March 2, 2010
the
lion’s tale
Feature
11
Winter Musical: Oh the thinks you can think! members could be heard humming as they walked out to their cars, included “Oh, The Thinks You Can Think,” “All On Thursday evening Jan. 14, For You,” “Alone in the Universe,” and the CESJDS auditorium stage, “How Lucky You Are.” dressed with simple scenery, was The Cat in the Hat, junior Laura brought to life to the delight of Citren was perfectly cast as the exa capacity audience, who were tremely confident and charismatic fetreated to 90 minutes of Seussical, line. Citren showed her exceptional the musical interpretation of an singing, dancing and acting talents as anthology of the world’s favorite she effortlessly guided the audience children’s author, Dr. Seuss. through Seuss’s magical world. Danny The play is drawn from Dr. Schwaber’s charming performance Seuss classics and is centered as Horton captured the essence of the around three main characters: innocent, sincere, yet relentless Good Horton the Elephant (junior Samaritan in Horton the Elephant. CosDanny Schwaber), Gertrude Mctumed simply with a scarf for a trunk, Fuzz (freshman Ilanna Starr) and Danny’s sweet voice and strong acting Mayzie Labird (junior Galit Krifskills brought out his inner pachyderm cher). Horton’s mission is to save in an earnest and heartfelt performance. Whoville while Gertrude McFuzz Freshman Ilanna Starr gave a stand is trying desperately to gain his atout performance as Gertrude McFuzz. tention. Meanwhile, Mayzie Lanes Starr showed her exceptional vocal leaves her egg with Horton while skills and her natural stage presence as she vacations in Palm Beach. Gertrude portraying the innocence of The story also features a host the young shy bird. Starr’s understated of other Seuss characters includperformance could not mask her exing Yertle the Turtle (sophomore traordinary vocal talents as she belted Tamar Gasko), the Wickersham “Notice Me Horton!” Monkeys (sophomore Zachary Galit Krifcher exploded onto the Pinkham and junior Avi Silverstage as a truly amazing Mayzie, a role metz) and Sour Kangaroo (sophothat showcased not only her vocal talmore Noam Schildhaus). Directed ent, but also here comedic acting abiliphoto by Danny Krifcher by Jane Chirstenson, the production focused on the strength of the anything’s possible Freshman Ilana Starr, junior Laura Citren, junior Mira Fein, sophomore Arielle ties of she strutted her wings across the stage to the pleasure of the packed enthusiastic cast, who were poised Greene and sophomore Eden Katz act out a scene using their imagination instead of props. house. Strong performances by the and well rehearsed, and clearly that “anything is possible.” Conveying the ence believe that they were watching and other cast members and a chorus that having a lot of fun. belief that even the simplest things can be listening to singing elephants, birds, mon- exuded a contagious enthusiasm made for a The clever use of minimal scenery retransformed like magic, the cast succeeded keys, cats and kangaroos. memorable evening for all. inforced the message throughout the play with simple costumes in having the audiThe memorable music, which audience
by Samantha Weiner
Students deliver meals as a Christmas mitzvah by Elana Schrager While many students were sleeping in or traveling to far off lands during winter break, 11 CESJDS students were delivering Christmas meals early Friday morning on Dec. 25 to those unable to afford food in the Washington D.C. metro area The food delivery service was organized by combined efforts of organizations such as Food and Friends and Meals on Wheels. Food and Friends is an organization that makes meals and provides groceries as well as nutritional counseling for people with life-threatening illnesses like HIV/ AIDS and cancer. It provides three free nutritious meals a day that
meet each qualifying client’s specific health needs. Meals on Wheels delivers low cost lunches and dinners to needy seniors. Both organizations rely heavily on volunteers to deliver the food. The volunteers got to their respective distribution centers and a box of a food and a list of about four destinations that the groups would deliver to. “It was really fun,” seventh grader Aaron Handelman said. “We got the directions and we got a little bit of information about the people we were delivering food to, and we just knocked on the door.” “Seeing the people and seeing how happy they were re-
ally made me happy inside,” sophomore Sarah Rubinstein said. The Christmas volunteers felt that it was important to help out on Christmas Day because they were enabling people who celebrate Christmas to spend time with their families. They also wanted to provide food to needy people on one of the most important days of the Christian calendar.
“I expected that people would be really secretive and that they really wouldn’t want the rest of the family to know that we were there and giving them food, but the people were really welcoming to us. One lady talked about her granddaughter and was asking us about our lives. She really enjoyed talking to us and I think we really made her day better,” Rubinstein said. The students picked up food from organizations such as Food and Friends and Meals on Wheels. Together with lending a hand Sophomore Sarah Rubenstein volunteers at Food and their family and friends, Friends by making and delivering they delivered the bagged food. sandwiches on Christmas day. photo by Rebecca Rubin
Seniors celebrate with dinner, dancing and an all-nighter by Brooke Friedman The Class of 2010’s prom took place at Midtown Lounge in Washington, D.C from 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 27-28. Before prom, students had dinner together. Dean of Students Roslyn Landy said, “I have always hoped that the senior class would plan a dinner before prom where everyone could dine together. I think having a grade dinner is more inclusive and more fun. It also avoids the drama of who goes to which restaurant and who goes with whom and how many couples can go in
each limo. With this plan, everyone was able to eat together and travel to prom together.” Senior Jillian Racoosin, who helped to chair the Prom Committee, said that everyone in her grade had a great time at pre-prom, which took place at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville. “It was just a really nice way to be together,” Racoosin said. According to senior Jonathan Iskow, there was bus transportation provided to take seniors from the pre-prom dinner to prom. “My group of friends and I got a Hummer limo [to get to Woodmont] which was quite nice. And then to get from Woodmont to
Midtown Lounge, we took some party buses that played really loud music and everyone got up and danced,” Iskow said. “The party bus was the best part of prom, it was really cool to be get up and dance even though we fell down a few times,” junior Stephanie Prigal said. Class of 2010 Adviser Victoria Ball said that prom had a good spirit because everyone was dancing with everyone else and that the venue chosen allowed for a more “lively” dance party. “Mr. Webner and I like to go out dancing and it was really fun to do that with the whole grade,” Ball said. “I felt that we really let
loose. We were up in the middle of everything, just really going to town. It was really, really fun.” When prom ended at 12:30 a.m., students went on to afterprom, which took place at the Potomac Community Center in Potomac. Senior Joseph Klein said he was surprised by the uniqueness of after-prom. “Many parents took time to set it up. There was a moon-bounce, blackjack and there was music. I really can’t even describe it because any description does not quite encapsulate the surprise of seeing after-prom,” Klein said. Math teacher Howie Weinstein,
a chaperone, said he enjoyed the games at after-prom. “I got to crush the self-esteem of the graduated seniors as I beat them in the obstacle course,” Weinstein said. Math teacher Reuben Silberman, another chaperone, said karaoke was a new activity at after-prom this year. He liked how after-prom was planned and thought it went well. “I am really glad I went. I really enjoyed the opportunity to be with the kids. I think it was worth it even though I went to school the next day and taught,” Silberman said.