Visual & Performing Arts

CREATIVE EXPRESSION

Working In Harmony

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When the time has come to choose a fall musical for the Upper School to produce, what’s an Agnes Irwin director to do when he can’t find an enticing story with strong female leads?

Well, write one, of course.

That’s the story behind In Harmony, this year’s fall musical, to be performed November 19, 20 and 21. With an original script and music written by longtime collaborators Bill Esher, Visual and Performing Arts Department Chair, and music teacher Jerry Kapral, In Harmony tells the story of a televised 1962 competition between three sister singing groups.

“Beginning in the 1940s and continuing through the 1960s, sister singing groups were incredibly popular,” Esher explained. After watching a documentary on the craze, he came up with an idea: What if these sister acts became the basis for an Upper School production?

Esher approached Kapral in July about working with him on the fall musical. Having worked together on more than 30 productions in the past — including one full-length musical — they saw the partnership as a no-brainer. “We have the same kind of vision in what and how we write,” Kapral said.

“At this point, it’s become one of those collaborations where you can finish sentences or help complete a thought,” Esher added. “When one of us is stuck, we’re able to say, ‘This is the thought I had’ and the other person is able to step in, help think it through and develop it. It becomes an easy partnership.”

The pair set to work outlining the show in early July, developing the shape of the narrative and researching songs from the early 1960s. July and August were spent writing the script and the music, and auditions were held in early September.

The story goes like this: It is 1962 in Cincinnati, OH, and WKRC-TV, an ABC affiliate, is hosting a contest to find the next new sister act on Sing Your Song, hosted by local celebrity Kip Kiley. After weeks of searching, the three final singing sister acts are to appear on the finals of this contest, sponsored by Huckleberry Foods, to be broadcast nationally.

Three sets of sisters — the Wright Sisters (Catherine de Lacoste-Azizi, Naomi Paradis, Gigi Gardner) from Chicago, the O’Donnell Sisters (Abby Rubin, Ellie Damstra, Connie Thompson) from Philadelphia, and the Moore Sisters (Dejah Bradshaw, Sanaiyah Watt, Acacia Pressley) from Detroit — are to compete. The musical follows the finals of the search for the new sister act: the rehearsal week in the first act and the live broadcast in the second.

The play calls for a few musical numbers with a medley of songs from the time period — including “Do You Love Me?” and “Mashed Potato” — as well as about nine original songs, written by Kapral.

The script was such a hit that students opted to nominate In Harmony for this year’s Cappie Awards, a student-led program in which area theater students review productions and vote on accolades, Academy Awards style. Each school can nominate only one production; usually, Agnes Irwin students nominate the spring play. “It’s exciting because we’re the original cast,” said Abby Rubin ‘16, who plays Mary Kathleen O’Donnell, the oldest of the O’Donnell sisters. “We all love the script: the plot is great — it’s witty and charming, and the musical numbers are going to be really fun.”

“It made me laugh out loud when reading it,” said Connie Thompson ‘16, who plays Abby’s younger sister, Mary Frances O’Donnell.

Thompson said that because In Harmony is an original piece, the actors don’t need to guess about their characters’ motivation. “Mr. Esher knows these roles by heart, and is able to give great critiques and tips for portraying our parts,” she said. Plus, Esher and Kapral can add, deduct, modify and finesse songs and dialogue as they see fit. “That’s part of the beauty of having control of the show itself,” Esher said. “We can make decisions in the editing process as we want to.” Teachers Collaborate to Compose Fall Musical by Amanda Mahnke

Harmony In Harmony

NOVEMBER 19-21, 2015 UPPER SCHOOL VISUAL & PREFORMING ARTS ~ PRESENTS ~

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Exploring the Art and Craft of Printing

by Sarah Bourne Rafferty

This summer, Agnes Irwin awarded me a professional growth grant to attend Maine Media Workshops and College in Rockport, ME. MMW is a worldrenowned institution that provides degree and certificate programs, workshops and cooperative labs geared to artists pursuing creative work in fine arts and mediarelated professions. They have endless course offerings — from digital and analog photography workshops to videography, alternative process photography and book arts. I took “The Art and Craft of the Fine Art Digital Print” with Jim Nickelson, an accomplished fine art photographer and custom digital printer, because of my increased interest in understanding the software-to-print relationship.

The course focused on the differences between various kinds of paper used for creating prints and how they affect a final product. We learned about printers, printer profiles and paper profiles — all critical components of the printing process — and reasons why prints can come out of a printer looking different from your computer screen. In one exercise, we printed the same photograph on several types of paper, and the differences in tonality, saturation and clarity were astounding.

My course had five other participants, all of whom were amateur photographers trying to better their skills. Nickelson, whose work is driven by an interest in science and nature and who has exhibited widely in museums and galleries, shared a wealth of knowledge. He showed us his studio and some of his personal work. It was a fun and informative visit!

We also took a few local field trips together as a class, where we were able to photograph some of the beauty of the Maine coast.

My course at MMW taught me so much that I was excited to bring back to my classroom. I have already shown my Photo II and AP Photo classes a few techniques that I learned while in Maine and cannot wait to show them more as we begin printing images.

BRIEFS

Teacher Performs in Faust

Middle School music teacher Dr. Cara Latham spent the summer preparing for her lead role in Faust, presented by Berks Opera Company in August. This particular production was set in modern-day Reading, and Latham played Marguerite.

JOHN PANKRATZ

Bella Italia

This summer, eighth grader Lia Della Porta and eight other Philadelphia area girls were selected by the International Opera Theater of Philadelphia to perform a cantata of the music of Hildegard von Bingen in the medieval town of Citta Della Pieve, Umbria, Italy. Dr. Latham helped Lia prepare for the event.

COURTESY KIM COVELLO

Sunflower Studies

Third graders spent some of fall learning about Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings in preparation for creating sunflower plates. Students cut clay with a circular mold, hand-cut sunflower petals and glazed their works after they were fired.