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This Friday – STAYCEE PEARL dance project SPdp

 pupa: new…again
Friday, July 9, 2010 | 10AM
Friday, July 9, 2010 |   8PM

Featuring dance works created by choreographer/artist/Hope Academy teacher, Staycee Pearl, and six dancers, ranging in inspiration from the lighthearted to the weighty and worldly. Collaborator, Herman ‘Soy Sos’ Pearl offers up innovative sound design and original music.

Kelly-Strayhorn Theater

$10 General Advance | Door
$5 Student | Artist, Student

Hope Academy students and their families should come to the 10 am matinee performance. Tickets are only $2.50 each and there will be a question and answer session afterward. See you there!

“We stayed to watch the sneak peak of Staycee Pearl’s Dance Project after the Hope Academy showcase because I’ve never seen modern dance before. Wow! It was freaking wild. I’m glad I stayed and I will be back to see more.”
— Hope Academy parent

Love it! SPdp T-Shirt

Show your support for STAYCEE PEARL dance project and look pretty hip at the same time. Get yours on Friday at their Kelly-Strayhorn performance. $20 seems like a real deal for all this coolness.

Planning for Fall 2010 and Beyond – HA Course Brochure, Registration Form and Scholarship Applications

The summer’s only just begun and it’s already time to start thinking about the fall.

Hope Academy’s course brochure, registration form, policy info form, and scholarship applications are now available to download as pdfs. In an effort to cut costs (and save some trees) we will  be mailing postcards to let everyone know that they can download everything here. If you would like a complete printed brochure, you can pick one up at the front desk or call and we will send one to you (412-441-3800 x11).

If you are interested in auditioning for Hope Academy Theater Company (HAT Co) or HAT Co Band, call to reserve your audition time on Saturday, August 28. We will mail you a packet with an application and all of the audition details.Scholarship applications are due by Monday, August 16 (no exceptions).

So check out our new courses, and get your registration forms in as soon as possible to make sure that you have a spot in the class(es) you are interested in. It’s going to be a terrific year and you won’t want to miss out.

Lessons from the Birds: a Rachel Carson puppet play

Hope Academy is on break for the summer, but we will still be attending all kinds of wonderful arts events around the city. Check the blog often and let’s meet up and have some fun.
The story of Rachel Carson is brought to life in this puppet-theater piece for people of all ages. Funded by the Heinz Endowment Youth EcoArt Initiative, the show features local favorite, Elena Alexandratos, and a slew of exciting puppets designed in collaboration with Pittsburgh artists Cheryl Capezutti and Kellee Van Aken.
Thursday, July 8, 2010 

10:30 AM – 11:15 AM

This is a free performance at the Carnegie Library in Oakland,  but you should register
call – 412-622-3122 

email – children@carnegielibrary.org

“Star Crossed” and “Array” Today!

Last chance to catch “Star Crossed,” today at 3 pm at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater.  Don’t miss it! Tickets are $5 each and can be purchased at the door. Here is a cast photo from last night’s performance. More photos coming soon… keep checking back.

After “Star Crossed,” grab something to eat and come back at 7 pm for “Array,” a dance performance featuring Hope Academy dancers and Staycee Pearl’s adult company (SPdp). Admission is “pay what you can” at the door. 

Pastoral Message, June 2010

An occupational hazard of being a pastor is that you rarely get to attend other worship services or hear other minister’s sermons. That is one reason why I enjoy attending the Good Samaritan services, mostly so that I can be a part of that worshiping community and share in the powerful time of intercessory prayer. Although I usually have to leave the service early to prepare for the “Journey” worship time, occasionally the prayer time becomes a mini-sermon time.

One Sunday several months ago, Ray Anthony, an ELPC member and regular Good Samaritan worship attendee, offered some thoughts during the prayer time. As I recall, he spoke about family and about his heartfelt desire that the men of the homeless shelter and vulnerable souls on Pittsburgh’’s streets might know God’s love and peace. He went on to insist that the gospel message is stronger and truer than the messages we commonly hear, and (like a good preacher) proceeded to give three examples.

Ray mentioned how people often say “God helps those who help themselves,” but that’s not quite true. Yes, we are to do the best we can and ever seek to do what is right, but God’s grace most often comes to help those who can’t help themselves. In that assurance comes a real word of hope.

Ray then noted that we speak about the “survival of the fittest.” But life is not just about surviving, and certainly not about working hard to make it at the expense of someone else. The gospel message is about how abundant life and peace is promised, not to the fittest, but to the meek, the weak, the forgotten and overlooked. The promise of resurrection emerged not from a Caesar on a golden throne, but from a crucified teacher on a wooden cross.

Finally Ray commented that some insist “God don’t like ugly.” As true as that might be, God is greater than all the “ugly” in the world, and can get us through times that are hard into new places that exceed our hopes and imagination.

Sometimes the sermon we need to hear doesn’t happen on Sunday morning. Sometimes it is contained in a chance conversation we have in a store, on the bus, or on the phone. Sometimes it is in a story we read in the paper or a song we hear on the radio. The important reminder for all of us is that we can only hear God if we quiet ourselves long enough to listen for God–not expecting a voice from the clouds, but listening to the voice speaking close at hand.

Jesus was the “Word made flesh.” We mustn’t be surprised if people of flesh and blood become the means for that same holy Word to be spoken to us today.

Star Crossed and Array – Showcase Details

STAR CROSSED

Romeo and Juliet as you’ve never seen it before — remixed, mashed up, deconstructed and re-imagined. Fifty Hope Academy students will sing, dance and act their way through the complexities of the story and themes of one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays. With text straight from the Bard and music from West Side Story, Spring Awakening, Radiohead, Dire Straights, The Proclaimers and more, this 400 year old play takes on a whole new life. Shakespeare scenes are directed by Tonya Lynn, with choreography by Staycee Pearl and Michael Walsh, and music direction by Anna Elder, Devin Flynt and Michael Chapman.
Saturday, June 26 at 7pm
Sunday, June 27 at 3 pm
Tickets are available at the door for $5 each

 

STAYCEE PEARL dance project (SPdp): ARRAY

ar-ray /uh-rey
1. An orderly series, arrangement or sequence
2. To set out for display or use
3. To dress in finery: adorn

HAT Co. Pearl Dancers (from Hope Academy’s teen theater company) perform their end of the year concert on Sunday, June 27 at 7 pm alongside teaching artist Staycee Pearl’s adult dance company (STAYCEE PEARL dance project, SPdp). Each company performs dance works created by artistic director, Staycee Pearl, SPdp artists and HAT Co/SPdc emerging artists. The two groups also perform as one in a range of inspired performances. Hope Academy student dancers include Angelina Winbush, Candace Burgess, Mimi Thomas, Dayna Rouse and Alexandra Brown. SPdp members include Kerra Alexander, Jamie Murphy, Cassie Shafer, Renee Smith, Amanda Vavra, and Laura Warren.

 
Sunday, June 27 at 7 pm
Admission to this performance is “pay what you can.”
ABOUT HAT Co Pearl Dance
HAT Co (Hope Academy Theater Company) Pearl Dance, is Hope Academy’s student dance workshop established by dancer and choreographer, Staycee Pearl. Under her artistic direction, pre-teen and teenage dancers complete a broad curriculum of study in various dance techniques and styles. As they learn to think about and respect dance as an art form — and themselves as artists and creators – they are encouraged to make their own work. The dancers participate in the larger theater company (HAT Co) and receive additional classes and private lessons in singing, dancing, acting and instrumental music — depending on their area of concentration. This holistic and non-competitive approach to training values and respects the “giftedness” of each company member, helping them to gain the skills and confidence necessary to succeed in school and work, and to contribute in positive ways to our community.

Staycee Pearl’s residency with the company is supported by the generosity of The Heinz Endowments.

Rethinking our Drinking — Bottled Water is OUT at Hope Academy

Actors, singers, dancers and musicians need to stay hydrated when they are working, especially now, when it’s getting hotter and most of our classrooms and rehearsal spaces are not air-conditioned.  We have been buying bottled water to have on hand for dancers and long rehearsals, but after one of our students pointed out how eco-unfriendly this is we have decided to go a bit greener with a self-imposed ban on purchasing bottled water.  Students may bring their own bottled water, if they would like, but hopefully after reading on and watching the video below you will be convinced to bring a reusable water bottle that can be refilled at the water fountains or with the iced tap water that we will provide.

The facts about bottled water

Americans spent $15 billion last year on bottled water, which can cost up to 1000 times more than tap water. Despite the ads and marketing, bottled water is not any cleaner, tastier or healthier than tap water. Each year, 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to make 50 billion disposable drinking bottles, requiring an estimated 47 million gallons of oil — and that doesn’t include the energy costs of shipping the bottled water to the stores where you buy them. Ultimately, one liter of bottled water requires 2,000 times more energy to produce than one liter of tap water. At the end of their life cycle, less than 20 percent of plastic bottles are recycled which means that 38 billion plastic water bottles end up in U.S. landfills each year — 100 million every day! — and they can sit there for up to a thousand years. 

What we can do:

Everything we consume has a climate impact, but manufacturing and trucking water bottles to homes (or churches) with clean tap water seems particularly wasteful. Instead, you can carry a reusable bottle and fill it with tap water. You’ll not only save money but will reduce the use of the non-renewable resources required to make plastic bottles — and keep them out of landfills.

Next week, during our showcase performances at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, we will be selling our new reusable BPA-free Hope Academy water bottles (photo left) for $3 each. Choose from blue, green or pink and we will fill it for you with delicious iced tap water.  Refills are free! Watch the video below and if you aren’t convinced that buying bottled water is not only unnecessary but uncool as well, let us know. Together, we can make a small change and lots of small changes can add up to something BIG. Spread the word!


Showcase Rehearsal and Performance Schedule

The showcase performance is only two weeks away and we are kicking into high gear as we get ready to move into the theater for rehearsals next week. The parent information packet will be distributed in class today and also mailed home. Here is the Rehearsal and Performance Schedule — if (when) you lose it you can come back here to download it again 🙂
Photo: Last year’s cast of “Born for a Reason” at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater