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:
“If it were not for the intellectual snobs who pay—in solid cash—the tribute which philistinism owes to culture, the arts would perish with their starving practitioners. Let us thank heaven for hypocrisy.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“Having a thirteen-year-old in the family is like having a general-admission ticket to the movies, radio and TV. You get to understand that the glittering new arts of our civilization are directed to the teen-agers, and by their suffrage they stand or fall.”
—Max Lerner (b. 1902)
“What ails it, intrinsically, is a dearth of intellectual audacity and of aesthetic passion. Running through it, and characterizing the work of almost every man and woman producing it, there is an unescapable suggestion of the old Puritan suspicion of the fine arts as such—of the doctrine that they offer fit asylum for good citizens only when some ulterior and superior purpose is carried into them.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)