Arts Night showcases PECI student talent

Jessie Reed and Elizabeth Forsyth observe Arionna Scaletta painting.

PECI’s arts community invited friends, family and the public to attend the first semester’s Arts’ Night – a venue for staff and students to showcase talent.

“We did this event each semester of the 2011-2012 school year,” said Matthew Sheahan, the department head of the Arts and Native Studies and drama teacher at PECI. “Unfortunately, due to things out of our control, we couldn’t hold the event last year, but we were very excited to do it again this year.”

The evening began with art work created by Gail Henderson’s art and craft classes, and Melinda Chalmer’s Native Studies art class on display in the front foyer. Visitors mingled with the artists while enjoying refreshments and viewing their work.

The evening moved to the gym where there were several music and dramatic performances.  Adam Palmer’s senior music class performed two sets of three songs, and his two Grade 9 music classes performed on their box drums they created  in class.

The PECI Improv Team, the Panther Provers, played two games, one from the Canadian Improv Games, where they will be competing in February, and a game called the Plot Thickens. The Grade 9 drama class performed two movement scenes, one with the Improv team and senior drama class, and another where the entire class made two huge tableaus from scratch. The senior drama class performed the opening sequence to a play they created for the memorial of Ecole Polytechnique that they performed at the Core Art Centre earlier this month, and a series of tableaus summarizing the events of the school semester.

“The evening was an excellent mix of all art forms, demonstrating the excellence of the students at PECI,” added Sheahan. “All of the students, from every discipline received rousing rounds of applause throughout the evening and especially at the end. We are all very proud of what our students have and will accomplish.”

Students will share musical and theatrical talents at the annual Christmas presentation on Thursday.