Wooster Arts & Letters Evening was held on April 17th. It aims to be a performing stage for students who devote themselves into music, theater, dance, the visual arts, film, literature, and poetry. It includes three different parts, Upper School Art Exhibit, Performing Arts and Award Academy.
Upper School Art Exhibit includes Senior Art Show, Art Electives and Intensives which Jackie has covered. Shortly after Upper School Art Exhibit, we went to the chapel for performances. It started with selections of Fall Play, SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY. Will Santella, Charlie Snow, Connor Staub all performed stunning monologues.
Will also won the Cordelia Manning Award this year. This Award is for student who has made incredible artistic contribution to Wooster Community. I interviewed Will to talk about his feelings on the award.
Q: As the winner of Cordelia Manning Award,
could you talk about your feeling when you knew that you won the Award?
A: There really aren't many words to describe how you might feel when your absolute favorite people (and the ones you look up to the most) appraise and appreciate you. I think that in general I felt pride, not only for my work but also for all of the awesome students and teachers who have tolerated, helped, and taught me. I did have to stop myself from doing a "this award should really have gone to everyone in Arts & Letters", though.
Q: How do music and theater influence you in real life?
A: In terms of the effects of music and theatre on my non-performing life, there are many. To the hindrance of almost everyone I've ever presented to, I am now way too comfortable onstage, and this usually leads to a terribly uncomfortable audience or classroom. I also found a great source of motivation, and as a result, I work consistently to better myself as an actor and as a person. (Still really need to work on that last one.) I think that almost everyone in theatre will say that theatre is a family. When I started out in the 7th grade, I really didn't have a huge group of friends who I would hang out with. When I joined the theatre, I actually had people who I could connect with and look up to, and many of them continue to inspire me today. For a young kid, that was the most important thing that I got out of the department. Theatre is a sport.
Along with the monologues, we also had Spoken Words, selection from Winter Musical Godspell and Madrigals. I interviewed one of the Madrigals members, Cindy Li to talk about her experience on stage.
Q: How did Madrigals choose the 12-minutes song?
Did you find any difficulties during the process?
A: Our performance was from the musical "Once On This Island". The performance was a combination of six songs. It was a big challenge for me to remember those lyrics. So I listened to the songs again and again. Finally I remembered them all.
Q: How was your feeling when you were on the stage?
A: I was quite nervous but the performance went great. We've been rehearsed for 8 weeks. Actually, when you are on the stage, timing doesn't matter anymore. You don't feel like it is a 12 minutes song, you just go with the flow and enjoy the singing. It was a great time to be in the Madrigals to sing with everyone.
As one of the Spoken Words performers, I found similarity with Will and Cindy. Theater, music and literature all are ways that we could express ourselves and find the sense of existence when we perform. Art is not something that could be seen easily in the daily lives. It happens behind of the scenes, and the effort and struggle we put are always hidden. However, when people saw the performance, they witnessed our success, they have been to the other side of us. I think that is the core of Arts & Letters. It is a platform for students to find the artistic side of themselves and embrace it creatively and proudly.