CMS Literary Blog: May 2010

Sunday, May 30, 2010

nirrimi photography

Wouldn't it be great to be seventeen and already have a career? Nirimi Hakanson is a blossoming photographer who started off taking pictures of her sister and "never stopped." Visit her website at http://nirrimiphotography.carbonmade.com/. Here's one of her pictures.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Six Flags by Sophie J.

Last weekend the 7^th and 8^th grade chorus, along with the orchestra, Treble Chorus, and Acapella Chorus from CMS went to Six Flags for Music in the Parks. It was a very eventful trip, complete with two sixth graders getting “lost” and a bus hitting a truck! One of the chaperones got confused and forgot that she told two girls to go on a different roller coaster than the other people in the group. She started panicking and her group searched the park for the two girls, only to find out that it was just a misunderstanding. But all in all, it was a ton of fun. Concord won 5 trophies and a medal, and the Acapella Chorus won best chorus of the day! At 6 Flags everyone had a great time riding roller coasters like Batman and Bizarro. At the end of the long day was the award ceremony where one of the members of the 7^th and 8^th grade chorus, Mickey V-H, won a medal for best soloist of the day. On the bus ride home, when the busses were still in the Six Flags parking lot, bus number two backed into a pick-up truck, but nobody was hurt. By the end of the day everyone was exhausted, but we all had a great day.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Annie Review by Isabel F. with help from Sarena S.

The overture may have lasted a little long, but the CMS production of Annie was nothing if not amazing. I saw opening night and the closing Sunday matinee, and both were equally impressive. Vocals were strong, dancing was exciting and the actors did a great job of tying the audience into the emotional aspect of the show. This could sound cheesy, but I think people will understand when I say I felt chills when the orphans sang “It’s a Hard-Knock Life.” Their faces were animated and you felt like this privileged group of Concord kids transformed into plaintive and deprived orphans. It was kind of ironic, how convincing the orphans and the Hooverville-ites (hobos) were in their “Depressed” states.

The ensemble worked hard to create the mood and pulsing background of this production, while the leads brought feeling and skill to every detail. Annie was played by Ana F-C, who showed us that a 6^th grader can do just as much as any older kid with a main role. She was spunky and tender at the same time, and really seemed to connect with the other characters, especially Warbucks, who was played by Joe V-H. He was the soul of the show, rotating from singing to dancing to acting to carrying Annie around. The original show didn’t have as many dance numbers, in fact, the only original dance number was Hard-Knock Life. Mr. Shancady and Jen Jarvis (the choreographer) changed the show a lot by adding a Rockette tap-dancing in N.Y.C.

Almost every song had some choreography, which definitely helped the scenes a lot. Elana I. was perfectly preposterous as Miss Hannigan, the evil orphanage lady who with her criminal brother and his equally immoral girlfriend, Lily St. Regis (played by Jeremy S. and Hannah S-D). Before intermission, they performed their fantastic number, “Easy Street.” In the song, this sneaky group of characters announced their plan of how to become rich. Towards the end of the play, there were several very touching scenes and songs. The audience was enamored by the heartfelt acting by Warbucks and Annie, and the comical impersonations of Lily and Rooster. When the curtain closed for the final time, there was a collective sigh as the audience and cast alike savored the last moments of Annie, CMS’ fabulous production that blew the roof off of every performance.