from David Russo, Principal of Fairview South Middle School
Our relationship with Northlight has come at a good time because I have very open teachers who see the value of having students participate in theatre workshops and attend professional theatrical performances. Without buy-in from the teachers who will be asked to coordinate events and miss students for normal classes, the success of our program would not have been as great. I think that it was critical to be involved as the Principal to select lead teachers who I knew would be receptive to this type of experience and would view it as a great opportunity for the students rather than an encumbrance on their curriculum.
The students at Fairview have greatly enjoyed the chance to be creative in a purposeful way when the artists have come on-site to discuss the plays and play several acting games. Each time, the kids are very active and I am surprised by the students who step up in this setting. Some times this has been the student who behaves timidly in the classroom, but can open up in a more creative environment. Each time our students have gone to see a production at Northlight, they are not only experiencing professional theatre, but building etiquette skills on how to purport themselves in this type of environment. Hopefully, events such as these, early on in their education life will spur a life-long appreciation for the theatre.
Finally, Fairview has a tremendous auditorium facility with updated sound and lighting systems. For the previous 15 years, the space had been dormant when it came to developing a middle school theatre production. This was viewed as a gaping hole in our otherwise robust extracurricular offerings. With the help of Northlight, we are in the second year of Northlight on Campus. This group has opened up a vehicle of school participation for an entire new sub-group of students and we are anxiously awaiting their second production in April of this year. The artists who have led this group have been wonderful to work with and have developed high quality experiences for the students. We have been extremely pleased with the relationships formed with students and the type of training received by participants.
Northlight On Campus has been working with Fairview South on the show Rodeo, a play commissioned by NOC for Fairview Middle School. Rodeo is an adaptation by Philip Dawkins of the Copland ballet, and tells the story of a girl who wants to compete in a rodeo with all the boys. It will be performed at Fairview South on Friday, April 13 at 3:30pm and 7:00pm.
