Seahorse Melds Art and Science Across Grades
From Director Sarah Carlin:
This year's Grade Five spring musical play was an adaptation of the children's book, The Sign of the Seahorse, by Graeme Base. The story is about a community of creatures who live on an ocean coral reef, and who notice that their reef is slowly changing and that all the seahorses have disappeared. It's a colorful tale of greed and high adventure, and of course, it's also a love story.
This year's Grade Five spring musical play was an adaptation of the children's book, The Sign of the Seahorse, by Graeme Base. The story is about a community of creatures who live on an ocean coral reef, and who notice that their reef is slowly changing and that all the seahorses have disappeared. It's a colorful tale of greed and high adventure, and of course, it's also a love story.
This was an ambitious production that involved 54 fifth graders, a narrative text in rhyming verse, music, dancing, and many costume transitions. As the director, I collaborated with Lower School art teacher, Shay Cajolet, who guided the fifth graders as well as ninth graders in creating the artwork for the production, including blacklit, glow-in-the-dark fish and sparkling seahorses.
From Art Teacher Shay Cajolet
In the art studio, students in Grade 5 Visual Arts worked to create props and backdrops using a variety of materials. They designed and cut out large scale fish before coloring them with UV paints so that they would glow on stage. Other students worked collaboratively to create large watercolor paintings of particular scenes for the play. These images were projected on a huge scale as backdrops. The third team worked to paint and decorate large wooden seahorses that Innovation Lab Director Cam McNall had prepared for them in the iLab. Using different colors of glitter, neon paint, and tempera, students made the seahorse bright and cheerful while also making sure they would sparkle when held by hand or hung on a mobile as the 'disco' ball twinkled.
Ninth grade students were also involved in creating art and props for the production, including the enormous iLab-born moray eel and the 'combat lobster' that appeared at climactic moments.
From Art Teacher Shay Cajolet
In the art studio, students in Grade 5 Visual Arts worked to create props and backdrops using a variety of materials. They designed and cut out large scale fish before coloring them with UV paints so that they would glow on stage. Other students worked collaboratively to create large watercolor paintings of particular scenes for the play. These images were projected on a huge scale as backdrops. The third team worked to paint and decorate large wooden seahorses that Innovation Lab Director Cam McNall had prepared for them in the iLab. Using different colors of glitter, neon paint, and tempera, students made the seahorse bright and cheerful while also making sure they would sparkle when held by hand or hung on a mobile as the 'disco' ball twinkled.
Ninth grade students were also involved in creating art and props for the production, including the enormous iLab-born moray eel and the 'combat lobster' that appeared at climactic moments.
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