It’s been a busy year in Roosevelt’s art departments, from entrancing melodies during the winter concerts to magic on stage.
Roosevelt’s two Choirs, the beginning choir and the advanced Rider Choir, have won many awards within the past three years. By attending an array of festivals, they have brought home five first place medals and three festival champion trophies; and this school year is shaping up to be no different. Starting the year off strong with the annual St. John’s tree lighting where they performed beautifully despite the cold for the community members of St. Johns. To spark a new holiday tradition and raise money the Roosevelt choir went door to door caroling with members of the community. They also took to the stage with their winter concert, opened by the Roosevelt Orchestra led by Sara Barbee. Both the beginning choir and the Rider choir got to display their talents, which they did so beautifully. To finish it off, the Choir teacher, Ms. Massoni, invited anyone within the audience to join the two choirs in a performance of Homeward Bound by Jay Althouse.
“What’s fun is that alumni, staff, and choir adjacent people are invited to perform.” Ms. Massoni stated when asked about this aspect of the concert, “It’s like there’s a wave of connection.” But the hard work of Roosevelt’s choir groups does not end there. They are still working towards a district festival, Regional Festival, and the spring concert which is on May 20th.
As the interview came to a close, Ms. Massoni shared some of her final thoughts, “I just want to create a culture of ‘of course we do choir’ here at Roosevelt. The kids in front of me are so talented… If they’re willing to learn, I can teach them.”.
The theater department has also been hard at work with their fall production of Harry Potter and the Cursed child. With a company of over sixty people, it was one of the theater departments biggest and most successful works . After six months of preparation the show debuted to the community which was meant with much love and appreciation for everything spanning from the almost magical moving set to the actors ability to bring characters to life. They also have been hard at work to prepare for regionals and then state, where the students find and perform a monologue, duo/group scene, song, or technical display and then receive feedback and possible awards for their performances. For their winter play Roosevelts theater department is working with PETE, Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, to create their own play, using everyone’s unique skill sets and creativity they will bring a completely original play to Roosevelt’s stage come February 20th. To finish off the year the seniors within the Advanced Theater class will write, cast, create, and direct their own one act plays which will then be performed under the title of Senior Shorts on May 1st.
Finally, Roosevelts many Band teams have had a packed and busy year. After many years of success with State jazz Festivals, third last year and second two years ago, they continue with their winning streak. Margolis commented on how band only continues to grow, with this years students carrying much talent and dedication with them, the Winger Concert is an example of that with how successful fully it went. Margolis is very happy to have even more growth within band stating “It’s never too late to start band, especially for freshman and sophomores. Get involved. Next year we’re going to have concert band, which is a great starting point.”
Overall the Performing Arts departments have and continue to work incredibly hard to make the Roosevelt community proud. Margolis put it beautifully with “We have a lot of pride. It’s an awesome thing. Kids who do band, and choir, and orchestra, and theater. It gives you skills for the rest of your life.”.
