Moorestown Friends School, Moorestown, NJ
December 19, 2018
2018-2019, ISSUE #2
2018 GIFT GUIDE INSIDE
Drama Teacher and Director Angela Wertner to Depart MFS This January
By Ali Chesnick ’19, Copy Chief & Features/Opinion Editor
In This Issue GIFT GUIDE
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WordsWorth found the best gifts for locations around the school. Check out the best gifts in our annual Holiday Gift Guide. ELF ON A SHELF
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You know and love Elf on a Shelf, but have you seen the Head on a Shed? Check out our fun MFS parodies!
BEST OF MAIN STREET WordsWorth featured all of the restaurants on Main Street. Find out which ones were worthy of winning our coveted awards. Page 5-7
SAGE STAFF Get to know the staffers who provide lunch for you every day. WordsWorth asked them about their hobbies and what we can do to make their jobs a little bit easier. Page 8
Drama teacher and Director Angela Wertner will be leaving Moorestown Friends at the end of the end of the semester to spend more time with her 14-month-old baby, Louie, she announced earlier this month. “It was a very, very difficult decision to make,” said Wertner. “It is very bittersweet because I love it here...and I love my students.” Wertner said the Drama Director position is very large and has 12+ hour days two to three days per week throughout the entire year. These hours are necessary to teach classes, run rehearsals for the musical, the play, the middle school musical, and manage the stage technology components which accompany the rehearsals. Wertner clarified that she is leaving on her own accord, and is not being pushed out by the administration: “I feel like I need to be there for him and so that’s what led me to make the difficult decision to be home with him.” Wertner was hired as Drama teacher and director after Mark Gornto resigned the post in the Spring of 2015. She started in the Fall of 2015 with her first Upper School musical, Anything Goes. In March 2016, Wertner directed To Kill A Mockingbird for the Upper School play. She went on to direct You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown (Fall 2016), and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (Winter 2017). She acted as producer of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Fall 2017), which rehearsed and ran during Wertner’s maternity leave after the birth of her son. Overseeing the first Winter play to rehearse during an elective block, Wertner directed “An
Evening of Christopher Durang” (Winter 2018), which included three short plays: For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, The Actor’s Nightmare, and Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge. The final MFS production to be solely directed by Wertner was this fall’s The Drowsy Chaperone. Wertner will cast and begin rehearsals with the cast of this winter’s Almost, Maine. Wertner has also directed The Wizard of Oz (Spring 2016), A Year with Frog and Toad Kids! (Spring 2017), and Freckleface Strawberry Jr. (Spring 2018) for the Middle School. Though she selected Mulan Jr. for this May’s performance, she will not be at MFS to cast or direct the show. In addition to her role as director and technical director, Wertner acted as an Upper/ Middle School advisor throughout her three and a half years at MFS. She also taught the fifth and sixth grade Theatre classes, as well as ninth grade Public Speaking. Wertner has taught many minors as well, including Acting & Directing, Theatre Sports, Stage Crew, American Musical Theatre, and Dance Team. She is also tasked with scheduling content for Upper and Middle School assemblies and running sound and lights during these assemblies if necessary. In Fall 2015, Wertner and Senior Lizzie Cohen co-founded Dance Club, which has since grown into a competition team with a minor class requirement. Wertner is also the advisor for Drama Club, which has produced The Galloway Café, Rumors, and Harvey under her supervision and guidance. The Cupola was dedicated to Wertner by the Class of 2017.
Photo by Andrew Rowan ‘19 / Editor-in-Chief
Wertner is pictured in the auditiorium. She recieved the 2016 Yearbook dedication. “Ms. W has helped to define my experience with the arts at MFS for all four years of high school. I cannot imagine my experience without her. I will miss her deeply,” said Senior Mariana Goldlust when asked to share a final message about Wertner’s impact. Wertner will be greatly missed by all, especially the members of the Class of 2019, who were able to know her throughout all four years of Upper School. Angela Wertner has made excellent contributions to the MFS Drama Department and school community as a whole. On behalf of WordsWorth - thank you. Serena Lin contributed to this report. Editor’s note: The author of this article has participated in many of the programs Wertner has taught and directed.
As Development Office Moves Into Van Meter Hall, A Sharper Image of the Building’s Purpose Comes Into View By Andrew Rowan ‘19, Editor-in-Chief
MOVIES Entertainment Editor Liz Huettl breaks down the latest holiday entertainment. Page 7
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The seven members of the Moorestown Friends School Development Office will be moving into new offices in Van Meter Hall, causing student programs housed in the building to relocate midyear. Van Meter Hall’s purpose has been in flux since it was purchased by the school in 2008, but the movement of the development office into the building sets its purpose for the foreseeable future, said Director of Finance and Operation Lisa Carbone Warren. Van Meter Hall’s ground floor has been previously renovated during the summer of 2017 to create a meeting space for students and teachers or to host special school events. After Julia de la Torre’s convocation in September, the development office hosted a reception in the Van Meter Hall space.
Many of the architect’s proposals to renovate the building to fit the school’s original needs would have cost upwards of $2 million dollars, or $3 million if inflation is taken into account, something which Carbone Warren said the school can not presently afford.
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The current renovations of Van Meter Hall were not originally intended for the development office. Moving the development office into the building ended up being the most cost effective option. Many of the architect’s proposals to renovate the building to fit the school’s original needs would have cost upwards of $2 million dollars, or $3 million if inflation is taken into account, something which Carbone Warren said
the school can not presently afford. “We need office space,” said Carbone Warren, “we thought we could do it without spending a lot of money.” After discussion by the school committee and reviewal of architecture proposals, the decision was made to renovate the future development offices with new carpets and a fresh coat of paint. Development is taking their current furniture from their present offices in the basement of the main building. The building, which was originally apartments, has bathrooms in nearly every room. Carbone Warren said the school will not be going to the expense of demolishing and rebuilding the rooms, so every office will have a bathroom: “It’s weird, but convenient.” The development office will also have additional storage space in Van Meter Hall for housing school records and other documents. The timeline for the move is not firm. Carbone Warren said the renovations will take place from late November to late January. The development office has a small window to move: one week in February when their workload is lighter. However, if the building is not ready, development will move in the summer, said Carbone Warren. The development office is currently housed with the Business Office in the basement. Development’s move to Van Meter Hall would make room in the basement for the Marketing Communications team and Director of Auxiliary Programs Martha Cameron. Additionally, the Business Office would gain a conference room and a workspace for confidential meetings about things like health benefits and contracts. As it stands, when the development or business office wants to have a staff meeting, they must reserve out the Moriuchi room for everyone to fit. Development’s move has caused the
Photo Courtesy Moorestown Friends School
In March, the School Committee of Moorestown Friends School named the Greenleaf Mansion, located at 28 East Main Street, “Van Meter Hall.” student programs in Van Meter Hall to change locations in the middle of the year. Carbone Warren said that programs typically are not moved in the middle of the year, but because discussion of the Development Office’s move had only started during the summer, it was necessary for this occasion. One student program that has been
Development’s move has caused the student programs in Van Meter Hall to change locations in the middle of the year. affected is the MFS newspaper, WordsWorth. In the summer of 2015, Academic Technology Coordinator and WordsWorth adviser Diana Day created WordsWorth’s “Fox Tracks Studio” in one of the rooms that will be converted for development offices. Day said that she selected this particular room to use for the studio because of its size and exposure to light. She said Associate Head of School and Academic Dean Chris Kimberly had told her to be aware that “at some point development was going to be over there.” Bearing this in mind, Day said she designed the studio to be portable for when the time came. That time came at the beginning of the school year, when Chris Kimberly informed the Article Continued on page 7