Over the last couple of weeks I have seen so many wonderful examples of creativity on display here at school that I felt the need to highlight a few.

 

First, the recent Upper School play, Almost, Maine directed by Steve Scherer, captivated audiences while delivering humorous and poignant stories.  Divided into a series of scenes all taking place in the fictional small town of Almost, Maine, the stories captured the human condition in a way reminiscent of the TV show “Northern Exposure” or a Wes Anderson film.  It was great to see some of our “veteran” performers alongside new thespians; everyone had their moments on stage.

 

Kenneal Patterson and Chloe Ponzio took their creativity to a whole new level when they traveled to the University of Oklahoma last month.  Every year CA sponsors a writing contest connected to the Neustadt Award presented at OU, and then brings students and faculty out to the University campus to celebrate the winning author and to participate in a series of activities and performances related to the author’s work – and great global writing in general.  This year’s Neustadt winner, Dubravka Ugresic, met with our students and shared her views on writing from the standpoint of being “country-less” (she was an exile from the former Yugoslavia and now lives in the Netherlands).

 

Kenneal’s contest-winning story was featured in the first edition of an exciting new Kokopelli, the longtime CA literary magazine, available for the first time as an online publication.  What a beautiful example of what our kids can do!  Go to https://issuu.com/cakokopelli/docs/5992-1478285367?e=26373213/40385691 to see this amazing example of student art, writing, photography and graphic design. 

 

Last weekend, more than a dozen students went on a photography overnight trip to Woodland Park.  Led by Jesse Myers, the eager group spent their time photographing stars and shooting environmental portraits, hiking ten miles and doing afternoon yoga!  Mr. Myers noted that “to see students outside of their element, totally enjoying each other and what was happening in the moment was exciting and refreshing.”

 

This Sunday’s choir concert promises to be another wonderful demonstration of the high quality of CA’s arts program.  Students were given a sneak preview of the fall concert at a Thursday assembly, along with a stirring performance of CA’s new dance group called Equus.  Judging by the quality of all the work, anyone coming to the Seventh Day Adventist Church on November 20 at 7 p.m. will be in for a treat.

 

We know the creativity doesn’t stop once CA students graduate. The production of Almost, Maine was enhanced by the dazzling lighting design of Anshuman Bhatia, a graduate of CA’s class of 2006, who has since gone on to become a highly successful lighting and set designer for theater projects all over the world.  Another successful graduate, Lauren YoungSmith (’08), was just in town for a gallery show and to create a huge mural at Denver’s Helikon in RiNo.  Large public art has been her specialty for many years now, and Lauren is in high demand all over the country and Canada.  We are working on getting her back out to CA to work with our students in the spring. (see Laurenys.com for more.)

 

Four other graduates are hard at work finishing a major independent film based on Thoreau’s Walden.  Alex Harvey (’99), Adam Chanzit (’99), Laura Goldhamer (’02), and Shane Boris (’00) have combined forces to adapt one of the most influential texts in American literature.  They came to campus on Friday, November 4 to show a clip of the film and talk to interested alums and faculty about their project.  The entire film will be screened in Denver within a few weeks.  Again, we hope to stay connected with the filmmakers as we help them develop curricular tie-ins for their film.  Please see www.waldenthefilm.com for more details.

 

One of the pillars of a CA experience is our commitment to the arts, in all its many forms.  Underscoring that, one of our 6 Cs is Creativity, and we look to bring out the creative spark in all our students.