Solebury School's Performing Arts Newsletter - November 2013

Performing Arts

2013 Solebury School

November

Issue 3, 2013

Mark Your Calendars for Many Performances This Month The Mad Woman of Chaillot - November 7, 8 and 9 at 7:00 pm – our fall production in the Barn Theatre! Tickets are $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for students.

Inside Special Feature: Meet an alum who is studying Technical Theatre in college: James Lewis - 2011

Fairytale Court Room - November 13 at 7:00 pm and November 14 at 1:00 pm in the PAC will feature our middle school theatre class! The show is free and donations will be accepted for the Rescue Me Dog Rescue.

Music and Dance Concert: November 15 at 7:00 pm in the PAC featuring the talents of our chorus, dance classes and instrumental ensemble!

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October 2013

Meet James Lewis, 2011 graduate, currently studying Theater Technologies/Design at Rowan University!

What have you been doing in college?

Being that the theater tech major here at Rowan is fairly small, I have been involved in almost every show the department has put up since my freshman year! Some shows include: Flying West by Pearl Cleage, directed by Elisabeth Hostetter; Kill Me Now, a collaboration with John Clancy, directed by Melanie Stewart (This show we brought to the Philly Fringe Festival this September.);Who Will Carry The Word?, based on a true story by Charlotte Delb, directed by Dr. Anthony Hostetter.; Guys and Dolls, book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, based on The Idyll of Sarah Brown and characters by Damon Runyon, directed by Rebecca Rich.

As for my work outside of School, I have been working mostly in two theaters: The Bucks County Playhouse and The Newtown Theater. Over the summer of 2012, I was an intern at the Bucks County playhouse helping run sound and hanging/focusing the lighting for their productions, among other tasks. I even got to help Tom Wilschutz be part of a show there! This past summer I was working at the Newtown Theater as an assistant stagehand doing everything and anything to help the place run smoother and help at events held there. I also did over hire work at the Playhouse this summer to hang & focus lighting in-between shows there this summer.

Now that I am back at school and in closer contact to my Professors again, I may be starting to work some weekends at a rental house for stage and lighting equipment nearby our campus.

What advice would you give students who are planning to major in technical theatre in college?

For someone seeking a major in technical theater, I will give three pieces of advice: learn as many skills as you can, the skills you have are not limited to theater, and be nice. Going to school for technical theater, in many places, you get to play with the newest and greatest toys in the biz so, take advantage! Learn them; know them inside out and backwards. I have come to realize theater is not the end of my job search; the skills are completely transferable to almost all corners of the entertainment industry from concerts to special events, such as weddings. So, don’t stay too directly focused on theater as the be all, end all. That being said, another thing I have found about the entertainment industry I am swiftly moving into is that everybody knows everybody. That is why being nice is important. Not only is it better to work with nice people, but no one likes the alternative. Even though it’s a business of drama, no one likes drama. Especially, in those long nights during tech week or the overnight work calls from 8pm to 8am. No one wants to be with someone difficult. Along with the immediate benefits of just being a helpful nice person, at that work call you leave giving a good impression, which can lead to more work from that place or someone they may talk to about you. To sum it all up again: learn and do whatever you can to gain new and improve your skills. Those skills can be used in a multitude of applications in the full entertainment industry that is not limited to theater and that in a world filled with drama, no one likes it.

How did Solebury prepare you for college?

My immediate answer would be how it’s structured. Meaning, at Solebury, we go to the book store and buy our own books, we organize our own schedules including FREE periods, a huge concept that I found many of my freshman counterparts struggled with when I was first explaining my high school background. Then there is the simple fact that our school was a campus, which made the transition smooth and I felt fairly comfortable figuring out the new campus I was now inhabiting. Looking back at my experience at Solebury a little deeper, I can say one of the most valuable things Solebury taught me was to reach out to others. Whether I needed help with academics or socially, over the 4 years I was there, I grew considerably in the environment that was presented to me.

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November 2013

New Record Enrollment for Swing Dance A new enrollment record will be set for Swing Dance when winter trimester rolls around. Thirty-two students will be jumping and jiving in the dance studio! Veteran swing dancers George Cai, Jian Dempsey, Micheala Finley, Neal Hafner, Haley Huxley, Tyler Manley, Kyle Miller, Dakota Morrow, Aspen Souder, Brandon Veiseh, Emily Webb, Chen Yan and Adam Yang will be joined by newcomers Laeuna Chisolm, Lia D’Alessandro, Alexis Federico, Jonathan Fleming, Georgia Fremon, Michael Glass, Adelaide Groth-Tuft, Malik Harvey, Sara Heller, Darvin Johnson, David Kuhn, Nick Lavery, Susie Lenovitz, Milo Luciano, Cameron Mackay, Lorenz Markhoff, Julia McDonald, Caitlin Miller and Jess Randolph! Feel free to stop in the dance studio during any lab period to watch these hep cats burn up the dance floor!

Performing Arts

Solebury School 6832 Phillips Mill Road New Hope PA 18938 www.solebury.org

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The Middle School enjoyed a day in New York City and attended a performance of the musical Newsies as part of the Middle School Theatre class!