Looking back while looking forward, FAB Spotlight looks at where some Kingston High School arts students are now, and what is in store for our community this school year. It is all FAB-ulous!
Reporting in is D’ MacKinnon, debate adviser. Lasica Crane, co-founder of FAB, won a scholarship to Stanford University to attend the Forensics Coaches Institute this summer.
“This was a tremendous opportunity to hone my own skills in order to better coach our promising team,” Coach Crane said.
Debate is an art because it is a live performance in front of a large audience.
Senior debaters Lajoie Bradley and Tori Gerken fine-tuned their congressional debate skills at Girls State this summer. Bradley also attended the National Youth Leadership Conference. At Debate Camp in August, a total of 15 debaters identified their events and selected their scripts for speech competition. The team expects to hold a mock tournament mid-October.
Would you like to experience this art of persuasion? Community members who are interested in judging should contact Coach Crane at lcrane@nkschools.org. No experience is necessary; I think I will do it!
Drama teacher Alison Roberts tells us rehearsals are already under way for the fall play, Ira Levin’s “Deathtrap.” Performances are scheduled on Oct. 22 and 29 at 7 p.m., and Oct. 23 and 30 at 2 p.m.
The musical, “Once Upon a Mattress,” will be performed in the North Kitsap Auditorium March 1, 2 and 3 at 7 p.m.; and March 4 at 2 p.m. Something for your early spring 2012 calendar.
Drama student graduate Greta Miller is now studying theater in London. She was in seven shows at KHS. You may remember her as Chaya in “Fiddler on the Roof” and as a dancer at the Galletta School of Dance.
Claire Polson, 2010 KHS grad, played Reno Sweeney in “Anything Goes” and is a musical theater major at the University of Wyoming.
Visual Arts teacher James Andrews reminds us of a “to do” for your fall list: save those bread bag plastic tabs for an art project. It will take many and I’m curious. What a way to have a hand in the arts at KHS and at the same time recycle. Andrews says, “I’ll take ’em if folks have ’em.”
Based on her submitted designs, Paulyna Garcia received a scholarship from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. Having recently spoken to her, Andrews reports 2011 grad Sarah Foster is working with a local clothes designer who is using her art as prints on the fashions.
The percentage of AP students earning a score of 3 or higher (out of 5) doubled this past year. That percentage has grown each year but this was the largest jump yet.
The Art Club will begin its fundraiser “A Buck for a Buc” to help fund two student art display cases for KHS.
And the band plays on … Music teacher Adam Campagna tells us congratulations are in order for Buc Band alumni Jillian Neault for making Husky Marching Band in trumpet and Christopher O’Morchoe for making snare drum line of the UC-Berkeley Marching Band. Way to go, and best of luck to this new chapter in your musical lives!
Campagna also reports a productive Band Camp at Fort Flagler in August: 16 new members were welcomed into the band’s ranks.
Obviously, the arts teachers and arts students were hard at work in August to enrich our community with the very best. Follow up with Fine Arts Boosters, Kingston High School Buccaneer Band, and Mr. Andrews’ Art on Facebook for upcoming performances and events.
Every third Wednesday, FAB meets in the KHS Library at 6 p.m. Come and get involved and/or send us an e-mail at lidenbode@aol.com as creative and talented students at KHS step into the spotlight for another year of contributing to the artful life in North Kitsap and way beyond.
— Marilyn Bode is a member of Kingston High School’s Fine Arts Boosters, or FAB
