Arts Academy Gala

Can you imagine wrangling 300 middle school students into creating a production they wrote, composed music for, created dances for and made the sets for? Only in my worst nightmare! But that is just what happened at William's school. The "Gala" is a fundraiser for the school and a chance for kids to show off their learning from the year in "art form". They learned about ancient civilizations, problems facing the downtown neighborhood the school is housed in, and somehow tied it all together with a "dramatic debate" about restoring vs. rebuilding run down areas and what history is lost along the way. (Did I mention this was all created by 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students?)

The build up to the production was a long week of practices at the professional theater that had been rented for the occasion. You would think this might get boring for the kids. It isn't easy to learn the art of sitting around backstage until it is time to go on, but my William was thrilled. They were given learning packets from each of their classes that when finished could be handed in to exchange for an "entertainment pass". This meant they could use ipods to watch movies or listen to music on as well as personal gaming systems. For a boy who has a 30 minute per day video game time allowance to use at home, this was like heaven. In fact, William said "I would dance anytime in exchange for a day's worth of video games. " in response to the question "How are you feeling about having to dance on stage in front of a crowd in the Gala?" (Do you think he might have a problem?)

If you are wondering where William is in the photo: Look all the way to the right, he is in the green shirt behind the girl in the purple shirt. (Yeah, we can barely find him and we are his parents!)