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COMMUNITY
GILBERT SUN NEWS | SEPTEMBER 19, 2021
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Gilbert’s Limelight Theatre readies for the stage GSN NEWS STAFF
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welve-year-old Savannah Springer doesn’t get in trouble very often. The Mesa seventh grader is pretty good at following the rules, from helping around the house to completing her homework on time. But now, she is trying on a different personality for size as one of two performers playing the title role of the Arizona premier of “Junie B.’s Essential Survival Guide to School.” The new musical, produced by Limelight Performing Arts in Gilbert, is based on the bestselling books by Barbara Park and shares the saga of the wisecracking Junie B. – a self-appointed expert on all things first grade – who is determined to write the ultimate guide to school. The production features a cast of 16 young performers.
Lola Howard
Piper Perea
Gabriel Ritchie
Springer shares the role with 10-year-old Anna Scales of Scottsdale, who is also experimenting with the character. “Junie B.’s Essential Survival Guide to School” is the hilarious and heart-
warming follow-up to “Junie B. Jones, The Musical” and uses high-energy music and comedic dialogue to take audiences through a series of stresses and mishaps as precocious Junie confronts the challenges of first grade – and
gets in a lot of trouble along the way. “One of my favorite lessons of the show is that Junie B. learns how to control her anger when things aren’t going
see LIMELIGHT page 17
Gilbert woman solos on new Christian album GSN NEWS STAFF
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ilbert native Nicole Swartz sings a solo on the new “Canyon Worship 2021” album by the Grand Canyon University Worship Arts program. All 10 new songs on the program’s sixth album were written and performed by GCU students and recorded in the University’s state-of-the-art recording studio. “This album is one of my favorites so far. The songs are stylistically set for corporate worship in local churches,” said GCU Worship Arts Coordinator Dr. Randall Downs. “The words have depth, glorifying God and encouraging His children, and the melodies are breath-
Gilbert native Nicole Swartz has a solo on Canyon Worship for the first time with “In the Waiting.” (Elizabeth Tinajero/Grand Canyon University)
taking.” Swartz, who wrote and sings “In the Waiting,” Nicole Swartz’s “In the Waiting,” told the Grand Canyon news department that the genesis of the number was what she experienced during her first year in the Worship Arts program at Grand Canyon University, when everything seemed to be going right after she transferred from Chandler Gilbert Community College. “I felt a lot of fulfillment and I felt a lot of amazing things that God was doing in my life,” she said. But then her brother enlisted in the military and was stationed on the other side of the world. Her sister moved to
see ALBUM page 17
