Arts
Mason has a very extensive arts program. The orchestra, run by Michael Banet, has been prestigious as well. They have attended the Washington State TYSA festival before, and have won trophies. The band, run by Karl Ronning, also has its share of awards, and has very high concert attendance. Sadly, though, there is no longer any choir teacher. She died in 2008 to an unknown cause. Without a teacher, and barely enough students interested, Mason was forced to cancel their choir program in 2009.
Mason also has an excellent drama program, run by Robin Strong, who is also an 8th grade Language Arts teacher. They perform a play every winter and spring. The drama program includes a drama club and a drama class. The club is an after school program in which many middle schoolers come and practice.
In 2010, choir returned to Mason Middle School, and its new teacher is Justin Ehli.
School plays:
- 2004: "Jolly Roger and the Pirate Queen" - The story of a crazy group of pirates and a delicate beauty in a comedic style.
- 2005: "Way's End" - The story of a girl named Lexi, as she travels through a fairy tale and explores her life.
- 2006: "Romeo & Winifred" - A spoof of Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet", as told through department store clerks.
- 2007: "Big Bad" - A theatrical trial of the "Big Bad Wolf", from the classic story "The Three Little Pigs and The Big Bad Wolf".
- 2008: "Nancy Clue" - A mystery spoof of the Nancy Drew series of books.
- 2009: "Comic Book Artist" - A hilarious tale about a janitor who has to defeat the evil Dr. Shock Clock.
- 2010: "Just Like Us" - A story about Two groups of colors that think their views are better than everyone elses.
Read more about this topic: Mason Middle School
Famous quotes containing the word arts:
“No one is ahead of his time, it is only that the particular variety of creating his time is the one that his contemporaries who are also creating their own time refuse to accept.... For a very long time everybody refuses and then almost without a pause almost everybody accepts. In the history of the refused in the arts and literature the rapidity of the change is always startling.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness. For this were arts invented, sciences cultivated, laws ordained, and societies modelled, by the most profound wisdom of patriots and legislators. Even the lonely savage, who lies exposed to the inclemency of the elements and the fury of wild beasts, forgets not, for a moment, this grand object of his being.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“I haven’t seen so much tippy-toeing around since the last time I went to the ballet. When members of the arts community were asked this week about one of their biggest benefactors, Philip Morris, and its requests that they lobby the New York City Council on the company’s behalf, the pas de deux of self- justification was so painstakingly choreographed that it constituted a performance all by itself.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)