The start of summer signals the drop of the curtain on school plays and the cleaning of paintbrushes in the art room. However, many student artists continue to pursue their passions during the break.

Advanced actors junior Anna Campbell and senior Char Conway both interned over the summer. Campbell worked for a local theater in Cape Cod, the Academy Playhouse, and Conway helped out at Vassar College’s summer theater season.

“I had been seeing shows at the Academy Playhouse every summer since I was a little kid and I really liked the atmosphere there since it’s a small theater,” said Campbell, who contacted the artistic director to see what summer opportunities the theater had.

For six weeks, every morning, five days a week, Campbell said she worked at the theater. She did everything from organizing props and helping coordinate the lights for the kid shows, to performing in the production of “Grease” as Frenchy.

“It was a really great to experience behind the scenes work because I never truly did that before,” Campbell said. “Over the summer they put on four different shows and I was a part of each one, not just from acting but from my behind the scenes work.”

Even though Campbell eventually found her niche, she was initially intimidated because all her co-workers were adults. Conway said she also felt this way, being surrounded by professionals such as Josh Radnor from “How I Met Your Mother” and performing with adults in Vassar College’s production of “Taming of the Shrew.”

“I came in really intimidated because these are all professionals and I am a high schooler who has very minimal professional experience,” Conway said. “Especially because I was doing a lot of improvisation, it was really fast pace so I just had to go with it in ‘Taming’ and whatever else I was doing.”

During Vassar College’s summer season of theater, New York Stage and Film comes and houses actors and writers, Conway said. These artists do staged readings of plays and productions that are in the works in order to try new things out and let the audience react, a process also known as workshopping.

“When they workshop shows they need a lot of help,” Conway said. “‘Hamilton’ workshopped there for its first time! We got to help with musicals that could go to Broadway and that’s really exciting.”

Besides just helping out the shows that were being workshopped, Conway also performed in a sound painting group, which is a form of guided improv. Conway said that not only was it a cool experience, but she was also able to learn more about herself as an actor.

“I learned that a lot of realness of acting comes from you just doing things and not overthinking, which was an issue for me before because I analyze anything before I do it,” Conway said. “That sometimes doesn’t serve you well as an actor.”

While Conway acted in a sound painting group, junior Elka Sorensen majored in painting for a month at California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts) in Valencia. Sorensen said she took classes in concentations such as sculpture, digital art and painting.

“Before I went I was really scared about being compared to other people in terms of art,” Sorensen said. “Especially in visual art, where it’s your ‘thing’ compared to another person’s ‘thing.’ But when I got there, there was less judgement than I was expecting. I learned how to take criticism, make it constructive and improve myself instead of being embarrassed about it.”

Cal Arts had a block schedule similar to Piedmont High School, where Sorensen had a different classes different days. She said she really enjoyed her figure drawing class.

“It’s less about your creation and more like ‘oh there’s a model and I’m going to draw it,’” Sorensen said. “I learned a lot about looking at things and not worrying if it looked bad. That was pretty cool.”

In addition to offering classes, Cal Arts invites artists to come and talk about working and making money in the real world. All of this, Sorensen said, inspires her to incorporate art more into other areas her life, by doing projects such as creating posters for Back to School Night and her acting class.