A Note from the Director - Alyson Brown
This has been an amazing year for the Clarke Drama program! Back at the beginning of the school year, the eighth graders and I went to NYC to see The Lion King, take a tour of the New Amsterdam Theatre, try on costumes, meet the cast and take workshops. It was a great trip that started our work on our own production of The Lion King.
Immediately following our NYC trip, the students and I began work on our musical version of The Lion King. Forty-six actors, thirty-seven techies, ten high school assistants one music director and I met several days each week to rehearse, sew, build, paint, choreograph and create the amazing story of Simba and his journey. We even had Blaine Krauss, "Simba" from the national tour of the show, come to opening night to support our team and give us some feedback. Our show participated in the MET/Broaday in Boston musical theatre showcase, we received nominations in 14 performance and technical categories. At the ceremony in June, our production won Best Makeup Design, Best Costume Design, Best Supporting Actress (Molly Zeytoonian in the role of "Rafiki"), Best Acting Ensemble, Best Supporting Actor (Justin Lin in the role of "Zazu") and Best Middle School musical in Massachusetts.
Following our successful run of The Lion King, our group started working on The Jungle Book. Again, dozens of students worked three days each week to create the show that you will see today. We presented this show at the Massachusetts Middle School drama festival in May and received several All Star Company awards:
- Acting award for Danna Ofek in the role of "Kaa"
- Acting award for Asrah Rizvi for the role of "Bagheera"
- Ensemble Award for Lila Ablimit, Matteo Arshad, Jack Brenner, Ava Cronin and Zach Vincent for the monkey ensemble
- Arun Asthigiri for musical composition
- Arun Ashigiri, Oliver Clackson, Pooja Kumaravel, Karis Lee, Justin Lin, Athena Li and Shivi Vytheswaran for music accompaniment
- Outstanding makeup design for Lauren Goldinger
- Gold medal for outstanding overall production
And now, Clarke Middle School has been selected to represent the USA in the World Festival of Children’s Theater in Toyama, Japan. Over 30 performance companies from around the world will perform in Toyoma this summer, showcasing some of the world’s best children’s theater. The event is sponsored by The International Amateur Theatre Association, which governs all amateur theatre – including children’s theatre and youth theatre. Clarke Middle School was also given the honor of representing our country in 2000 at this prestigious event.
The theme of the festival is “We Build the Future” and all theatre groups will participate in a number of activities including opening ceremonies, workshops, and performances. The Clarke company, the only group chosen from all of North America, will be attending this festival with performance troupes from Russia, Uganda, Singapore, Nepal, Egypt, Malaysia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Hungary, Lithuania, Monaco, Morocco, China and many others. In a world where there is so much division, the festival promotes building bridges between cultures.
We are thrilled to be able to present our show today in beautiful Cary Hall. We are incredibly grateful to our supporters - administration, parents, community businesses - for giving us such a send off. Thank you! We hope you enjoy today's performance of The Jungle Book. On to Japan!
