Newsletter 4 - Governor`s School for the Arts

welcome back!
2016-17
volume 5 issue 1
254 G ranby Street
Nor fol k , VA 23510
w w w. gsar ts. net
757. 451. 4711
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Tw itter @TheG ovS chl
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OPENING DAY
September 6, 2016
Main Building, 254 Granby Street:
2nd Floor: Administration
3rd Floor: Musical Theatre
4th Floor: Vocal Music and Theatre & Film
5th Floor: Visual Arts
6th Floor: Instrumental Music and Theatre Tech
TRDance Center, 325 Granby Street: Dance
1:00 pm - (1st Shift)
Report to either the Main Building or to TRDance
Norfolk, Portsmouth & Virginia Beach
2:10 pm - (2nd Shift)
Report to the Roper Theatre, 340 Granby Street
Chesapeake, Isle of Wight, Suffolk,
Southampton & Franklin
2:15 pm - All students will walk to the Roper Theatre
for Opening Day Ceremony
4:25 pm - buses depart for 1st shift students
5:25 pm - buses depart for 2nd shift students
To the returning students, WELCOME BACK and
to our newbies, WELCOME to the 2016-2017 school
year at The Governor’s School for the Arts!!!!
Welcome to a new year of phenomenal
productions, performances and art exhibitions.
Welcome to a new year of outstanding arts training by
some of the best artists that the Hampton Roads area
has to offer. Welcome to immersing yourself in
creativity, challenging your base knowledge of your art
form, and pushing it to the next level.
To our seniors, welcome to the most exciting
year of your lives as you explore and apply to colleges
and universities and prepare for auditions. Welcome to
making the decision of doing your art as a career if this
is really what you want to do in this life.
WELCOME TO YOUR SENIOR YEAR!!!!
I’m so excited about this school year, which
will begin with our Opening Day speeches and performances at the Roper Theatre on September 6. This day
sets the tone for our year so I’m really looking forward to
outstanding speeches that express the true atmosphere
of love, encouragement and family. Prior to the speeches
and performances, we will discuss a few administrative
changes that will go into effect so make sure to bring
your good listening skills with you. As always,
instruments, art supplies and dance clothes are not
needed on the first day of GSA.
Finally, I’m thrilled to share that GSA is
expanding to Harry’s Barbeque. That’s right, we are
adding to our existing building with new orchestra and
jazz spaces as well as dance studios and classrooms in
the building next to us; no not MOB! To assist with this
expansion, GSA’s Foundation will be kicking off a new
capital campaign, Next Stage. More information is
forthcoming!
Looking forward to seeing each of you on
September 6th!
#ITSHAPPENINGNOWGSA
Dr. Andrea Warren
Executive Director and your BIGGEST FAN!
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From the Executive Director
dance
The Dance Department is housed at the
welcome back newsletter
Dancers will start the year with auditions for the Nutcracker,
our collaboration with the Richmond Ballet, as well as
auditions for the first round of choreographers for the GSA
Winter Dance Concert! Highlighting our fall itinerary,
Laura Petibone Wright and Todd Rosenlieb will be setting
the brilliant choreography of Erick Hawkins’ New Moon on
our department. Combining tradition and new works is a
great way to start the year!
The fall includes preparations for Holidays in the City,
Winter Concert, and the Regional High School Dance
Festival hosted by GSA.The Festival will bring over a
thousand dancers from performing arts high schools
around the country to Norfolk where they will perform
and take classes with some of the finest dance educators in
the country.
TRDance Center, 325 Granby Street
Todd Rosenlieb, Chair
Joni Petre-Scholz, Associate Chair
Spring will bring two amazing residencies
including Gaga - a movement language developed
by Ohad Naharin and a weeklong residency with
the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Over Memorial Day
weekend we will travel to the Big Apple (NYC) for
classes, dance concerts, and a taste of Broadway.
The year culminates with our Spring Concert,
which will bring all of our dancers to the stage for
our spring celebration of Dance.
The year ahead is filled with endless possibilities,
artistic growth, and the joy of Dance.
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photos by Angela Douglas Ramsey, GSA 1997
MUSICAL
Chip Gallgher, ChairTHEATRE
Jeff Warner, Choreographer
This year, Musical Theatre will again work with Virginia Musical
Theatre in a co-production of A Christmas Carol in December at
the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia Beach.
The Voices of Virginia, one of our smaller ensembles, will be
performing for the kick off of the Neptune Festival’s VIP Gala
on September 30. This is a very special event as our
students will have the chance to perform for the Honorable
Will Sessoms, the Mayor of Virginia Beach and a host of other
“Beach Celebs”. Looking ahead, in October 2017 the Musical
Theatre and Instrumental Music Departments will travel on a
cultural exchange trip to Japan. In light of this trip, we will be
volunteering at the Neptune Festival Sand Sculpting tent to help
raise money. You will hear more about how you can help.
Musical Theatre students will have several opportunities for
performance experiences. In March we will be previewing our
Japan trip production at the Sandler Center with the Instrumental Music Orchestra on stage with us. We will create a cabaret in
February which will be performed at our own Black BoxTheatre
and Crazy for You, our big musical, will be at the historic and
newly renovated Wells Theatre in the spring.
As always, you will have an exciting year of working hard in
classes, workshops and master classes!
welcome back newsletter
Theatre
& Film
Shawn
Steve J. Earle, Chair
Crawford, Theatre Tech Director
The Theatre & Film department has a spectacular season
planned for this year! We will begin with a new version of
Oliver Twist opening at the TCC Roper Performing Arts
Center in October. This show is a co-production with the
award winning Virginia Stage Company and is directed by
VSC’s interim artistic director, Patrick Mullins.
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Our Filmmakers will be busy finishing the edit of last year’s
Reframe the Shame, the moving and poignant show about
depression in youth. They will be working with
professional videographer Richard Keel in creating a fully
edited version of the play along with interviews and resources.
Our Design/Tech students will hit the ground running as
they work with VSC to help build the set for Oliver Twist.
We have exciting field trips planned to Washington, DC and
New York City as well as three other main stage productions
and our 3rd Annual Film Festival at the end of the year.
Vocal
Alan Fischer,Music
Chair
photos by Steve J. Earle, Theatre Chair
Dr. Stephen Cook, Choral Director
Vocal Music has an exciting year planned! Our schedule opens with our annual performance of Handel:
Messiah Sing-Along on December 19 at First Presbyterian Church in Norfolk. We will present CABARET: A
Celebration of Rogers and Hammerstein on Jan 20 and 22 at the GSA Dalis Black Box Theatre as our
Foundation fundraiser concert. Our opera production will be Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, sung in
English, on March 10, 11 and 12 at ODU University Theatre. This year we are proud to collaborate with our
Dance Department in presenting Carl Orff ’s magnificent Carmina Burana in the spring. Our senior class
Vocal Recital will be on May 23 at First Presbyterian Church in Norfolk. Check back for other programming
during the year!
Our trip to New York City will include seeing alumnus Ryan Speedo Green singing in La Boheme at the
Metropolitan Opera House as well as performances of Aida, Manon Lescaut, and a musical. Students will also
sing in master classes in New York. Will Liverman, who will be Figaro in Virginia Opera’s production of The
Barber of Seville, is our first Vocal Music alum to have a leading role inVirginia Opera. Alumnae Marjorie
Owens will return for her third year to sing with Washington Concert Opera in the spring.
photos by Alan Fischer, VM Chair
welcome back newsletter
instrumental
music Jeff Phelps, Chair
The Instrumental Music department is looking forward to
Dr. Stephen Coxe, Artistic Director
many exciting opportunities that include side-by-side
concerts with the Roy Muth Big Band, and another with the
Virginia Symphony in November at Chrysler Hall, performing the live
soundtrack with the film Home Alone.
Instrumental Music students have the opportunity to take master classes in
New York City with members of the Birdland Big Band and the Ensemble
ACJW. We will collaborate with members of Freemason Street Baptist
Church, and will also perform chamber music at the Hermitage Museum &
Gardens, and at the Virginia Arts Festival.
In March, together with the Musical Theatre department, our Orchestra will
perform Hooray for Hollywood, music of the movies on stage at the Sandler
Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia Beach.
Visual
Arts
Liana Graham, Chair
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And every day at GSA, our students have the opportunity to study with a
myriad of performers that call Hampton Roads their home.
photo by Euniece Harris, GSA 2018
Heather Bryant, Associate Chair
The Visual Arts Department will kick the year off in the NEON District!
During the summer, six of our Visual Arts students were busy painting
benches to be installed in the NEON District just in time for the NEON
Festival! Our department will be participating in the Festival with our
public art benches, face painting and chalking the street with kids, and a
Wearable Art NEON Parade with our Dance Department.
Early October we will be heading to the oceanfront in Virginia Beach
to participate in the Neptune Festival Sand Sculpture Competition and
Youth Boardwalk Art Show. Eager to reclaim our title as 1st Place winners
in 2014’s Sand Sculpture Competition, we were disappointed when it was
rained out last year. Come out for some sand, sun (fingers crossed !), and
support our team of sand artists! Students will also have the opportunity to
participate in the Ocean View Art Show and Stockley Gardens Arts
Festival later in October. At each event, they will be exhibiting their work
and competing for awards.
Our beautiful gallery ORIGIN will be the home of an exciting exhibit
celebrating Bra-Ha-Ha on October 5. The gallery is located on Level 2 in
MacArthur Center. Please join us for an opening reception with GSA
students’ entries and the winners of the Bra-Ha-Ha competition.
art by Raven Campbell, GSA 2018
art by Annabell Hayford, GSA 2016
The first juried show of the school year is Playthings opening at
ORIGIN on Nov. 17. We will be collecting new toys at this reception to
donate to Toys for Tots.
Artists will be attending National Portfolio Day on Nov. 19 in DC. On
December 15, we will be stepping out in style at the third Wearable Arts
Fashion Show at the Chrysler Museum of Art, followed by a fashion
exhibition at the museum. The show hits the runway again in early 2017 at
MacArthur Center. Join us as our students strut their stuff and show off
their talents with Wearable Art!
art by Ashley Milteer, GSA 2016