On Stage

On the Burroughs Stage

Lily Yanagimoto ’23 (center), in the title role, has an epiphany in the seventh- and eighth-grade production of The Ash Girl (Timberlake Wertenbaker’s retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale) in December.

The play was one of many performances in Haertter Hall last semester that included orchestra, band and choral concerts; the upper school fall play, Almost, Maine; and the Holiday Program. The annual Dance Show will be January 25 and 26, and the musical Legally Blonde will be February 28 and March 1 and 2.

FLASHBACK: The Drama Club presented many memorable productions on a small stage in the old Haertter Hall. Pictured below is a scene from the fall 1966 musical, The Boy Friend. The group below are members of the Class of 1968 (from left): Jim Ryan, Mike Yore, Ben Donnell, Alice Canham and John Davidson.

The Tradition Continues

The 2018 Holiday Program, a celebration of peace, featured more than 200 students in the choirs and orchestra. Readers were Elle Harris ’19 and Collin Bradley ’19, and Olivia Lamb ’19 sang the “Lullaby.” Almira Arnold ’19, Olivia Arter ’19, Isaac Bledsoe ’19, Shayla Danzie ’24 and Michael Sadasivam ’24 appeared in the tableau. Sofia Di Lodovico ’19 designed the tableau, and Teresa Jiang ’22 designed the program art. Per a new tradition, a member of the Burroughs community — this year, it was English teacher Jill Donovan — prepared an original work (below) to be included in the collection of Holiday Program readings.

That Which Is Sacred by Jill Donovan (English)

Togetherness

We gather — in living rooms and assembly halls and kitchens and piazzas, in cathedrals and temples and mosques — to celebrate friendship, daily bread, family, shalom. We gather to marvel at old stories — clay lamps and angels, shepherds and a baby. We gather to share gifts and traditions, both familiar and new, and hopes for the coming year. We gather ritually and joyfully, offering dreams and blessings to hold. We gather for mulled cider, latkes, halvah and gingerbread. We gather in every time zone and latitude, across all ethnicities and cultures to remember connectedness. We gather to become, in these moments, whole.

Beauty

Look at the sky, the meadows, the mountains, the river. Listen to the children, the birdsong, the crashing waves. Smell the pine trees, the cinnamon, the oranges, the amaryllis. Look at the grandfather cradling his sleeping grandson. Listen to the carolers, the champagne flutes, the lullaby. Smell the nutmeg, the challah, the baklava. Look at the slush on the pavement and the anguish in the faces of the grieving, and then look for a world made new in the gestures of open hearts.

Kindness

Consider the kindness of strangers in another country who help us when we are lost or confused. Consider ordinary families who offer food and shelter to refugees. Consider small children who urge us to put coins into the hands of the desperate. Consider the ways that they remind us to stay gentle, trusting. Consider the help that human beings give to each other, especially in crisis, someone always helping. Consider small tokens of kindness that have changed you, changed me. Consider how kindness alters us, deepens us and sculpts us into living holiday chalices.

Light

“Let there be light,” God said, and there was light. The light of a thousand creamcolored candles, the light of the gilt menorah and the mosque lamp, the light of the newborn day after the darkest night. The light within a glistening snowscape and on the blinding shimmer of the warm sea. The light of sunrise and twilight, safe harbor and starlight. The light of an oil lamp that continues to burn, and a fireplace draped in garland. The light in the faces of the very young and the faces of the very old. The light of compassion, forgiveness, hope.

FLASHBACK: Fifty years ago, the old Haertter Hall stage overflowed with performers in the annual Holiday Program, much as it did in 2018.