This article was originally published in the Fall 2011 Harker Quarterly.
The Harker Conservatory completed its second appearance at the largest arts festival in the world, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with a successful run of “Pippin” in August.
In 1947, eight uninvited theatrical groups descended on the newly formed Edinburgh International Festival, performing “on the fringes.” The trend caught on, and in 1959 the Fringe became official. In 1994, the American High School Theatre Festival (AHSTF) formed and instituted a competition to choose and facilitate the appearance of high-caliber secondary school drama departments at this mecca of arts festivals.
The Harker Conservatory was first nominated for the Fringe by now-defunct American Musical Theater of San Jose back in 2006. After an in-depth application process and review of years of Harker shows, Harker was selected from more than 300 applicants as one of 38 schools to appear under the AHSTF banner, and “Urinetown: The Musical” performed to impressive crowds in 2007.
Laura Lang-Ree, chair of the performing arts department K-12 and the spring musical’s director, has set a goal of attending the Fringe once every four years, and in 2010 Harker was one of 45 schools accepted. Choosing just the right show is a challenge, Lang-Ree says: “It’s about finding the right mix of sophistication and edginess. The Fringe is not the place to bring something that is the equivalent of vanilla yogurt. It’s got to zing, it’s got to grab the attention of thousands of potential audience members, and it’s got to be memorable.”
Preparing for the Fringe takes a full year, not the least of which is trimming the show to fit into a strict 90-minute format. The set must accompany the actors as well, putting additional demands on Paul Vallerga, Harker’s innovative set designer. In addition to Lang-Ree and Vallerga, musical director Catherine Snider, production manager Brian Larsen and chaperone extraordinaire Chris Daren ironed out the details and accompanied the cast.
Once settled in their dorm rooms on the campus of the University of Edinburgh, the cast’s adventure began in earnest. A packed schedule of rehearsals, publicity, shows and shopping ensued. Fundraising efforts during the school year meant that Lang-Ree was able to arrange for several group meals together and attendance at 12 professional shows of varying genres.
One highlight was the relationship Harker developed with an American improv troupe called “Baby Wants Candy.” They create an hour-long musical based on a title suggested by an audience member, and the “Pippin” cast met them during publicity times and promised to attend each other’s shows. The BWC troupe gave a shout out from the stage to the Harker group at their performance, and were gracious enough to arrange a special workshop at the dorms for Harker and another California high school.
But of course the highlight of the trip was performing “Pippin” at the beautiful Church Hill Theatre. Participating AHSTF schools support each other by attending at least four other high school shows, so the challenge for each school is to fill the theater’s seats with “regular” Festival-goers in addition to the high school students. Each school is allotted one 20-minute slot on a small stage on Edinburgh’s main street, the Royal Mile. “Pippin” cast members braved the rain in full costume and gathered a huge crowd with their opening number, after which they took to the Mile with a three-card Monty game whose trick card was printed with all the “Pippin” information. The cast was able to “trick” locals, foreigners, other performers and, on one notable occasion, two local police officers into choosing the info card. The hard work paid off with approximately 240 people attending one of the four performances of “Pippin,” including many of the other high schools who weren’t required to attend but who had heard the buzz.
The demands of mounting a Fringe show led to the cast reaching deep within themselves for stamina, flexibility, humor and grace under pressure, and they all rose to the occasion beautifully. The final performance had 125 people in the audience (Fringe shows average seven people), and Lang-Ree was surrounded by other American directors asking, “How did you do this?” Lang-Ree recalled, “This moment was a professional highlight for me; such a huge compliment to the cast and crew and an even bigger compliment to the entire performing arts department at Harker as our kids really are a reflection of their K through Life experience.”
An online arts group reviewed the show, giving it four stars and writing, “An excellent production
of ‘Pippin’ by an enthusiastic and well-drilled cast.” The final accolade came from the head of AHSTF, who asked the Harker cast to provide the only performance at their closing ceremonies. One final time, the stalwart cast donned makeup and costumes and wowed the 800 people in attendance.
Lang-Ree mused, “We were selected by AHSTF as one of the best and brightest musical theater programs in America, so I think it’s very important that what we bring to the Fringe – artistically, technically, creatively – be a home run. This event is not a ‘dress rehearsal’ for theater life – the Fringe is the real deal.”
This article was originally published in the Fall 2011 Harker Quarterly.
The Harker School’s junior varsity and varsity dance troupes participated in the first dance camp at the upper school campus, run by the United Spirit Association (USA), from Aug. 10-12. USA Dance is the official member organization of the United States Olympic Committee and is the official international liaison for U.S dance teams. The intensive three-day camp was run by USA instructor Brittanee Lujan and led by new-to-the-upper- school dance teachers Karl Kuehn and Amalia De La Rosa.
De La Rosa and Kuehn opted to do a “home camp” this year, meaning a USA instructor came to Harker specifically to work with Harker’s dance teams.
The camp helped students develop a wide range of skills, and focused especially on learning technique and choreography, as well as team-building exercises. Each day the dancers learned material from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., including routines in hip-hop, jazz and lyrical styles, and a fun camp routine that is learned by dancers all across the nation attending USA camps.
At lunchtime and on breaks, the students participated in the team- building activities, including a Crazy Costume Relay and T-shirt-making project. They also had a technique class each day, during which the girls learned advanced across- the-floor progressions including battements, pirouette combinations and tricks, and jeté combinations.
On the last day of camp, the troupes wrote their own constitutions for the year, which included their team goals and expectations. Then, for the last hour of the last day, parents joined the dancers and teachers for an open studio, which gave them a chance to see what the students had been working on and what they had accomplished.
The USA Dance instructor was continually impressed with the girls’ demeanor and skills throughout camp. So much so, in fact, that she awarded them with the coveted USA Spirit Stick on the last day of camp. The Spirit Stick is a special award for teams that display outstanding work ethic, teamwork, skill and a positive attitude. “Winning the Spirit Stick on the last day of camp is a great honor, as that team gets to keep the Spirit Stick at their school,” said De La Rosa. The teams were exhausted at the end of their intense three-day experience, but their hard work was well worth it. Overall, Kuehn and De La Rosa say, it was a great way to start the year.
This article was originally published in the Fall 2011 Harker Quarterly.
Reading and writing go together in academia, and an innovative program is helping musicians learn to write as well as read music.
“Usually students learn to read music and to play it,” said Louis Hoffman, lower school music teacher, “and that’s it. But that’s only half. They should be learning to write it as they’re learning to read it, just like with language.”
Until then, he argues, students are not musically literate.
With the musical literacy goal in mind, Hoffman started the Young Composers program and extended an invitation to all students at the lower school to study composition, no musical background required.
Two students, Paul Kratter and Aditya Andrade, both now in grade 3, took part in the program last year. They wrote pieces for orchestra and jazz, respectively, that were performed at the lower school’s orchestra and choir concert in May. Both students also conducted their pieces, another skill learned in the Young Composers class.
Conducting is one of Kratter’s favorite parts of the program. When asked about his experience at the concert last year, he said, “It felt good to conduct my own music in front of so many people.” His other favorite part of the program, he said, is the composing itself, and because of that, he’ll be continuing with it this year.
Andrade said of the concert experience, “It did feel a little odd playing my own piece. But it has always been a dream of mine, to conduct and play my own piece.” He is looking forward to writing a short symphony for the program this year.
The young composers learn different strategies for composing while also studying everything from musical theory to arrangement (deciding the instrumentation) to orchestration, meaning which instruments will play which parts.
“If you write a note for violin,” Hoffman says, “it has to be something the violin can actually play; you have to be sure that instrument goes that high or that low. Or let’s say you want to write a part for a recorder in an orchestra, an instrument not usually in the orchestra. You won’t be able to hear it; the other instruments will overpower it.”
Another important skill Hoffman wants students to learn is improvisation. He started jazz ensembles at the lower school to encourage students to master this skill. “In jazz,” he said, “you’re expected to understand what’s happening in the music, and then to change it and make it your own.”
With all these new tools in hand, students learn how to prepare the score, which lays out all the parts for the conductor, so he or she can see, measure by measure, who is playing what. And when it’s ready to be played, the students take it to rehearsal and see how their music really
sounds.
Hoffman knows firsthand the importance not just of seeing your notes on paper but of learning to change and revise them based on the style of music being played. His own background is in composition; he worked for 13 years in television and film, writing scores for everything from
Disney cartoons to full-length films.
“Doing this in the real world where you have to meet the expectations of somebody else is actually very challenging,” he said. Learning to compose in the face of those expectations is an important lesson that Hoffman wants to pass on.
In terms of other challenges he’s faced with in teaching composition, Hoffman said, “There are none. Composing is a very natural thing. Whenever new students start, I tell them, ‘You know much more about music than you think you do.’ My job is to prove it to them.”
Once a student has written a piece, Hoffman said, “I don’t change a single note. We talk instead about stylistic expectations. If a student wants to compose something in the style of, say, Duke Ellington, there are certain things people expect to hear.”
Hoffman has taught composition at other schools and said teaching children composition is actually easier than teaching it to adults. “With adults, if after five minutes they aren’t
Beethoven, they throw up their hands. Kids come into composing with fewer judgments and expectations, and because of that, get into it much easier,” he said.
The important thing in music teacher teaching kids to compose is to not “confuse intellect
with experience,” Hoffman said. “Kids can learn anything adults can. My job is to find and use a strategy that makes sense to them. You have to make it make sense within the context of their own experiences.
“I think people hear about it, about younger kids composing and conducting music, and almost can’t believe it,” Hoffman said. “But we should expect musical literacy from all students studying music. It’s just like writing. Just as we expect kids to learn to write paragraphs as they learn to
read them, we should expect kids to learn to write music as they learn to read and play it.”
Hoffman called composing “the missing component” in musical education. “Being able to recognize what you’re hearing in music and then freely create it is what makes you musically literate.”
Broadway is coming to Harker! The school will host the west coast auditions for the Broadway revival of “Annie.” Harker alumna Lisa Schwebke ’04 connected the school with New York’s Telsey + Co. casting agency. As part of the visit, casting agent Rachel Hoffman, CSA, will work with candidates of The Harker Conservatory’s Certificate Program to build an educational experience on this opportune event on Harker’s campus.
On Fri., Oct. 21, from 7-9 p.m., Hoffman, who has helped cast many name productions including “Wicked”, “Rent,” “Hairspray,” “Legally Blonde” and “The Color Purple,” will
lead a workshop on effective techniques for auditioning on Broadway. Then, on Sun., Oct. 23, certificate candidates will serve as interns for the casting process as Harker hosts auditions for “Annie” at the middle school campus from 8-4 p.m..
This partnership is a new development the Harker Conservatory, which, this summer, toured its steam punk version of Stephen Schwartz’s “Pippin” to the prestigious Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Harker was one of only 45 American high schools accepted to perform its work overseas as part of the festival, where “Pippin” was reviewed as an “excellent production,” created by “an enthusiastic and well-drilled cast.”
Harker performing arts students have two exciting opportunities coming up this month. On Oct. 21, students will attend a Broadway casting workshop, where they will learn about the process of casting a Broadway production, and also have their work evaluated by Broadway casting director Rachel Hoffman. That weekend, on Oct. 23, Harker students will work as interns for the west coast casting call for the Broadway revival of “Annie,” which will be held at the middle school campus.
Alumna and UCLA graduate Andrea Wang ’07 made it to the top 10 on ETTV Top Idol 2011, a Chinese spin-off of American Idol. Going into the semi-finals, Wang had the highest score and was chosen as the top performer.
Like American Idol, ETTV Top Idol is an annual competition that launches a countrywide search to discover the “potential pop stars of tomorrow.” This year, ETTV Top Idol auditions were held in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Wang auditioned at a friend’s suggestion and has had much success in the competition. It is easy to see why from this video of Wang singing Bonnie Raitt’s “Have a Heart.”
The final round of the competition took place in Los Angeles in mid-September but results are not available.
In April, student vocalist Katie Marcus-Reker, grade 12, was chosen as one of the winners of a vocal competition organized by 42nd Street Moon, a San Francisco-based theater company. Each contestant uploaded a video to Facebook of him or herself singing a musical theater song. Marcus-Reker was chosen as one of 50 competitors to take part in a special master class on May 1 with actor and singer Darren Criss, who stars in the popular Fox TV show “Glee.”
“I am a huge fan of Darren Criss and all of his work on ‘Glee’ and with Team Starkid,” Marcus-Reker said, “so this workshop was very exciting for me.” The class dealt a lot with performance techniques and how to interpret and express the meanings of songs.
“The class really emphasized portraying a character through your song, knowing that character and making decisions within the song as that character,” she said.
Her favorite part of being in the class was witnessing Criss’ advice transform into positive results. “It was fascinating to see how much it helped some of the people who worked with him on stage,” she said. “He would give them some advice and instantly the overall performance improved astronomically.”
The Harker Conservatory completed its second appearance at the largest arts festival in the world, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with a successful run of “Pippin” in August.
In 1947, eight uninvited theatrical groups descended on the newly formed Edinburgh International Festival, performing “on the fringes.” The trend caught on, and in 1959 the Fringe became official. In 1994, the American High School Theatre Festival (AHSTF) formed and instituted a competition to choose and facilitate the appearance of high-caliber secondary school drama departments at this mecca of arts festivals.
The Harker Conservatory was first nominated for the Fringe by the now-defunct American Musical Theater of San Jose back in 2006. After an in-depth application process and review of years of The Harker School shows, Harker was selected from more than 300 applicants as one of 38 schools to appear under the AHSTF banner, and “Urinetown: The Musical” performed to impressive crowds in 2007.
Laura Lang-Ree, chair of the performing arts department K-12, has set a goal of attending the Fringe once every four years, and in 2010 Harker was one of 45 schools accepted. Choosing just the right show is a challenge, Lang-Ree says: “It’s about finding the right mix of sophistication and edginess. The Fringe is not the place to bring something that is the equivalent of vanilla yogurt. It’s got to zing, it’s got to grab the attention of thousands of potential audience members and it’s got to be memorable.”
Preparing for the Fringe takes a full year, not the least of which is trimming the show to fit into a strict 90-minute format. The set must accompany the actors as well, putting additional demands on Paul Vallerga, Harker’s innovative set designer.
When the reworking was complete, the set, costumes and props were divided up among the cast’s luggage, and the troupe arrived in London for some sight-seeing, a workshop at the reconstructed Globe Theatre and a performance of “Billy Elliott” in London’s West End theater district.
After two days in London, the cast boarded what they fondly dubbed “The Hogwarts Express,” the train from King’s Cross Station to Edinburgh – known to this generation for being the station at which Harry Potter and friends board the train to their school. An AHSTF guide met the train and escorted the cast out of the station in a slow march behind a bagpiper, giving an air of formality to the occasion and creating quite a stir among the other passengers.
Once settled in their dorm rooms on the campus of the University of Edinburgh, the cast’s adventure began in earnest. A packed schedule of rehearsals, publicity, shows and shopping ensued. Fundraising efforts during the school year meant that Lang-Ree was able to arrange for several group meals together as well as attendance at 12 professional shows of varying genres.
One highlight was the relationship Harker developed with an American improv troupe called “Baby Wants Candy.” They create an hour-long musical based on a title suggested by an audience member, and the “Pippin” cast met them during publicity times and promised to attend each other’s shows. The BWC troupe gave a shout out from the stage to the Harker group at their performance, and were gracious enough to arrange a special workshop at the dorms for Harker and another California high school.
AHSTF arranged for a day’s outing to Stirling Castle via a beautiful coach ride through the Trossachs, Scotland’s lower highlands; they also gave students tickets to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, an extravagant celebration of the U.K.’s many regiments from around the world; and arranged for them to go to a ceilidh, where all the AHSTF students learned traditional Scottish dancing.
But of course the highlight of the trip was performing “Pippin” at the beautiful Church Hill Theatre. Participating AHSTF schools support each other by attending at least four other high school shows, so the challenge for each school is to fill the theater’s seats with “regular” Festival-goers in addition to the high school students.
In addition to the show, each school is allotted one 20-minute slot on a small stage on Edinburgh’s main street, The Royal Mile. “Pippin” cast members braved the rain in full costume and gathered a huge crowd with their opening number, after which they took to the Mile with a three-card Monty game whose trick card was printed with all the “Pippin” information. The cast was able to “trick” locals, foreigners, other performers and, in one notable occasion, two local police officers into choosing the info card, and the hard work paid off with approximately 240 people attending one of the four performances of “Pippin,” including many of the other high schools who weren’t required to attend but who had heard the buzz.
The demands of mounting a Fringe show led to the cast reaching deep within themselves for stamina, flexibility, humor and grace under pressure, and they all rose to the occasion beautifully. The final performance had 125 people in the audience (Fringe shows average seven people), and Lang-Ree was surrounded by other American directors asking, “How did you do this?” Lang-Ree recalled, “This moment was a professional highlight for me; such a huge compliment to the cast and crew and an even bigger compliment to the entire performing arts department at Harker as our kids really are a reflection of their K through Life experience.”
An online arts group reviewed the show, giving it four stars and writing, “An excellent production of Pippin by an enthusiastic and well-drilled cast.” The final accolade came from the head of AHSTF, who asked the Harker cast to provide the only performance at their closing ceremonies. One final time, the stalwart cast donned makeup and costumes and wowed the 800 people in attendance.
Lang-Ree mused, “We were selected by AHSTF as one of the best and brightest musical theater programs in America, so I think it’s very important that what we bring to the Fringe – artistically, technically, creatively – be a home run. This event is not a ‘dress rehearsal’ for theater life – the Fringe is the real deal.”
[Update Aug. 15, 2011)
The cast and crew of “Pippin” wrapped up their Festival Fringe experience with a workshop with the cast of the American improv troupe “Baby Wants Candy.” BWC asks for the title of a fictional show from its audience each night and improvises an hour-long musical, complete with songs, scenes, plot and choreography. Harker and another high school group were able to have a private workshop with the cast of BWC, who taught the students the tricks of the improv trade!
[Update Aug. 11, 2011]
The “Pippin” cast and crew are working all the angles at the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland. Read all about it on the Talon news site!
Aug. 4, 2011
The award-winning cast of “Pippin” arrived in London yesterday and will be headed to Edinburgh today (this evening, United Kingdom time) for their performance at this year’s Fringe Festival. The group has already had some fun in London, attending an acting workshop at the Globe Theatre and attending a performance of “Billy Elliot the Musical.”
This summer, Harker debuted two brand new music programs to enhance their music offerings. The two new classes, Music Creativity and Improvisation Workshop and Summer Music Workshop, sought to improve students’ technical abilities as well as nurture their creative processes.
The Creativity and Improvisation Workshop was taught by Leslie Hart. The workshop was targeted at students who were beginning to refine their musical abilities, grades 3 to 5, in order to broaden the horizon of their musical development. The workshops were composed of daily, three-hour intensive sessions at the lower school campus in the mornings (8:30-11:30) for two weeks, from June 20 to July 1.
The workshop trained students in a number of essential music skills, including: learning repertoire by ear in different tonalities; learning common music forms by ear; performing, reading and composing rhythm and tonal patterns as well as progressions; improvising in many tonalities, meters and styles; transcribing and analyzing improvisations; and composing and arranging pieces in a structure set by the instructor. After learning and practicing these challenging skills, the students performed a concert for their parents at the end of each week.
The second new program offered this summer was the Summer Music Workshop. This workshop, which ran until July 15, was offered to students in grades 2-6 and, according to Kelly Espinosa, the Harker summer programs director, presented the students an “opportunity to explore music-making and understanding, through exposure to music theory and composition, ear training and singing as well as working in ensembles and full orchestras.” The workshop was taught by instructors Louis Hoffman and Toni Woodruff.
This workshop emphasized key skills for any aspiring musician, such as: developing strong warmup and practice techniques; studying music theory and composition, with a final joint composition to be performed at the end of the camp; ear training and group singing. Additionally, all students played together in groups to develop their abilities to work within an orchestra. Children also composed an original piece and performed it at the concert.
An open rehearsal was conducted at the end of the first week to see the students’ ongoing progress, with another concert performed at the end of the second week.