Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts (PCPA) is a presenting and training professional residential theatre company in Santa Maria, California, offering a two-year acting and technical theatre conservatory program, operating out of Allan Hancock College.
[1] PCPA offers a two-year vocational certificate program which combines lectures, labs, and classes with practical hands-on training where students will mount a fully realized production.
Among the classes offered are: acting, voice, movement, musical theater ensemble, Shakespeare, theatre history, stage combat.
The technical theatre students examine all aspects of production, enabling them to develop as designers, craftspeople and technicians.
Areas of study include stagecraft, lighting, sound, drawing and rendering, costuming and scene painting.