SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP —
Outside of the sciences, math, history and English, the arts play an equally vital role in education at Lakeside. Many students take their creative ambition beyond the band or choir room to the Ashtabula Arts Center. Among these students is Sarah Mudd, a ninth grader at Lakeside. Mudd fancies dancing in particular; in fact, she’s been involved with the Arts Center for eight years. In that time she has participated in nearly 30 plays, most notably playing the lead role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in this year’s performance of “The Nutcracker.”
Mudd truly loves dancing, if that isn’t already evident, but admits that it is indeed time-consuming and tiring at times.
“It is the same thing as being involved with a sport, band or newspaper. Doing something you love requires time,” Mudd said.
Visual arts is yet another creative medium enjoyed by a multitude of students.
“Art encourages students to ‘think outside the box,’” said teacher Rhoda Wilson. “Visual art is a continuous problem-solving, thinking process.”
Students are working with a variety of mediums, including ink washes, pen and ink, charcoal and pastels.
“We are even working with unconventional tools such as tea,” said Wilson.
Wilson teaches cross-curricular, thus creatively incorporating history and math into her classes.
“Visual art is also included in virtually every classroom at Lakeside. Teachers have been using Robert Marzano’s educational research for vocabulary instruction. Nonlinguistic representations such as drawing, elaborates knowledge,” Wilson said.
Meanwhile, the Lakeside Theater Company is hard at work on its latest production, “The Drowsy Chaperone.” As its subtitle reads, it is “a musical within a comedy.” The play begins with an old man (played by Jay Montgomery) speaking to the audience as he sits in his apartment. He soon begins to play a record of his favorite 1920s musical, “The Drowsy Chaperone,” which revolves around the crazy antics of a beloved actress, Janet Van De Graaff (played by Taylor Paneto and Emmy Stowell), who is giving up her career to marry Robert Martin (played by Johnny Dumendic), a man she only recently met; and her dear friend, the titular Drowsy Chaperone (played by Rhiannon Booth and Brianna Elliot), whose job is to keep Janet from seeing Robert before the wedding. What makes this unusual, however, is the fact that the entire show is performed in the man’s apartment with the action pausing every time he lifts the needle.
“This play is a lot harder than it seems,” said senior Zack Downes. “People are going to have to work extraordinarily hard to pull it off.”
The results are well worth the work, though, and the witty humor, zany dance numbers and nonexistent fourth wall are sure to be crowd pleasers.
Other notable roles in “The Drowsy Chaperone include Mrs. Tottendale (played by Haley Skaggs and Alexandria Woolard), the forgetful and aging hostess; Underling (played by Ben Howell and John Miller), her faithful and long-suffering butler; George (played by Thomas Sawicki and Matt Stack), Robert’s best man; Feldzieg (played by Zach Downes), a producer whose future depends on stopping the wedding; Kitty (played by Kaila Parker and Maggie Spencer), a chorus girl who is determined to become a leading lady; Aldolpho (played by Patrick Garrod and Jack Pantoja), a world famous Latin lover; and Trix (played by Courtney Bailey and Quimani Harris), an aviatrix waiting to fly Robert and Janet to Rio for their honeymoon.
Opening night is Feb. 25 and will be performed at 7:30 p.m. through Saturday. On Feb. 26 there will be a matinee at 2:30 p.m.
School Columnists
Related Photos
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Jay Montgomery and Khalil Chatman
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LAKESIDE HIGH School artist Kevin Rodriguez works with watercolors during art class. (Photo by Zach Downes)
Discussion
Lakeside students display talents in many of fine arts
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