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2018 Heschel High School Celebration of The Arts


A person playing a set of bongos. The shot cuts off just below their waist and just over their head. They are wearing a white and grey horozontally striped shirt and black glasses. The lighting reflects off the bongos. There is a music stand light behind them. The background is blue.

The sheen on the band equiment adds texture to the lighting.

Production Manager: Aliza Sebert
Lighting Designer: Carlin Greenfield
Venue: The Abraham Joshua Heschel School, Roanna Shorofsky Theater

Photography by Gabe Godin via heschel.org

The first act of this show featured student bands playing a variety of pop songs including the Arctic Monkeys' "I Wanna Be Yours" and "See You Again" by Miley Cyrus. The band acts were interspersed with students reading their own poetry. For the second act, the band equipment was cleared off stage for dance and choral performances.

I had two amazing 9th graders helping me, which allowed me to use the follow spots as movable specials in a space that doesn't have movers and where I couldn't access the grid to hang my own. This meant that I was also in charge of writing a cuesheet for my follow spot operatiors, which was an exciting new challenge.


A group of people holding bottles and cans up in a toast.

A group of people in front of a dark brown background. They are holding bottles and cans up in a toast. The one furthest to the left is drinking from a green bottle. There are two black music stands in front of them. Shadows cross their faces.

Dim fronts and bright amber sides make a perfect middle-ages tavern. A dark brown background completes the look.

Five Dancers in silhouette in front of a baby blue background.

Five Dancers on stage in front of a baby blue background. They are in silhouette. One is upstage center and there are two on each side, further downstage. The two who are most downstage partially obstruct the two who are midstage. The one in the center has their arms raised above their head. The two on the left have their upstage arm raised above them and their downstage arm lowered behind them. The two on the right have both arms lowered.

Silhouette sculpts the shapes of the 12th grade dancers.

Five Dancers dabbing on stage in front of a baby blue background.

Five Dancers on stage in front of a baby blue background. The upstage lights form 5 semicircles on the background. Three dancers are in line across the stage upstage, and two are downstage. They are all Dabbing.

Frontlight is used to make the action on stage clear.

A line of people on stage in front of a projector screen.

A line of people standing in front of a projected image of hand signals for the notes of the western scale. They are holding a colored sign with the name of the note in their hand. La, Ti, and Do are also doing the hand signal for their note. Most are wearing black tops and jeans, though Re is wearing a patterned shirt, and Fa and So are wearing denim dresses.

The projector is used as the primary frontlight so that the stagelights don't wash it out.

Three people smiling and singing into microphones.

Three people with long hair standing in front of a red background. To the right it begins to fade to periwinkle. The two to the right are holding microphones. The picture cuts off just below their waist and just over their head. The rightmost one is wearing a blue sweater and black pants. The center one is wearing a white shirt, a brown shawl, and blue jeans. The leftmost one is wearing a black shirt. Music and microphone stands stand between the singers and the camera.

The singers for one of the bands.

An electric gutar player and a bass gutar player wearing tank tops.

Two people with short hair wearing tank tops. The shot cuts off at their waist and goes well over their heads. The one on the left is wearing a blue tank top and is playing a black electric gutar. The one on the right is wearing a pale green striped tank top and playing a red and white bass gutar. Between them is a table of percussion insturments. The background is dark.

Four different bands appeared, each having a slightly different setup.

A person reading from a piece of paper on stage.

A person standing in front of a bunch of microphones on stands. They are reading from a piece of paper which they hold in their hands. At their waist is a music stand. They are wearing blue jeans and a nice grey shirt. The background is brown, with an American flag off to one side.

The poetry readings which alternated with the band performances required controlled light so as not to illuminate the band equipment.

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