Our Final Photographic Journey

         The photography class continues to take memorable photographs in Spoleto, despite the sadness of the upcoming departure. There is a bitter sweetness to capturing the last moments. All of the students have enjoyed building relationships with the local community and creating a visual tapestry of their memories.

Students were introduced to the local Red Cross of Spoleto. Under Serafino's guidance, they continued to learn about portraiture and capturing the moment. In addition to increasing the students' technical abilities, the students also got the wonderful opportunity to interact with the community.

 On Monday, the creative writing and photography students went out on the much anticipated sunflower field trip.

                                     Students worked on getting the best angles for each shot.

                                          The students collaborate while reviewing photos. 

Serafino has been working on teaching the photography class about traditional photography. He showed them how to take polaroids, and is taking a polaroid of every student to showcase their personality. Each student will have an incredible piece of memorabilia to take home and keep for the rest of their lives.

 Each student’s ability to take portraits that are well lit and compositionally balanced has grown tremendously.

Though the sunflowers weren't as lively as they had hoped, the students enjoyed posing in them and create lasting memories. They found that in a way, the sunflowers symbolized the end of our journey in Spoleto. 

The students' final gallery exhibition will take place on Saturday. They look forward to sharing their work with their friends and family upon their return. 

Visual Arts Final Week

For this final week the students are working exclusively on their self-portraits and personal experience project during both the morning and evening sessions. Significant progress was made with the morning gesture drawing sessions and now the goal is for the students to continue applying their new skills to their final projects as they resolve them. The work is becoming stronger with each day and I expect it will continue to do so until the last session. We're excited to showcase our final work this Saturday!

Voice and Drama Week 3

We can hardly believe that it is now the last week in Spoleto, but voice and drama students are quite excited by their growh and readiness for the final student showcase this coming Saturday.

In the first weeks, singers worked on vocal technique, such as breathing, diction, phrasing, and dynamics. They have now committed their pieces to memory and are staging their ensemble scenes while receiving specific coaching this week.

In the morning performance class, Jack has been teaching both vocal and drama students how to create an imagined reality using the five senses, while simultaneously focusing their energy on a specific partner or target within the new world. Experiential walking tours of the town during which students conduct a sensory inventory have strengthened the ability to fulfill this critical task. The tours have been followed by journal reflections that raise awareness of technique to the conscious level. The latest excursion asked students to experience the streets of Spoleto as an Italian local, ending the walk with an espresso at a local café.

 All have learned how to live truthfully in imaginary circumstances and to allow a specific character goal or "objective" to shape their performance. The results are more authentic, engaging, and sincerely expressive performances. (See photos below).

Pairs practice character objectives in improvised scenes during performance class.

Students rehearse Sondheim's "You Could Drive a Person Crazy."

Singers stage "Aprite," a duet from The Marriage of Figaro.

A trio practices "Three Little Maids" from The Mikado.

Spoleto Selfie Sunday

Spoleto Selfie Sunday (Fun-day)

This week was filled with various actives, events, and performances for the students.  There were three faculty recitals, a second student performance night, trips to the beach and Siena, a Spoleto Palio (see previous post), a talent show, and a competition for best self.

On Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday the faculty shared their work with the students.  The audience was treated to musical performances, visual arts portfolios, and mixed media performances.  Each teacher took time to explain his or her process and the significance of each piece.  It was inspiring.

After performing two Shakespeare pieces, drama teacher, Jack Zerbe, assisted Serafino Amato, photography teacher, with his presentation.  Serafino showed his photos and read captions from his 2012 publication.

After showing some of his portrait work, Raul Miyar, visual arts teacher, explains the amulets/talismans that he makes for his graduating students at the Altos de Chavon School each year.

Jan Guffin, creative writing teacher, shares a personal essay and a poem.

Anna, pianist, and Jill, flutist, play a duet.

At the student performance class, our participants included four singers, four visual artists, four photographers, and all of the writers.  The following photos are a selection from Friday evening:

Alethia explains her process for her self-portrait.

Rachel explains her photograph taken at the convent.

Avery reads from a journal entry written at the local park.

Kat reads from her "pink" journal entry, from the park.

Lucy sings.

Kristen sings.

Maddy reads her journal entry from the park.

Sophia sings.

Hannah explains her artistic process.

India reads her journal entry from the park.

Kristen sings.

       

Two of the team cheers from Saturday's Spoleto Palio:

We had some great submissions for the Sunday Selfies:

Zoe, Abby, Claire, and Maddy.

Emma, Annie Lee, Hannah, Matt, Elizabeth, and Kas.

The talent show on Sunday night was a big success.  We had a wide range of acts.  This was the final portion for the Spoleto Palio and the winners were announced... congratulations Chiocciola!

Bee shares some original jokes.

Noah read an original poem.

"Denim" performed en masse.

                       

A più tardi!