21 minute read
Auction 2001
It’s a Merrymaker’s Dream: Auction 2001: Enchanting
Auction chairs Bob and Connie Klein (front) relax at a pre-auction party with Bill Petkoupoulos and Doug Basegio. Doug’s Parkside Grille Restaurant has been a favorite place for Priory festivities and Bill, the new owner, kindly agreed to continue the tradition.
It’s Carnival—a time of revelry! In Venice, the palaces throw open their courtyards to merrymakers. There are musicians, fortunetellers, clowns and acrobats in the streets. Everybody, from the crown prince to the cook, dons a mask and dresses to the nines. They crowd the narrow streets of Venice, pour into the city courtyards, and then go off to a sumptuous dinner and wonderful theater.
This was the Venetian Carnival of the Renaissance years. Revelers at Woodside Priory’s “Venetian Flights of Fancy,” this year’s auction fund-raiser, will share a taste of this glamour and excitement.
The party starts at the elegant, full-size gondola at the Hotel Sofitel in Redwood City, 6:00 p.m. on March 24. Silent Auction and cocktails are at 6:00 p.m., dinner at 7:45, Grand Auction at 9 with dancing and general merriment until midnight.
“The committee members have outdone themselves in creating a Venetian revelry. I know people are going to love it. Walking into the Grand Ballroom, people are going to be just enchanted with the
feeling of being in Renaissance Italy. The color, the glitter, the masks are all there,” said Connie Klein, who co-chairs the event with her husband, Robert. “Dozens of volunteers have devoted hundreds of hours making this a really memorable time f o r everyone and I can’t t h a n k them enough,” Connie said.
In the main courtyard, Priory guests chatting over their wine-glasses can mingle with servers holding trays of delicacies, laugh with the court jester and the lady magician, and enjoy the irresistible airs of the Renaissance musicians, Connie said.
“One magician’s trick, making live doves appear and disappear, is quite an authentic touch, and it seemed preferable to some of the other Renaissance traditions, such as releasing live bulls in the streets,” she added.
The Grand Ballroom is a vision of a Renaissance masquerade with costumes and masks and colorful trappings.
The food doesn’t get any more sumptuous than the Sofitel’s—warm puff pastry filled with shrimp and scallops in a light dill sauce, followed by a salad of goat cheese, mixed greens, walnuts and vinaigrette. Choose baked braid of salmon and seabass served with dill and roasted tomato velouté sauce, or sauced filet mignon, or penne pasta with a medley of fresh vegetables, garlic and olive oil. Then comes the pastry with fresh strawberries and cream atop strawberry coulis.
And the theater! It’s hilarious, live, audience-participation theater with paddles and bidding creating the
Online Auction Preview! Go to www.woodsidepriory. suspense and the laughter as auction master Tim Molak (Headmaster Molak com and click on “auction” under the “events” banner development; if Barbara isn’t internationally famous for her catering, in his non-Renaissance life) directs the for auction items and she should be.) live auction bidding. event details. • Take the family for a week on
A sampling of special auction items the lake at Tahoe with facilities for
include the following, said Michelle Win the Raffle! eight. Or, take a week’s vacation in a Green, Solicitations Chair: Only 300 raffle tickets wonderful Nantucket cottage on the • Three nights at Venice’s most will be sold. Massachusetts coast. renowned hotel, the historic Danielli. Call Virginia Taylor, (650) If you have entertaining to do, This fin de siècle hostelry’s guestbook 598-9181 or buy you can’t beat Father Martin and Al includes such names as Dickens, at school. Ebneter’s cioppino dinner for 24, Ruskin, Wagner, Debussy, Proust, Father Maurus’s duck dinner for 20, or George Sand and Alfred de Musset. In Fund a Project! Father Martin’s lobster dinner for 20. addition to the history and ideal Support a special need. As always, there will be treats in location, its rooftop restaurant provides Cards will be at the every price range, with items for every what may be the ideal view of the dinner tables. need and every taste. Everybody will Venetian lagoon. Could this be the find treasures to bid on and take home. perfect spot to enjoy Carnival 2002? Computers and high-tech gear; tickets • Attend a retreat to deepen one’s to everything; sports equipment and relationship with nature and self. A lessons; certificates to restaurants and party of four will spend three days and clubs and spas; baskets of goodies; two nights on the incomparable Marin coast, hiking family portraits and driving lessons; precious jewels and exploring by day and sleeping in a yurt or tent and an heirloom quilt; consulting services of every overlooking the lights of Santa Rosa to the east and kind—they’re all there among the hundreds of items the ocean to the west. The retreat is led by Michael listed in the auction program and supplement. Eller, a noted outdoor leadership trainer and expert People can spend without pangs of conscience photographer, who blends contemporary Western because the cause is close to everyone’s heart. counseling and Native American traditions. Excellent faculty and small class size make a • Go on an African safari-a fantastic overnight difference in every student’s life. in Southern California. Actress Tippi Hedren’s Auction proceeds go directly into the school’s Shambala Preserve shelters lions, tigers and operating budget and are essential elephants. You will enjoy a feather bed in a safari income. Last year, 15% of Woodside tent, a romantic dinner and a midnight walk with Priory’s school budget was funded your hostess. by gifts, including auction profits. • Enjoy a tasting of monastic cheeses and “This is our one big fundinternational wines—a party for 20 guests. The raiser and our biggest social specially selected treats are from the US, Canada and event. It is a time to see Europe, and your hosts will be Father Pius, and alumni and their families Doug and Barbara Ayer. (Doug is director of again and a time for us all to come together for a great celebration. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone there,” says Tim Molak, headmaster.
Father Martin’s seventeenth Tall Clock, in the traditional grandfather clock style, is a one-of-a kind masterpiece in black walnut.
Tom CARTER Conversation with Performing Arts Chair
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When Woodside Priory decided to expand its performing arts department a few years ago, Tom Carter was tailor-made for the job of department chair. He is a creative dynamo whose teenage love of music led to musical theater and acting and whose passion for teaching and directing was more compelling than the alternative choice of an acting career.
As a young child, Tom and his parents moved frequently with his father’s academic career. The experience of being the “new guy” gave Tom perhaps more opportunity than most kids have at sizing up other people, understanding their motivations, and reflecting on himself in different situations.
These are not bad skills for an actor/director, but Tom didn’t know he was headed in that direction. Being part of an outstanding high school choir (with 75 performances per year) led to the rest.
Now, about 20 years later, he has acted in, directed, and designed lights and sets at all levels from children’s theater to adult professional theater. His credits include West Side Story, Anne Frank and Me, Dracula, Anything Goes, David and Lisa, Fiddler on the Roof, Nicholas Nickleby, Grease, Side by Side by Sondheim, Guys and Dolls, Big River and even the world premiere of Footloose. He’s taught high school English and studied the teaching of Shakespeare in Ashland.
One might expect a talented actor and vocalist to want a stage career but after three seasons of summer stock , Tom, says he, chose “working at something he loved (teaching and directing) rather than waiting tables.” He holds a BA in drama education, an MA in music theater, and two teaching credentials—one in English and one in theater arts and related technologies.
He is single-handedly the Priory’s drama department, producing three open-audition plays, and three drama class plays, as well as teaching all the drama courses. The performing arts staff also includes orchestral and vocal music, led by colleagues Kris Yenney and Daniel Hughes. The final members of the Performing Arts creative team (although the department is separate) are Visual Arts teachers Cayewah and Reed Easley, who have among their talents a background in designing and building stage sets with their father.
In this “Conversation with” Tom talks about his own love of performing arts, what they bring to a student’s life and what we can expect in the performing arts at Woodside Priory in the near future. —C. Dobervich
Tom, you had plenty of acting experience but didn’t pursue that career. What do you love about teaching and directing?
I use more of my creative and analytical self in directing. Performing is a totally different kind of experience—almost a physical rush of aliveness in the moment, but then it’s over. The passions in directing are much wider and longer lasting. There is nothing that compares with the satisfaction of knowing your intense efforts paid off—when the audience is transported by the actors’ work.
I love the opportunity to bring in history, design, psychology, philosophy, and intellectual themes when I start working on a play. Being in charge of “the big picture” means I can help the students grow as artists and as human beings. As an actor, the experience is more directly about you, or the show.
We require a semester of theater arts in middle school—one quarter in seventh and one quarter in eighth grade. The elective high school courses and the after school play productions are very popular. What do you think students get from this?
Drama is a very personal experience. Students gain in self-confidence, self-knowledge, selfdiscipline, empathy, and the ability to understand human behavior. Each one of these things is a big, personal experience for each kid—they don’t just get a little bit.
Students learn different things at different ages. Seventh graders are really able to tap into their creativity and imagination, and help themselves grow in self-confidence. Eighth graders learn the importance of self-discipline and cooperation. The classes are very supportive. People start from a safe space and go ahead at a reasonable comfort level. At the same time, students are challenged to push past discomfort and engage themselves unselfconsciously.
Personal growth happens when you confront fears—if you don’t take a chance, you won’t grow. Drama gives students the chance to get past these natural fears and shows them the value of supporting others. I am absolutely convinced these skills are transferable to all other areas of life.
You have written three of the plays produced by your drama classes. Do you have to write things yourself to get suitable material? I wrote them for a specific group of students and the Priory audience. It is hard to find good material for young actors, because much of it is boring and trite, with stilted conversation. At the other extreme, there are plays that aren’t boring and trite but may use language and themes that aren’t right for us either. There isn’t a lot in the middle.
Priory students are getting much more instruction and experience in performing arts now than they were five years ago, when you came. Have we reached the school’s goal, do you think? I hope not! The current offerings are good but they do not give students the opportunity to achieve beyond a certain level. We are limited by time to practice and facilities to practice in, especially in music. Time and good tools are basic to achieving in performing arts.
The Priory’s choirs and orchestras joined forces to belt out the beloved “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah at their winter concert. The grand acoustics and adequate seating at Valley Presbyterian Church enhanced the audience enjoyment and the quality of the school’s second professionally recorded CD.
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Academically talented students these days usually expect to achieve in an academic field and in the arts. You can’t escape the talk these days about the crossover skills between arts and academics.
Briefly, what else would students do if we had more time and better tools?
I would like to give our students chances to perform bigger plays for larger audiences and to do musical theater. I would like to see student musical ensembles performing off campus and reaching the level of expertise that will count in college applications.
The new advanced vocal ensemble is a great example of what some of our students want to do. They are coming at 7:15 a.m. three days a week to get in more practice time, and the difference in their performances is obvious. The students are so much happier with what they can do as a result of just that one extra opportunity.
Our other music students only get 1 1/2 hours of class time a week. You simply can’t develop a voice that will impress a college or a quality ensemble off the campus with that limited amount of time to practice and learn. If you check schools with established programs, they offer three or four times as much rehearsal and training.
Let’s talk about the facilities. The “little theater” effect you create with the Visual Arts department is charming. Why isn’t it enough? There are a few reasons. The multi-purpose room, the space where we create the little theater, is used first as a classroom and second as meeting room. It is used for literally everything requiring a large space.
Setting up the little theater is monumentally disruptive to these other uses, and the resulting space is too small to seat the audiences we have, let alone a larger audience for a bigger production such as a musical.
Since the room wasn’t designed to be either a classroom or a theater, it’s just not equipped as it optimally should be. And our music room was designed for seminars and receptions, not optimal music instruction.
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I think most people here don’t know what the students are missing, because this campus has never had “real” performing arts facilities. There would be an amazing difference in productive use of time if we stopped “making do” and were able to focus all our energies on great work in a great space.
It sounds as though you are saying better facilities are necessary, not just desirable. Is that accurate? To me, the most obvious reason they are a “need” is that I want the students to have the quality of music and drama they should expect at a school of the Priory’s caliber. Academically talented students these days usually expect to achieve in an academic field and in one or more of the arts. You can’t escape the talk these days about the crossover skills between arts and academics.
Colleges know the importance of arts—they appreciate high-quality arts experience in student applications. Students who can produce impressive videotapes or CDs have a competitive advantage.
Finally, from the Priory’s point of view, we are compared with schools that have well-established performing arts departments. I think we probably lose some applicants who may like our work but don’t see us offering the experiences they want for themselves.
Would you describe what you think we need? First, it would be great if we had a space big enough for the whole Priory community to meet. The assembly hall no longer fits that description. It would also be helpful to have classroom space more conducive to teaching the subject matter - with practice rooms where the music students can work in smaller groups, and with space to store instruments.
The theater space could use a larger stage, more storage, a shop, a legitimate dance floor that could also be used for school dances, and an orchestra pit. It would be wonderful to have a lobby where people could get tickets, meet during the intermission, view
art, get refreshments, and so forth.
There are plenty of examples of multi-use facilities like this that are well designed for performing arts-I would love to see the Priory move in this direction -I think it is a vision worth striving for.
You’ve mentioned musical theater a few times. Why? Everything that our students are now getting from their drama and music performances, they would gain in greater proportion through musical theater because it is that much bigger an experience.
It draws in everything about the arts—dance, choreography, voice, orchestra, acting, community audience as well as parents and students. A good musical can bring a community together in much the same way sports sometimes do.
It was exciting to have our own students doing live, original music for our last show, even though it was a very small group and they were behind a screen. This is just a small beginning, but it shows where our students can go.
What plans are in the works? Things have been improving yearly. We’re offering more classes and more performances in both music and theater. This reflects the strong support of the faculty and administration as well as many students and dedicated parent volunteers. The new visual arts building makes a huge positive difference for students. The administration has been planning how best to reorganize space on the campus and create better performing arts space. I’m not directly involved in the timeline or the financial considerations so I can’t comment on that. But I am involved in designing what we need in performing arts and I’m optimistic.
Priory now mounts six annual drama productions, including one for an allmiddle school cast. “Imaginary Actors” was a medley of three vignettes ranging from classic French comedy to contemporary family themes. But drama isn’t only about acting, especially at middle school. Students develop self-knowledge, self-confidence and organizational skills in class and in productions.
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Bob Ward received a St. Benedict Medal from Headmaster Tim Molak (left) at the fall Appreciation Banquet.
Bob believes corporate professionals have much to offer educational boards of trustees.
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Priory Trustee Bob Ward offer educational boards at the came west in search of Bob Ward level of daily services as well as in opportunity in 1957, and Lives in Portola Valley, CA the bigger, long-term picture. The the burgeoning Silicon Valley was Wife: Charlene professionals’ experience enables the place to find it. Family: five children, four them to assist operating
A Cleveland native and grandchildren (interesting note: management by “giving guidance graduate of Case Western Reserve son David won an Oscar for the and response to problems that University (CWRU), Bob wanted screenplay of “The Sting”) arise,” as well the kind of to get involved in high tech. He Favorite activities: woodworking, economic expertise that schools came to California to head a reading, walking in the “wonderful can’t hire high-priced consultants division for Beckman Industries hills of Portola Valley” and playing to provide. and spent the next 24 years working in the valley at Beckman, and then as president of both Ultek Corporation and Shafer Electronics. It was a “wonderful and exciting time” to be working in tennis (temporarily postponed by knee replacement surgery). Professional field: Corporate technology then career re-entry WPS Board of Trustees Assignment: Development Committee. Bob sees many strengths at the Priory, including the excellent student/teacher ratio, the incredibly strong faculty and staff, the current popularity of the Priory’s program and the beautiful campus. He feels challenges that high tech as the Silicon Valley lie ahead include the need to find developed and took shape, he said. ways to provide faculty and staff
In 1981, at the age of 62, Bob launched an entirely with adequate compensation, new career in a different arena when he founded especially housing, in order to ensure that the Priory Ward Associates, which “helped unemployed can both attract and keep excellent faculty. Bob also professionals to become successfully re-employed.” stresses the need to raise the necessary funds to In an era of downsizing and increasing job mobility, maintain and improve the Priory’s existing facilities. Ward Associates was hired by firms like Levi Strauss, In addition to his work with the Priory, Bob is a Hewlett-Packard, and Bank of America. trustee for CWRU and administers two endowment
“People who’ve lost their jobs are often in a state funds he founded at CWRU’s School of Engineering. of shock at having to start all over again. Helping The funds provide scholarships for undergraduate people to reassess their skills and to figure out what and graduate students in engineering at CWRU. Bob they’re really good at doing, and what they like notes how crucial scholarship efforts are, especially doing, is an art form,” says Bob. He says he found the for graduate students, who often leave school with work tremendously rewarding. debts as high as $100,000.
Although Ward Associates wasn’t pioneers in the Perhaps closest to his heart these days, though, is field, it was tremendously successful. The company his work at Priory and CWRU. Of Priory he says, “It’s eventually had offices in Seattle, Portland, Menlo Park a real labor of love. It’s fun! Somehow or other I feel a and San Francisco and operated for 12 years until Bob real kind of kinship with everyone at Priory. They’re was forced to give it up after a cardiac bypass in 1993. good people and they’re really pursuing some
The Priory has been lucky enough to benefit from worthwhile objectives. I really feel a part of it, even Bob’s expertise on the board for the last six years. A though I’m not a student or a member of the faculty. I friend and fellow Priory trustee told Bob about the feel as closely involved with it as you can get as a Priory and its work. Interested, he agreed to serve and trustee.” was elected to the board in 1996. -LeeAnne McDermott
Bob believes corporate professionals have much to
Acrackling fire and Father Martin’s familiar pizza made a warm welcome for alumni in the Classes of 1997-2000 attending the annual post-Christmas reunion in the Father Christopher Room. Some 36 students and a sprinkling of monks and staff gathered to share stories and generally have a good time. University of Nevada, Reno.
Single antique roses tied with silk ribbons were at each place setting to greet guests at the first annual Mums of Alums luncheon, held at the lovely Allied Arts tearoom in Menlo Park last October. Mothers of graduates from every decade shared tables and filled the room. Headmaster Tim Molak and Father Martin Mager, Director of Alumni Affairs, brought everyone up to date on Priory 2001. “As our children are growing up, we become good friends with the other parents, and we don’t want to lose that connection. Our hope is that we all can get in touch again, at least once a year... One mother, whose child graduated two decades before mine, told me that she really enjoyed talking with younger moms,” commented Gail Kimball, Associate Director of Development. Gail organized the event and is also the “mum” of Alumna Julie Kimball, now at UCLA.
Southern California Reunion
Alumni and friends are invited to join Father Martin Mager at Loyola Maryount University for an informal get-together in April. Father Martin will be attending WPS Alumna Nicola Hancock’s senior recital in music at the college.
Headmaster Tim Molak and grad Brian Labar, Stanislaus State University, catch up on news.
Students with first-semester college stories to share are (from left) Joe Daly, now at UC San Diego; Michelle Ogren, University of Oregon; Marcello Centofanti, Santa Clara University; Adrianna Martin, Claremont McKenna College; Brittany Voelker, Chapman University; and Lindsay Matheu,
Email mmager@woodsidepriory.com for details.
Mums of Alums Reunite Among the guests at the first annual reunion for mothers of graduates are Sandy McCarthy, Rosalia O’Grady, Josephine V. Lee, Pearlasia, and Gail Kimball. Among those returning from far away are Eric Perret (standing), now at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, and Jonathan Morgan (seated on the floor), St John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico . Alejandro Gomez, center, is at UC Santa Cruz.
See the group reunion photo and other individual photos online at http://www. Woodsidepriory.com. Click on Online Community.
