Chagrin Falls High School will present “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” March 9-11 at 7 p.m. and March 12 at 2 p.m...
CFHS Presents “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”
Chagrin Falls High School will present “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” March 9-11 at 7 p.m. and March 12 at 2 p.m. in the Chagrin Falls High School Performing Arts Center.
Online ticket sales for each show will close four hours prior to curtain. If tickets are still available after that point, they can be purchased at the box office. The box office will open one hour prior to curtain. In the event of a sold out show, any unclaimed tickets may be released 10 minutes prior to curtain. Adults are $15; seniors are $12 and students are $10.
The Biblical saga of Joseph and his coat of many colors comes to vibrant life in this delightful musical parable. Joseph, his father’s favorite son, is a boy blessed with prophetic dreams. When he is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers and taken to Egypt, Joseph endures a series of adventures in which his spirit and humanity are continually challenged. He is purchased by Potiphar where thwarting advances from Potiphar’s wife lands him in jail. When news of Joseph’s gift to interpret dreams reaches the Pharaoh (wryly and riotously depicted as Elvis), Joseph is well on his way to becoming second in command. Eventually his brothers, having suffered greatly, unknowingly find themselves groveling at the feet of the brother they betrayed but no longer recognize. After testing their integrity, Joseph reveals himself leading to a heartfelt reconciliation of the sons of Israel. Set to an engaging cornucopia of musical styles, from country-western and calypso to bubble-gum pop and rock ‘n’ roll, this Old Testament tale emerges both timely and timeless.
The director/producer is Youssef Hamid, music director is Nathan Bachofsky, and the choreographer is Amy Greene.
CFIS Students Take Art Class Into Their Own Hands
Chagrin Falls Intermediate School students are designing their own independent art projects with the help of Chagrin Falls Schools art teacher Kate Oulton with a new art education method.
Up until now, only the Discipline-Based Art Education model had been used to teach the students art. This model would include an art history lesson with an assigned project set within specific parameters. Students would practice reflection, analysis, art criticism and produce similar works of art. However, Oulton began to see that this model was falling short in critical areas of the artistic process; idea generation and trial-and-error.
At the end of the 2015-16 school year, many students began coming up with their own ideas for independent art projects. Knowing the students wanted a different art experience, Oulton took the summer to research Choice-Based Art Education and found Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB). TAB allows students to experience the entire artistic process, including the freedom to come up with their own ideas for projects. With this teaching style, the teacher becomes a guide and facilitator for the student who must submit a proposal and have a conference with the teacher before proceeding to work on their project. Once the project is approved and the students start working they are able to learn trial and error and understand that failure is an opportunity to improve.
Oulton uses Tuesdays for TAB. She discusses the life and work of a real artist. She has asked some of her artist friends, from fine artists to designers to photographers, to make brief videos discussing what artists do.
“The kids have loved seeing real, regular people show us around their studios and tell about their artwork and what it’s like to make art for a living,” said Oulton.
After the lesson, if the students are caught up on their regular work, they are able to work on a choice project using the materials of their choice and they are able to get a pass if they would like to work during recess.
Since this new teaching method has been introduced several notable student projects have come out of it including: a sixth-grade student rewriting “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” and using freestanding character panels that can be moved and sequenced to tell the story; a group of sixth grade students trying to improve Progressive Field made a 3-D model of the stadium with architectural changes and showed the Indians winning the World Series; a group of fourth-grade students created a pie factory from paper and cardboard; a fifth-grade student made a bone out of clay for her grandmother who was recently diagnosed with bone cancer; a fifth-grade student has written and is currently illustrating a story about her dog living in Mexico, all Day of The Dead themed; and a fifth-grade student is currently building a model of the Golden Gate Bridge out of popsicle sticks.
“I am so excited for our students to explore art in this new curriculum,” said Oulton. “The goal was to give students more opportunities for choice in their artwork with the aim of helping them learn to think like artists and it’s working.”
Annual Spelling Bee
On Feb. 2, eighth-grader Luke Volpe and seventh-grader Keno Wessels were the last two students standing after seven rounds of the Chagrin Falls Middle School’s annual spelling bee. They battled word for word for another six rounds until Keno misspelled his word and Luke won the bee with the word, “eupepsia.”
To prepare for the event, the entire school participated in a pretest, which was a spelling test given in all of the English classes. From this test, 30 students qualified for the spelling bee and were named finalists. The entire school watched as 23 of these finalists competed in the Performing Arts Center.
It took 13 rounds before a winner was announced. Luke will advance to regionals, which will take place at 8:30 a.m. on March 11 at Cuyahoga Community College. The winner of that bee will advance to further rounds, ending at The Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May.
The 23 participants were eighth-grade students Emily Cavanagh, Fiona Garvey, Sam Grobelny, Christian Hoimes, Morgan Kittle, Julius Lelonis, Charlie McLaughlin, Katie Nelson, John Ranieri, Ian Rodgers, Summer Snell, Luke Volpe, Ian Zitney and seventh-grade students Sophia Avery, Duncan Bannerman, Trey Brosnan, Lucky Deignan, Will Dietz, Jared Gura, Aly Kaplansky, Wren Opperman, Ben Thurman and Keno Wessels.
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Twenty-three students participated in the Chagrin Falls Middle School spelling bee.
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Chagrin Falls fifth-grader J.P. Zimmer builds a model of the Golden Gate Bridge out of popsicle sticks in art class.
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Luke Volpe, left, is the winner of the Chagrin Falls Middle School annual spelling bee and Keno Wessels, right, is runner-up.
