Volume: 3  Issue: 4 January 2017
 
Happy New Year! 2017 has started off with a bang in the Fine Arts Department. Oliver Halkowich, soloist with Houston Ballet, has been setting a piece for our Terpsichore Dance Ensemble. In addition, Terrill Mitchell has set choreography for the Advanced Caprice Ensemble. Terrill is a company director and is on faculty at the Met too YouthCompany and Vitacca Dance Company. Both pieces of choreography will be presented in April at the Upper School Dance Concert.
 
In Music, Chorale and Upper School Strings have had lock-ins to prepare for the Chorale-Orchestral Festival in early February. Cantatores is preparing for the Middle School Pop Show, which will be presented in mid-February. And, in Visual Arts, the K-12 teachers are busy tearing down the current show in preparation for the Middle School Art Exhibit, which opens on January 17 in the Clare Attwell Glassell Gallery. Meanwhile, rehearsals for the Upper School Studio Production, Black Comedy, at the end of January, and the Upper School Musical, Curtains!, at the end of February, are in full swing. In Lower School, third grade is busy working on a chapel performance with gospel singer Barbara Tucker in February. Students in the multimedia program are busy preparing the next edition of MavTV, which will be aired in the upcoming week.

Hope your year is happy and productive,

Bill McDonald
  

Middle School Visual Arts Exhibit & Opening Reception 
Tuesday, January 17 to Friday, February 17
Campus Center: Clare Attwell Glassell Gallery
Opening reception: Tuesday, January 17 at 12:05 p.m.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Seventh and eighth grade student art from the second quarter will be displayed as an integrated show of the developing artistic talents of St. John’s Middle School students and the Visual Arts programs. The exhibition includes drawings, mixed media collages, and bridge sculptures. Come see the work of these talented students.
 

Middle School Play Tryouts 
January 17-19, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m., VST 110

 
Auditions for the St. John’s Middle School play, Chasing Charming, will be held Tuesday, January 17, Wednesday, January 18, and Thursday, January 19 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. in VST 110. Here’s how to sign up to audition:

  1. Sign up for an audition slot on the Bulletin Board outside Dean Pringle's Office.
  2. Download the audition forms here
  3. Bring the completed and signed forms to the audition.
Performance dates are Thursday, April 6 and Friday, April 7. Please direct any questions to Mr. Arizpe at aarizpe@sjs.org or extension 604.
 

US Studio Play: Black Comedy 
Thursday January 26 and Friday January 27 at 7:00 p.m.
Black Box Theater

  
What do you get when you combine the 60s, an artist, a debutante, an old maid, a military man, an antique dealer, a mistress, an electrician, and a millionaire? Something funny. What happens when you put it all in the dark? You get this year's studio play, Black Comedy.
 
Black Comedy, written by Peter Schaffer, tells the story of Brindsley (Alex Ham), a young, poor artist trying to sell his sculptures with the help of his blonde fiancé, Carol (Sophie Gillard). The power suddenly goes out as they prepare for a party for millionaire art enthusiast George Bamberger (James Redding) and Carol's rigid father, Colonel Melkett (Ian Tobin). Chaos promptly ensues as they are joined by Brindsley's neighbors Miss Furnival (Nicole VerMeulen) and Harold Gorringe (Ben Cohen), a German electrician Schuppanzigh (Gray Watson), and Brindsley's mistress, Clea (Irene Vazquez). Can Brindsley hope to sell his art, impress his future father-in-law, appease his snooty neighbors, calm his fiancé, start up again with his mistress, and get the lights on, all in an hour?
 
Black Comedy is directed by Kat Cordes, with stage manager Jason Souvaliotis and assistant stage manager Maddie McZeal. Tickets are available now and may be reserved by calling 713-850-0222 x 570. Cost is $10 and may be charged to your student’s account. Seating is general admission.
 

Upper School Choral-Orchestral Festival 
Monday, February 6 at 7:00 p.m.
The Church of St. John the Divine
No admission charge

 
 
 
The SJS Upper School Choirs and Chamber Strings will present their annual Choral-Orchestral Festival. Kantorei will perform the programmatic chanson, “La Guerre,” by Clement Janequin, as well as Palestrina’s, “Sicut Cervus.” Chorale will perform John Rutter’s landmark cantata, "Chichester Psalms," accompanied by Donald Doucet on the organ, as well as harp and percussion. Middle School Boy Choir member, Rohit Reddy, will be the featured boy soprano soloist.
 
Combined US Strings will perform "Traveling" by Michael Kimber, and Advanced Chamber Strings will perform the Albinoni “Adagio” and Benjamin Britten’s "Frolicsome Finale" from “Simple Symphony.”
 
Joint performances between strings and choirs will include “Duetto” from “Stabat Mater” by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Les Chanteuses and Combined US Strings); “Ave Verum Corpus” by W.A. Mozart (Kantorei and Advanced Chamber Strings); and “To Music” by Betty Bertaux (All student performers).
 
 
 
 

Middle School Pop Show: Divas 
Friday, February 10, at 4:00 p.m. & 6:15 p.m.
VST Lowe Theater

 
The Pop Show culminates a year of hard work by the Middle School girls choir, Cantatores. This year’s Pop Show, “Divas,” will feature the 58 members of Cantatores, plus the Boy Choir made up of MS and Class 9 boys. Featured songs are those recorded by pop divas from the 1960’s through the modern day.
 
Cantatores will highlight different decades with “Respect”, “Vogue”, “The Greatest Love of All”, “Soak up the Sun”, and more. The show ends with a chart topper by Houston’s very own “Queen B”. Brendan Emig and Megan Henry direct the Pop Show and have been working with Cantatores since the fall to find suitable songs. The 8th Grade girls had the opportunity to list songs they would like to perform, and Mr. Emig searched for the music.

Because the Pop Show is accompanied by a live band, Mr. Emig and Mr. Doucet worked together to extract instrumental parts if none were available. Scott Bonasso leads the Boy Choir, and choreographers are Heidi Arouty and Brooke Wilson. There is no admission charge. DVDs of the performance may be purchased online here. Don’t miss this night of wonderful singing and dancing!

Captured Memories: A Brief History of Digital Fine Arts Photography at SJS

 
 
The Fine Arts at SJS have a long, proud history of indelible memories captured by excellent volunteer photographers. Since the dawn of digital photography, most of these images are archived in two locations – on Shutterfly and SmugMug, where members of the SJS community can browse (and download or print) photos of Fine Arts events dating back to 2002. Bookmark these sites for future reference:
 
SJS Fine Arts SmugMug for photos from recent performances 

SJS Fine Arts Shutterfly (Password: sjs) for archived pictures 
 
In the beginning, SJS moms Karen Terrell and Aida Ziemnicki shot most of the digital photos from 2002 to 2006, and many more parent volunteers have followed since. One dad, David Elder, joined the team early on and is STILL engaged, though the last of his children left for college years ago. David is remarkably kind and clear-eyed, offering expert advice on shooting dancers in near darkness, or middle school musical scenes with glow-in-the-dark costumes. He serves as a mentor and back up to the rotating roster of photo volunteers. David brings a sincere appreciation of the work of the Fine Arts department, and the talent and dedication of SJS students. (He likes the students so much he occasionally substitute teaches at the Middle School!) Originally skeptical of film-free photography, he has “seen the light” of its advantages, and has recently begun compiling beautiful photo books to commemorate the biggest shows. David is also the original founder of the Shutterfly site linked above and still maintains it.
 
Current Fine Arts photography chair Sonia Gras and co-chair MaryScott Hagle are deeply grateful for David Elder’s help and for the legacy of all those shooters gone before. Want in on some of this action? On the job training is available! Join the photo team this spring or next year, and leave your own mark on the digital history of the Fine Arts at SJS.
 
To volunteer as a photographer, please contact Sonia at soniagras@comcast.net or MaryScott at mshagle@gmail.com.

Alumni News 

 
Hannah Tyler '15 directed her first play at Rice University's Lovett College: Tom Stoppard's "Real Inspector Hound" was performed three times to a full house in November. Justin Bernard '14 played one of the main roles, the critic Mr. Birdboot. Hannah will play the role of Claire in David Auburn's "Proof" in the Spring 2017 production of Rice University's Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts.
 
Zoe Margolis ‘15 interned with the MFAH during the summer of 2016, working both at the main campus and at Bayou Bend. This past fall, she declared an Art History major and was in a student run production, Horrible Things, a cabaret style show. Over this January term, Zoe is interning with Weingarten Art Group, and this February, she is choreographing for and performing in a musical theater review about the college experience. Throughout college so far, Zoe has been taking numerous theater and dance classes and voice lessons, focusing on acting and musical theater.
 
Isabel Wallace-Green '15 (pictured above) spent a month at the Dance Theatre of Harlem school in the summer of 2016. As a student of The Ailey School/Fordham University BFA in Dance program, she has been selected to perform in The Ailey School's 2016 Spring Concert and 2017 Winter Concert as well as at Fordham University's Sophomore Convocation.
 
Camilla Manca '14 spent the fall 2016 semester in Florence studying art history. She is an art history major at Trinity University.

Links & Downloads:

SmugMug: View, download, or order prints of recent Fine Arts events
 
Shutterfly (Password: sjs) Fine Arts archived pictures
 
 
 

St. John's School | 2401 Claremont Lane | Houston, TX 77019 | 713.850.0222