School Events

On Sunday, February 25th, the curtains closed for the last time on The Addams Family at New Paltz Middle School. This was the final of four shows open to the general public (one on Friday at 7:00, two on Saturday at 2:00 and 7:00, and one on Sunday at 2:00). 

The musical process started in November, with the informational meeting and then auditions. The cast list was released on December 1st. I interviewed a few members of this very talented cast. 

One person I interviewed was select singer Izabella Schor (the upper right Cowgirl Barbie in the image to the right), whose favorite song was “Crazier Than You” because of all the harmonies. She told me that she would definitely recommend being a select singer to others because it was really fun for her, and she’s glad she went for a bigger part than ensemble, which is what she was for the past two years. Her recommendations for those auditioning for select singer are to listen to your part as soon as you get them, and to “definitely practice a lot”, or your audition won’t be good. However, the number one thing she advised was to project.

If you’re wondering what select singers actually do, Izabella had an answer for that too! According to her, “our job is to just kind of be in the background and support the leads while singing.” She said they also had to “interact with the leads sometimes if they're not speaking in a scene”, such as in one scene when they had to respond physically or with a song to Fester as he spoke to them. During rehearsals, they would go to Mr. Halpern’s (the music director) room first to learn or practice songs (typically until 3:45), and then they would run through whatever scene that music was for with any main cast that was there that day (until 4:30). Another day, they would learn choreography, and on Fridays, they would do a run through with the full cast.

Finally, I asked Izabella about how she felt during the final show. She said that she “was happy and sad”, because while she was glad to be performing and on stage, she was also thinking “‘this is the last time I'm performing this scene on this stage at this school’” during every scene, and she was trying not to cry throughout the show. At the end, she (along with most 8th graders) did end up “crying so hard... like bawling.”

I also interviewed stage crew member Stella Zigouras (in the center, looking to the side in the photo below). She said that being in stage crew was “chaotic, fun”, especially because of the ten-person Uno game they played before the show, which was her favorite part of being in the musical. Her job as a stage crew member was to be a prop mover and a runner. (A runner is a person who gets cast members from the dressing rooms for their scenes.) She also had to help Waverly Swan, a select singer who played Lurch, change between scenes. Stella told me that if she was to play a character from the show, she would play Pugsley.

Additionally, I was able to interview an audience member who wished to stay anonymous. This person actually went to all four shows! They thought The Addams Family was very good and “even better than last year”. Their favorite part was Pugsley’s song, “What If”. Pugsley was also their favorite character, because his actress Della Sheridan “played her part really well and did a great job on the singing parts."

Overall, the consensus seems to be that The Addams Family was a fabulous show. Congratulations to the stellar cast, crew, and of course all the adults and high schoolers who worked to make it happen!

Sources: Drama Club Google Classroom

Thank you to my interviewees for the first hand information!

 The New Paltz Alley-oop Troop vs. the Harlem Wizards

by Henry Bayer

If you didn’t go to the game on February 1st, let me give you a run down of the game and the experience. First of all, it wasn’t just a basketball game, it was a once in a lifetime experience! There was a singing contest for which section could sing the loudest, and there was a lot of dancing. There were also lots of crazy dunks.  I. If you don’t know what that means, it means that the player jumped up and got the ball through the hoop.

Sadly, The Wizards beat out our selected band of teachers, also known as the New Paltz Alley-oop Troop. The Alley-oop Troop’s players were: Superintendent Gratto #𝝅, Mrs. Sheldon #44, Ms. Batista #6, Mr. Mead #⅔, Mr. Hogan #7, Mr. Longbotham #16, Mr. Pizzarello #4, Mr. Liberatore #5, Nurse Joy #108, Ms. Kosinetz #11, Mr. Krebs #15, Mr. Burns #∞, Ms. Bryant #42, Mr. Rosenfeld #10, Mr. Vance #13, Mr. Neden #17, Ricci #3, Mrs. Bishop #14, Mr. Elkin #9, Mr. Monheit #88, Ms. King #22, and Salzman #1.

 Congrats to all the teachers! You played a great game. It was a show!

                                                                       NYSSMA

                             By Rose Blackstone Gitlin

NYSSMA is an event where students can play a solo in front of members of the New York State School Music Association. These members will then judge how you did. Students can do this individually or as part of an ensemble. After performing their piece, students might have to sight read or play scales. As you can imagine, NYSSMA can be very stressful, but Ms. Nosovsky has some tips on practicing and performance.

Tips:

1. Ms. Nosovsky recommends playing your piece for as many different people as possible. She says to “practice many times and in different ways. Start in the middle and run it." One seventh grader likes to run the piece until they get to a hard part. “I will practice the runs slowly, until it gets consistent and try to bring it up to tempo,” he says. Similarly, one student says that they focus in on these parts and practice them.

2.  One of the most nerve wracking yet important things, ask for help when you’re not sure. 

3. If you ever think that your piece is too easy or too hard, as long as it’s early in practicing you can switch. Ms. Nosovksy cautions that if you do decide to do a harder piece, then you have to know that sight reading will also be more difficult. 

4. Speaking of sight reading, that can also be a challenge. Ms Nosovsky says to “put yourself in that situation during that practice.” “I try to give everyone a sticky note of what that sight reading might be like,” she says. If you have a private teacher, and a lesson book, Ms. Nosovsky recommends to “flip to a page and try to play a song to put yourself in that high stakes situation, so that when you’re at NYSSMA you’ve already built skills to help yourself around that. Just aim for the rhythm.”

Messing up:

Whether you’re doing NYSSMA or not, you can imagine that the worst thing that could happen to you is messing up. Ms Nosovsky thinks that the best thing to do is play until there's a pause in the music, then take a deep breath, reset, and keep playing. “All professional musicians make mistakes and it's about how you come out of them. The people judging you know that.” she says. One seventh grader says that when she messes up, she will “pretend it didn’t happen because it's easier on drums to play a random rhythm when you mess up and find a spot to jump in.” Another seventh grader shared that they will do their best to keep playing. 

Why you should do NYSSMA:

Hearing all these things that could go wrong, you may be more nervous or discouraged about doing. But Ms. Nosovsky thinks that NYSSMA is a good chance for musicians to hear from a professional about what they’re doing really well and what they can do to be better. “It’s nice that it's not coming from me because sometimes the change comes from someone else's voice.” she reflects. “I would highly recommend NYSSMA to anyone who plays an instrument who would like to improve,” one seventh grader says.  “However, piano NYSSMA grades very harshly” he warns. “I am doing it because I want to be better as a drummer,” a seventh grader says. Similarly, one other reflects that they are doing NYSSMA to improve as a musician and get feedback. 

Fun Fact:

Lastly, a fun fact about Ms. Nosovsky and NYSSMA! Ms. Nosovsky’s bass clarinet stopped working ten minutes before her performance! Luckily, her band teacher had screwdrivers and fixed it. Now Ms. Nosovsky always tries to have screwdrivers at NYSSMA.

6th Grade Concert and School of Rock

by Milo Casimiro

The concert was on January eleventh, and included band, chorus, and school of rock. The chorus songs were “Can't Buy Me Love”, “Dala Horse”, “Kusi Mama”, and “In the Arms of an Oak.” The band's songs were “Epic”, ”Groovy 8”, "Let It Snow”, and “African Folk Trilogy”. The school of rock songs were “Mr. Big Stuff”, “Whipping Post”, “Why Can't We Be Friends”, and “Ain't No Sunshine”. The concert was a success, and the upcoming concert is sure to be even better (I didn't know if this is possible) than the last. Good job everyone.