated from LACHSA in 2000, recalls taking his first improv class at the school, as well as a stand-up comedy elective from his teacher Norman Cohen, who he calls his \u201cfavorite teacher I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was such a wild escalation of information at such a young, impressionable age,\u201d Killam says.\u00a0\u201cThat type of training and exposure demystifies the idea of doing this as a career. If I had to boil down any part of my process to as a comedian one mantra, it\u2019s that. It all came from LACHSA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAll the former students who spoke with THR <\/em>hail the school\u2019s staff, with Anderson mentioning Jerry Freedman, who was there when he was a student in the \u201880s and remains a teacher at LACHSA now. He will be honored during LACHSAPalooza later this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, the number one factor that makes LACHSA so effective, the alumni emphasize, is that it brings artists together, which fosters the environment they need to hone their craft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just a school, it was a space where being an artist is taken seriously,\u201d Deutch, who didn\u2019t graduate from the school but attended in the 2010s, says. \u201cThat kind of validation at that age can change someone\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnderson says LACHSA \u201cgave us a place to live, to be accepted, to thrive and cultivate our talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Illinois Name-Checks \u2018The Bear\u2019 in Proclaiming Italian Beef as Official State Sandwich<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAll of these alumni, if we just went the route of a traditional high school, we\u2019d have been one of very few people there who were looking to be artists,\u201d\u00a0 he says. \u201cThis was a high school created for us to come together and become a tribe. And so we fed off each other, encouraged one another to pursue what we wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBeyond its arts-heavy curriculum, the school\u2019s structure is unique too. LACHSA gets half its funding from the state of California, though it still relies on donations through its foundation for the other 50 percent of its operational costs. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPublic education in general in the state of California hasn\u2019t been fully funded in 50 years,\u201d says Trena Pitchford, executive director of the LACHSA Foundation. \u201cIt is incumbent on us now to take responsibility for LACHSA and to bring it to a place of abundance for the next 40 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith its list of celebrity alumni, one might assume the school would have no level of difficulty finding the extra dollars needed for its fundraising efforts. But as Pitchford says, a challenging past few years between disasters like the pandemic and last year\u2019s devastating wildfires have raised extra challenges, and the school is seeing some donor fatigue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPublic education today, the struggles are real,\u201d she says. \u201cYou take all that\u2019s happened the past few years, obviously philanthropy has shifted, understandably, to regions that were completely devastated in LA County. Donors are tired and more are getting stretched. The generosity of the public and some of our foundation partners is really important.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe school is more fortunate than many other arts programs, and it can expand its reach thanks to some more famous alumni who can get the word out. But LACHSA is one of many arts programs around the country feeling the squeeze as arts education continues to take a backseat in the country, and a track record of producing stars isn\u2019t what should determine if those programs can continue, notes Pitchford.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat is what we\u2019re trying to break through in doing all of this,\u201d Pitchford says. \u201cThis is the small education that\u2019s impacting the culture of Los Angeles, and it\u2019s also creating better people in the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for what would happen if programs like these didn\u2019t exist, Anderson says that notion would be \u201ca huge setback for the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEveryone I know in this world uses the arts to escape, be it through music, plays, movies, theater, poetry,\u201d he says. \u201cSchools like LACHSA are important not only to young artists, but to our society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018The Man I Love\u2019 Review: Rami Malek Is a Revelation in Ira Sachs\u2019 Achingly Observed Portrait of Art, Love, Desire and Mortality in 1980s New York City<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LACHSA, L.A’s most celebrated performing arts high school, is celebrating 40 years of education with a concert at the Greek Theatre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[377,378],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-anthony-anderson","tag-lachsa"],"yoast_head":"\nLACHSAPalooza Celebrates 40 Years of L.A.\u2019s Star-Making Arts Program: \u201cThis School Is Special\u201d - US Property Moves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=326\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LACHSAPalooza Celebrates 40 Years of L.A.\u2019s Star-Making Arts Program: \u201cThis School Is Special\u201d - 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