SMAART 2019 Newsletter - Week 2

Week 2 Newsletter for the 2019 SMAART Program

Parents, see little updates from your child's "major" classes.  Also, we have just a few general notes:

1. Please remember that if you will need to pick your child/ren up early, the BEST way to notify us is with an EMAIL to fineartsoffice@charleston.k12.sc.us or to speak to us directly at 843-746-6438 (leaving a message isn't great - we stay pretty busy)
2. See our previous post for detailed information about Performance Day (June 28th).

Advanced Studio Art (A and B): 

This week in Advanced Studio Art we worked with portraits and pastels and charcoals and animals and watercolors. Next week we will be working on abstract acrylic on canvas, sculpture and preparations for our Gallery Exhibit on Friday.  

Digital Multimedia:

 

Students are well on their way to finishing their final projects. The movies represent a variety of different styles using everything from green screen to scratch and creating documentaries on all the other majors.

 It has been a pleasure working with your students and I look forward to working with them next week and showcasing all of our creations on Friday 

Tom

Moved to Move:

This week in Choreography for the Stage dancers finished two dances

for their final performance! We chose costumes and practiced staging

skills. Dancers have also been polishing technical skills such as

turns, extensions, and balances. We look forward to our final

showcase!

SMAART Music Studio:

The SMAART Music students are continuing to work on their original compositions and GarageBand projects. Next week we will start doing mini-projects using iMovie, adding sound effects and music to short cartoon animations. On Friday we will do a "gallery walk" with a virtual bulletin board featuring all of the students' work. They will also have their computers available to show off GarageBand and what the GarageBand files look like behind the scenes. We hope to see everyone next week and share our musical creations with you!

Playwriting and Acting: 

Our amazing young playwrights and actors have written their original play, entitled "The Fabulous Folktale Factory."  The play has been cast with more than 100 roles!  Each participant will play multiple lead and supporting roles.  We are in the process of analyzing the script and blocking the show.  Congratulations students on an excellent second week!

Photography and Light Science:

This week the artists in Photo & Light Science started exploring how to take digital pictures on ipads or their own device. They created sculptures out of natural objects that were inspired by the Andy Goldsworthy. Then students photographed their sculptures from different perspectives. We also practiced working in groups during our fashion photography shoot. Later in the week students looked at the documentary photography of Gordan Parks. Then we visited other classes in the program to document the SMAART experience.

Shrek, Jr.: 

In Shrek Jr. this week we focused on getting the show staged. Staging is a process where we answer the following questions: who is moving? Where are they going? When do they move? Why are they moving? We also worked on memorizing all the songs, both choreography and lyrics! The goal from the beginning was to be off-book by the second Friday- and I'm proud to say that we are there!! We have gone through the show a couple times, making adjustments along the way. Next week will be a week of refining and fine tuning any problems that pop up. In our minors classes, we got straight to creating and made lots of props, painted lots of set pieces, and witnessed several hilarious costume fashion shows. Shrek Jr. will debut on Thursday the  27th at 6 pm in the Black Box theatre....come one, come all! 

Steel Drums: 

It has been another great week in Steel Drum Class! We are working hard on all of our music for our performance next Friday at 8:45 in the morning in the cafeteria. We finished two songs this week and started are last two. There will be lots of wonderful music for our wonderful students to perform. We also focused on some improvisation this week so students will be able to perform their own improvised solos on the song Speak Easy. We are looking forward to next week and if there are any questions feel free to check in with Ian MacMichael or Jake Cummings. 

STOMP Down South: 

The Stomp Down South campers are getting pumped for our final performance next week.  We are refining all of our rough edges, yet we are still creating like crazy!!  80 % of our performance is KID CREATED!  These kids are terrific.  Stomp parents, we are having a little class party on Thursday and a letter will go home with your child on Monday with details. 

Stop! Create! Animate!:

Animators in the major group are creating stories that involve multiple characters and dialogue.  They are also preparing for the filming of multiple dance party animations that are the result of collaboration with students in the SMAART Music Studio class (we provide animation, they provide music).  The minors are also getting in on the dance party act by animating wood manikins so they are dancing along with a steady beat as well.  Next week should be awesome!  

SMAART Strings: 

We have been hard at work and having fun preparing all of the pieces for our Thursday night concert! During sectionals, students from the Finale orchestra have been paired with students from the Primo orchestra to offer peer tutoring on their music. Students have also had the opportunity to perform their chamber pieces for each other during chamber masterclass - their small group pieces are really coming together, and we are excited to share this music with you!