This past weekend, students and parents attended the 2021 Coffee House here at EAC! It was an extremely interesting event, filled with exhibitions, performances, and presentations that touched upon all areas of our school’s visual and performing arts.
During the event, guests all met in the upper school auditorium, where Chris Kuczynski explained the details of the night. We were led by student guides, all members of the drama elective in our school, to 5 different areas and classrooms within our Upper School Building, and we were divided into color-coded groups that moved between each of the classrooms in different orders to avoid crowding in one single classroom. I’ll be talking about the events in the order in which I attended them.
The event overall revolved around the idea of a “Between,” which was all represented in different ways using mediums of art, music, and performance. In total, there were two drama presentations, two art exhibitions (for middle school and for IB visual arts), and one band concert that presented two songs. Eventful night!
First, my group was led to one of the Drama rooms, where we witnessed two drama presentations. After joining the audience, the first production of the night was a scene from “Girl, Interrupted” by James Mangold; the performance featured Laura Yazima, Sofia Rossetti, and Sayuri Adachi in a breathtaking performance. For those of you who haven’t seen it, the scene depicts two girls who have escaped a mental asylum and seek refuge in the home of a former patient who had been released. It was definitely a mature scene, with themes about drugs, self-harm, and mental health; heavy stuff and rated PG-13, but amazing nonetheless. There were mostly adults in the audience during that scene, and they warned everyone beforehand about the heavy themes present. I have to take a moment and applaud the acting done by those three students; every character was perfectly played, and it was such a difficult scene to portray, especially live-action. The scene choice was fantastic, and the acting especially so. It was an incredibly memorable start to the night.
The second performance, still within the same classroom, was by Enzo Bolognesi and Sofia Ricon, starring in their own rendition of “Make Out Session” by Laurie Allen. It followed the heaviness of the previous performance with a light-hearted and hilarious scene in which two students stumbled upon their teachers doing something “unexpected.” I’ll bet you can guess what it was. In any case, it was a perfect lift to the mood created by the prior scene, with brilliant acting by Enzo and Sofia, which made everyone leave the room with a big smile on their faces.
Following those two first presentations, we were led to the 7th-grade art room, where we saw art pieces by our middle school students. I was thoroughly impressed with the talent of some of them. I’ll include pictures of some of my favorites below, but every single one of the art pieces was amazing. Our Middle School art program featured the art of a few grades. 7th graders worked on self-portraits, in which there were lots of exciting pieces made by very talented artists. 8th graders focused on aspects of tone and contrast, working with monochromatic art and China ink; again, there were many pieces that were truly amazing. I was very impressed!
If that wasn’t enough, the next room we went to featured the artists in IB Visual Arts. Their entire section showcased projects revolving around “Where are you now?” where they made exhibitions about transitions and different phases of life. They used different methods and mediums to reflect on their pasts, where they were currently (physically and emotionally), and their futures. Again, I’ll include pictures; it’s impossible to convey the talent present in these artists with words alone. Each student did a unique project; however, something they all had in common was a project they did that talked about quarantine; each of them chose an article of clothing they wore a lot during quarantine, things we can all relate to: pajamas, hoodies, big t-shirts. It was an interesting reflection, and something we can all relate to.
Next, we headed to the second Drama room, where we were audiences to two presentations. The first of which starred Sofia Ido and Sujin Ester Hwang in “Window Pain” by Joseph Arnon. The piece was about two girls in a toxic friendship, and the actresses were incredible. They expressed complex emotions and deep anger, with thoughtful themes at the end about a toxic loop you can never escape. It was deeply emotional; both the story and the acting itself.
Following the theme of having a lighthearted performance after a “dark” one, we had “Dead Parrot” by Monty Python, a comedy scene. Susana Groot and Hector Serra were the stars of the show, both of which have an incredible flair in their acting that made the scene amazingly enjoyable to watch. The scene was about a customer who entered a pet shop to complain about his pet: Hector was the customer, Susana was the cashier. It was one of those performances that made the entire audience laugh out loud at every line. Truly, it was very funny to watch; not only because of the scene and the writing itself but also because of the actors and how amusing they made it. This put an end to the drama presentations: a perfect ending to a night of incredible actors.
The final performance of the night. A band concert, in which our concert band presented two songs, each one equally as amazing. First, “Arith-metric No. 1” by Brian Balmages. A truly impressive performance, which showcased the full potential of our upper school band. In short, every person in the band was given the exact same sheet music; however, they all played different parts at different times and created a beautiful, chaotic mess of music. Each player chose a unique path in following the music, and as a whole, they sounded amazing, with different sounds and textures layered throughout the song. It was madness, but a beautiful madness. The next song (you probably know this one) was “City of Stars,” a song from the movie La La Land. It explores the relationship between Sebastian and Mia, who face having to decide between each other and their careers. It’s a beautiful piece in itself, but the talent in the band made it ever-more enjoyable to listen to.
What an amazing night! Full of amazing drama performances, featuring scenes both funny and dark, talented artists, who were all genuinely incredible in all of their mediums, and–to close everything off–an amazing band with so much individual and combined talent. All in all, the 2021 Coffee House was eventful and incredible; definitely an event worth attending.
EAC PRESS 