A4
Northeast Suburban Life
January 12, 2011
SCHOOLS
ACHIEVEMENTS | NEWS | Editor Dick Maloney | rmaloney@communitypress.com | 248-7134
ACTIVITIES
| HONORS communitypress.com
Indian Hill’s ‘Scheherazade’ a success
Indian Hill Middle School boasts a long-standing tradition of quality theater, and the recent performance of “Scheherazade” lived up to that standard. Directed by Emily Martin, the show was an interpretation of the classic story behind the making of the “One Thousand and One Arabian Nights.” The opening scene, a present day slumber party, set the stage for the perfect bedtime tale with a moral lesson about the triviality of revenge and the importance of appreciating all kinds of people. Zen Taylor played the powerful Seen here during the production are students, from left, Teja Atluri, Zen Taylor, Zach Sorsher, Madie Roark and Alex Boster. yet vulnerable King Raynah who ing that he was swept way by the is feared in his kingdom because tale’s magical powers and, to the he decides to punish his people by surprise of the audience, he was marrying a woman each day only transformed into a woman, to kill his new bride the following played by Katherine Arnold. morning. PROVIDED That morning as a woman, the The Grand Vizier, played by the Student Alex Boster plays the title character. king traveled with Scheherazade comedic Mark Toler, and his intellito her village and saw the beauty gent daughter Scheherazade, of life around him and the pain his obsession for played by Alex Boster, worked each day to help the revenge had caused. doomed queens escape the king’s palace. This experience softened his heart and he was Exasperated by the perpetual cycle of marriage and escape, Scheherazade married the king so that transformed back into a man with a new appreciation for the people of his kingdom and a love for she may put an end to the king’s nonsense. On the night of her wedding, Scheherazade and Scheherazade. her younger sister Dinny, played by Maddie Roark, Pictured, from left, sitting, Margo Burnette, Hailey Ward, Laura Waltman, employed a plan to change the king’s vengeful Edmond Hooker and Gabrielle Orr; standing, Jack Johnson and Kyle Goold. ways. Scheherazade told the king a tale so entrancPROVIDED
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Prof heads to Estonia for competition David Hartz, associate professor in electronic media communications at the University of Cincinnati Raymond Walters College, will represent the United States in the World Fire Sculpture Championships in Tallinn, Estonia. Hartz will be joined by two Seattle fire sculptors, Chuck Nafziger and Jonathon Zucker, to form the United States team. Hartz and the United States team will compete Jan. 16 through Jan. 22 against teams from Finland, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea and Estonia. The competition will take place as part of the Tallin Light Festival. Participants in the World Fire Sculpture Championship were chosen based on the candidate teams’ sculpture designs and proposals. The semifinal round of completion will be Jan. 16 and six teams will advance to the finals Jan. 22. The first-place team will be awarded 2,500 euros, the second-place team 1,500 euros and the thirdplace team 1,000 euros. “I find it an all encompassing medium using the senses of sight, hearing, smell and motion,” said Hartz, who teaches animation, photography and media design courses at RWC, about fire sculpture. “Fire sculpture is much more complicated than an ordinary bonfire,” he said. “My experience has taught me to respect fire like a creature I’ve brought to life, choreographed to perform in specific ways and then allowed to die out,” said Hartz
Students of the week
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Sycamore Junior High’s students of the week for November and December are, from left: front row, Saidjon Khusenov, Katie Soellner, Julia Kumar, Monica Prell, Ryan Gantzer; back row, Gitanjalli Ajay Prasad, Sam Bouajram, Abby Miller, Principal Karen Naber, Grace Hertlein, Jake Melser, Amy Blum and Max Brown.
Pride in Excellence
Sycamore Junior High School’s Pride in Excellence winners for November are, from left: Kneeling, Mariah Buttrom, Carolyn Fisher, Abby Bonhaus, Nikolaus Vonderheide, Kathryn Harrison, Tyler Williams, Rohan D’Souza; standing, Erin Inman, Francesca Garnica, Patricia Blood, Christine Reisert, Maddie Marsh, Nakul Narendran, Martin Gonzalez and Noah Wagers. PROVIDED