The Arts in an Unprecedented School Year

This article was originally printed in the Summer 2021 issue of Views from the Hill.

Robert Smith, Arts Department Chair, shares in his own words the triumphs and challenges faced by the Arts Department in 2020–2021.

When the pandemic first took hold in the spring of 2020, Hopkins shut the doors to a physical school and opened its doors to a virtual one—a radical shift in perspective and learning that rendered much of what the Arts Department normally offered through its programming close to impossible. As they worked to develop new ways to teach and distribute materials, our teachers began to experiment with various forms of virtual performances, notably through Zoom and pre-recorded audio and video. Ultimately, our ever-resourceful Hopkins faculty pulled together an eclectic arts website and dynamic set of video performances to end the 2020 school year, successfully maintaining the community spirit and inclusion that our shows and concerts have always reflected. Yet, as we congratulated ourselves on a successful and creative end to the school year, the uncertainty of the 2020–2021 school year, and the possibility that we might not have any live events at all, loomed heavy, prompting much creative thinking and reimagining.

One decision made early in the summer of 2020 was that we would not trim our arts offerings, nor would we prohibit students from engaging in rehearsals or collaborative work, as long as we could do so safely and within state and federal CDC guidelines. Our focus first fell on our popular drama program, where the absence of a stage, lights, sound effects, sets, and the dubious nature of internet connectivity threatened to prevent us from having any productions at all. Undaunted, drama teachers Hope Hartup and Michael Calderone wholly reimagined theater at Hopkins, and absolutely nailed it! In July 2021, the drama department received three HALO awards for their productions of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play and the original musical Killing Time! The program was nominated for a total of 19 awards in one of its most lauded seasons ever.

“Keeping it Real”

It started off with the Hopkins Drama production of Boxes in the fall of 2020, an original show of student accounts of the previous six months in quarantine. To cover up the requisite COVID face masks the students had to wear while delivering their lines, Calderone had character masks custom made in the U.K. for the production. Since no more than four actors were allowed on the stage at any one time, Boxes was recorded and shared online, preserving a key element of live performance in a small, but special way. Photos and rehearsal clips of the production can be found on the Winter 2020 Arts Festival video, but the production itself did not have a chance to conclude due to the virtual transition Hopkins made around Thanksgiving break. While we weren’t able to complete the Boxes production, we learned some important lessons that would set us up for successes down the road.

Following Boxes, Hope Hartup directed Tony Palermo’s radio-on-stage adaption of It’s A Wonderful Life, just in time for the winter holidays. Still masked and on the Townshend Auditorium stage, Hartup was able to bring together a larger cast, musical instruments, and sound effects to create an experience not too far off from a televised presentation. The camera work, Hammond organ introduction, and the experience of live theater, though without a live audience, brought to mind a time when we were all together under one roof, enjoying the holidays and celebrating student performances. A video recording of It’s A Wonderful Life still lives online at hopkins.edu/life. Following a similar format, Junior School students pushed their own Zoom creativity for their production of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. Released in April of 2021, Calderone went to tremendous effort to create a believable world, complete with sound effects and background images, and the intensity of the show belies the fact that Zoom was in the equation at all.

Taking the model of pandemic theater even further, we pushed our previous efforts to include live, interactive one-act performances in Hope Hartup’s Short Stuff on Zoom, in two parts. In this production, students acted their parts from home with costumes and virtual backgrounds in an effort to recreate the beloved magic of the theater. Audiences were also treated to a live Q&A after each show, giving students an opportunity to highlight all the twists and turns that this Zoom theater production threw at them. It was a resounding success, and it proved that we could come very close to replicating live theater. Deep down, however, there was always a longing and a need to have a live audience in front of live performers, for that is the reality and soul of theater.

While all of this wonderful experimentation in staging plays was underway, our music department was also trying to navigate its own public spacing restrictions, airflow considerations for instrumentalists and singers, and the need for students to collaborate as an ensemble. For all our classes, hybrid learning forced teachers to rethink their profession, especially how students receive and respond to course material. Leading up to the start of the 2020–2021 school year, many of our faculty discussed this critical pivot with colleagues from other schools, theaters, and local colleges and universities. It was clear that the data concerning music rehearsal, especially indoors, pointed to necessary caution. Our band courses thus became a fixture outside under the Pratt Field tents, and our choir moved to the open-air safety of the Thompson Amphitheater. The orchestra moved to the cavernous gym, creating an odd couple of arts and athletics in an ad hoc pairing that was becoming familiar in schools around the country. When winter approached and the weather was too cold to support outdoor rehearsals, the orchestra moved to the cafeteria, while the bands and chorus switched to the athletic center. This “musical chairs” of musical ensembles tested the nerves and resolve of the students and teachers alike, though all were intent on ending the year with a live performance, audience and all! Leading up to the holidays and for a few weekends thereafter, our musical ensembles were allowed to have a few Saturday rehearsals on campus to prepare for video performances and festival recordings. For a few hours over the course of the fall and winter, the hybrid model was set aside for friendship and bonding. It was a gift, to be sure.

Live theater makes a comeback with Killing Time

As the end of 2020 approached and our winter festival video was released on hopkinsarts.com, eyes were already on the spring of 2021 and the possibilities that a vaccinated Hopkins School might bring. The next big event on the Arts Department calendar was the spring musical. After much conversation and exploring, it was decided that the Thompson Amphitheater would serve the purpose for which it was built. The School had never produced a main stage show in the amphitheater, much less anything the size and scope of a musical. And this wouldn’t be just any musical. Our very own faculty members Ian Melchinger and Erika Schroth had been working together, composing and writing a musical of their own, titled Killing Time. The amount of time and planning that went into Killing Time was immense, with Hopkins bringing in a stage, sound system, LED lighting, and all the usual supporting crew of a choreographer, sound engineers, lighting designer, musicians—you name it. The stars and the weather aligned for five straight days, and we had standing-room-only performances, marking our first foray back to real live theater on the Hill! Photos and recordings of the show continue to live on the school’s website.

Watch a full-length recording of Killing Time on hopkinsarts.com

Performing Arts Come Roaring Back

As the musical was nearing the end of its run, the music faculty received word from Baldwin Hall that our immense commencement tent would be installed two weeks ahead of graduation, affording us a stage, lighting, sound, and enough seats to finally have a traditional spring concert! With the Jazz Band fresh off its national first place award and the copious repertoire that the Concert Band, Choirs, and Orchestra had prepared throughout the spring term, this concert was a joy to plan. Despite a sharp downturn in the weather that brought us driving rain, wind, and temperatures in the upper 40s, the show went on with spectacular performances from ensembles large and small, chamber groups, and soloists. The dedicated audience weathered the storm and stayed to honor the seniors at the end of the choral performance, thus concluding over five hours of music in two concerts that involved more than 120 students and their families. It was a profound statement that the performing arts were roaring back on the Hill!

To put a celebratory finishing touch on the reopening of campus, our visual arts faculty created a pop-up show for our first ever Spring Arts Festival. Student artwork was reproduced and proudly displayed on lamppost banners throughout campus. On Wednesday, June 2, the Thompson Quad gained a tent for a one-day showing of video productions, and the prototype chairs and animal-inspired ceramics created by students in the spring term were set out for all to see. The interior of Thompson Hall was adorned with artwork from all of our Junior, Middle, and Upper School Arts courses, while cutting boards from Mr. Sayler’s woodworking class were set out in the servery line, beckoning hungry denizens. It was a creative and colorful end to a school year that changed how we think of and value education and our school community. The experience of having to change everything, from class content delivery to performances and shows, reaffirmed to our faculty that if they can imagine it, they can do it—a wisdom they have always shared as dedicated teachers of the Arts.