What a show it was!!! Congratulations to all of our ISM students for a successful performance.
We are one of the very few schools in the world which creates such a unique experience for our students where grades 1-12 plus staff members and parents come together as a collaborative community. Below you find the introductory words from our music teacher Scott Withers:
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”, as you know, is the beginning to a series that once again thrilled many of us this year. And so perhaps it’s no coincidence that, during this year of Star Wars hype, we at ISM find ourselves creating our own space story, set on a planet in a galaxy far away, full of adventure and romance, villains and heroes.
And it would have been simple if we had just left the thematic influence at that.
But no, we also decided that since we would be performing our musical during the week of Earth Day—and in the year of a highly praised Paris Accord on the environment—it should definitely have an eco-theme as well. Why not?
But did we stop there?
No, no. That would be too easy. Too sane.
We also decided that somehow every single grade, from 1-10, should perform a scene or song that excellently reflected and extended their current course topics. And so, for example, we have everything from Litterbugs (Grade 1 and 2, who are learning about planets and about keeping our environment clean)—to Roma-MeMe-Monsters (Grade 6, who have been studying the culture of Ancient Rome)—to our lead characters from smoggy Monstropolis (Grade 9, who have been studying air pollution in Science). And somehow our script team managed to miraculously tie it together into one story!
And of course we have songs about all of this, and terrific costumes and sets to show them off in—all of which took countless hours of extra dedication.
Now, the fact that ISM managed to take on and achieve such a ‘monstrously’ difficult creative task and somehow arrive this far without going completely insane is due to exactly the two themes that, in the end, are at the heart of our storytonight: communication and personal responsibility toward the bigger picture. This is, quite simply, the most collaborative performance project we have put on yet. It has been a joy to see each teacher, student and administrator, along with many, many parents, willingly taking on whatever extra responsibilities were needed—communicating frankly and thoughtfully all the while—as we make music and performance not only an extension of our students’ in-class learning, but a thoroughly enjoyable part of their personal development.
Thank you for your support. Enjoy the show!
