Arts

Romance and magic were in the air at King School as a middle school cast of 37 actors and 12 crew members staged “Beauty and the Beast Jr.” in King School’s final theatrical performance of the 2022-23 school year. The show, which was double cast, filled the Performing Arts Center with music and applause during performances on May 4 and 5.

On the first weekend of April, King School hosted its eighth annual El Sistema residency. The event uses music ensembles as a means of communication and connection between communities of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Musicians from the Middle and Upper Schools joined visiting students from various El Sistema USA programs, including Stamford’s Project Music, for intensive music workshops.

“Rodger & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” dazzled audiences last weekend at King’s Performing Arts Center. Students wrapped in colorful costumes sang witty show tunes with a modern message that transformed the centuries-old tale. In this adaptation of the classic, Cinderella is empowered by the virtue of kindness.

Grade 5’s recent production of “The Claw” on Friday, February 3, in King's Performing Arts Center presented an opportunity to perform on stage and explore the emotions that come with significant changes. With moving up from Lower to Middle School on the horizon, the play was a perfect vehicle for students to process the feelings such transitions can bring.

As part of the King School Visiting Artists Program, artist Jeilla Gueramain kicked off her residency this week with a lower school assembly during which she discussed her artistic inspiration and process. The King School Visiting Artists Program is an opportunity to enrich, enhance and inspire the visual arts students’ experience at King, providing them with an immersive experience. 

Middle School thespians explored how Leonardo da Vinci allowed curiosity to spark his intellectual pursuits in the premiere performance of “I Want to Fly” at the Performing Arts Center.

Whether preparing for an upcoming ensemble performance or pursuing an individual passion, students enjoy a range of performing arts classes at King. Take a walk through the campus’s state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center, and you will find teachers thoughtfully guiding students through lessons that focus on building a sense of community alongside technical skills.

Middle school thespians followed the Yellow Brick Road to the Performing Arts Center for a musical performance of “The Wizard of Oz.” In the classic tale, a tornado whisks away Dorothy and her dog, Toto, to the magical land of Oz.

While the pair are traveling towards Emerald City to meet the Wizard, they also meet a scarecrow that needs a brain, a tin man missing a heart, and a cowardly lion who wants courage. The Wizard asks the group to bring him the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West to earn his help, so they set out on a perilous journey where each learns that there is no place like home.

Culminating a year of self-discovery and exploration in the arts, the senior art students presented their capstone projects at the Art Colloquium, an annual arts seminar hosted in the Performing Arts Center at King School. The presentations are a result of the school’s O.P.E.N project experience: Original, Personal, Experiential, and Novel. Each year, seniors are encouraged to explore different mediums of art and create projects that are a personal expression of their interests or experiences to present to their classmates at the colloquium.

The students typically begin their projects with one idea, but the idea develops into new concepts or multiple projects as the year progresses. Jamie Munno ’22 likened the experience to the growth of a flower.