Southwest Performing Arts Newsletter

Welcome to the 2016/2017 school year! SWHS Performing Arts students and teachers are off to a great start! Auditions and productions are underway and performances are just around the corner. Bring your family and friends out to support these amazing programs at SWHS! Also, be sure and "like" us on Facebook!  To see the entire Performing Arts Calendar, click here. THEATRE  10/4-6, 3pm     Barefoot in the Park, Unhinged Student Theatre Co. auditions 10/25-27, 3pm Up the Down Staircase, Main Stage play auditions 10/26-29, 7pm The Miss Firecracker Contest, Unhinged Student Theatre Co. New Space The NEW Black Box Theatre is now open and FABULOUS! We are super excited about it, as well as the new costume room! There is also new lobby space near the auditorium with a box office and concession area. We are hoping someone might be willing to donate a refrigerator that we could use to store flowers and other concession items. Please contact us here, if you can help. New Course! Ms. Michel and Ms. Meyer are offering a technical theatre class after school! Students will dive deeper into the experience of technical theatre to learn about and participate in the design process. This course is student-driven; we build our curriculum based on the interests of our students, while focusing on the basic production design elements. For more information, please contact Ms. Michel here. Tech Tuesday We will also continue our Tech Tuesday program. Students interested in learning about and doing technical theatre can join us every Tuesday (and other days!) to get involved in the tech production process. Alumni News For more exciting SWHS Performing Arts alumni news - click here! Be sure to check out our theatre website for all the SWHS theatre news! CHOIR 10/13, 7pm      Choir Concert Choir is off to a great start already this year, with a record quick turn-around between the week later start of school and the concert coming two weeks earlier than usual. Music is being prepared and students are excited for their debut performance (and so is Mr. Fisher!) Varsity Choir (9th grade choir) is essentially two choirs. New this year: the men and women of Varsity Choir are rehearsing the same period. Ms. Stanke is directing the women while Mr. Fisher directs the men. They will perform separately as usual, but will also come together to do some combined selections. Men's Chorus (10-12th grade men) is preparing some fantastic music for their first concert. They are looking forward to their premier performance with Mr. Fisher and Ms. Stanke. Donne Voce (10-12th grade women) is already hard at work on some new and exciting music, and Ms. LeMay is joining the group as co-director. Southwest Singers (11-12th grade Mixed) fills every chair in the choir room with a huge enrollment of 110 students and sounds, well, amazing. Chamber Singers auditions and call backs will wrap up on September 20th, with their first rehearsal starting shortly thereafter. Mr. Fisher is tremendously excited to be at Southwest and is looking forward to making great choral music this year and for many years to come! BAND/ORCHESTRA 10/17, 7pm      Band/Jazz Concert 10/18, 7pm      Orchestra/Guitar Concert Band Camp and Marching Band After a two-week Band Camp, we celebrated the beginning of the school year with Labor Day weekend parades at the State Fair and in the ECCO Neighborhood. The Marching Band also played for the Fulton Neighborhood Festival. It was great marching weather! New Music In orchestral news, the bows are being restrung and we’ll be reading new music - fun times!   GUITAR 10/18, 7pm      Orchestra/Guitar Concert Program Growth The Guitar Program is growing by leaps and bounds! New music and more instruments are on order and will arrive soon, thanks to funding from the Performing Arts Council. Small bands will be forming in the weeks ahead and will perform on a regular basis on the new cafeteria stage.  It is exciting to have students auditioning for jazz ensembles with the band as well as Pit Orchestra with the theater. Guitar Orchestra The first guitar concert this year is a combined orchestra concert with the SWHS orchestras. The Guitar Orchestra will present Eric Satie's Gymnopedie #1, originally written for solo piano. Please join us for this classical guitar orchestra kick-off concert! Adaptive Guitar The Three Strings, our Adaptive Guitar class, also has many new members this year. Guitar teacher, Ruth LeMay, will be a guest lecturer at UW-River Falls on 9/19 for a hands-on workshop on the Adapted Methodology she has created for special needs learners. This is an exciting opportunity to demonstrate to young teachers how they can reach non-traditional learners, so all students that want to make music together can enjoy this life-changing experience. DANCE North by Southwest The Southwest Dance Company 2 will be collaborating with North High Dance this year. They will share dance artists that will culminate in a final dance piece at the Viva City performance in March. Collaboration meetings will begin in September. Stay tuned! Teacher/Student Duet Senior Atiya Mansfield and dance teacher, Ms. Callahan, will be performing a call and response tap dance entitled " Be Seated" choreographed by Bill Evans. They will perform at the Winter Dance Concert at Southwest on Thursday, December 15th at 7 pm. Come and see! Dance Field trips All dance classes will attend a performance of the Brazilian dance company " Grupo Corpo" on Monday, October 3rd at Northrup Auditorium. Thanks to Northrup and its business partners, transportation is provided and tickets are only $3.00. TU Dance takes the SW Stage The phenemonal St. Paul based and New York inspired  " Tu Dance" modern dance company will perform for Southwest students on Thursday September 22nd at 10 am in the Auditorium. Thanks to our partnership, the performance is free to all students when accompanied by their 3rd hour teacher . OPEN HOUSE Stop by and visit with the Performing Arts teachers on Tuesday, September 27 from 6:30-8:30pm during the SWHS Open House. Get more information on ALL these exciting programs and how you can become involved! HELP WANTED We are seeking volunteers! If you have an interest in supporting the SWHS Performing Arts programs with your time and talents, please contact us. Our current needs are - Communications Coordinator - Website, Social Media Content, Newsletters Ushers/Concessions Grant Writer/Researcher WISH LIST Musical instruments (cellos, violins, guitars, etc.) for every student who needs one Refrigerator (see theatre section above) Matching grant funders - corporate or personal funders to match donations Please contact us here to find out about how to fulfill any of these wishes. The SWHS Performing Arts Council welcomes your ideas, your energy, your financial support, and YOU! Thank you for making SWHS such a great place for students to learn and grow in the performing arts! Sincerely, SWHS Performing Arts Council Leandra Peak, President Copyright © 2016 SWHS Performing Arts Council, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: SWHS Performing Arts Council c/o Southwest High School 3414 W 47th Street Minneapolis, MN 55410 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list