Arts

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.

The seventh annual music residency, El Sistema, returned to King School in person this year with a powerful new sound. Talented student musicians from King’s Middle and Upper Schools collaborated with seven El Sistema USA music programs from New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Connecticut. The collaboration resulted in an original composition that premiered at a community concert to showcase the learning and partnership that took place over the weekend. The overarching focus of the residency is to inspire a connection between communities of different socioeconomic backgrounds, using music ensembles to encourage deeper communication among its participants.  

Students and parents filled the Performing Arts Center at King School last weekend for riveting performances of Pirates of Penzance, a comic operetta. The musical follows the tale of Frederick, a young buccaneer who finds himself torn between his duty to his fellow pirates and his love for the major general's daughter, Mabel. The production made its way to the King stage for a three-day run in early March.