Every school year (since I’ve been here) PNA produces 5 major productions.  Each one teaches students about a different performance style and the behaviors associated with it.

• Concert
• Ceremony (Memorial/Tribute)
• Play/Musical

Concerts are like our Fall Concert.  The focus of this centers around the music.  There is little costuming and set.  The concert usually revolves around a “theme.”  In the past, themes have ranged from The Muppet Show, The Beatles, MTV, and Broadway!
This style will always have a conductor keeping the flow of the concert going.  And it’s always great for the audience to clap along!
Ceremony. PNA does 2 of these every year!  Ceremonies are either in memory or in celebration of someone or something.  Our first is the Martin Luther King Jr. Assembly.  (This is actually one of my favorites!) The second is Graduation!
A Play or Musical  takes the audience to another place or time and allows them to follow along to a story.  PNA produces 2 of these each year with the Beginner – 2nd Grade Musical and the 3rd – 8th Grade Musical.   You will not see a conductor as much in this style.  Students are responsible for their own entrances and exits.

This Thursday, November 8th is PNA’s Fall Concert called PNA Jukebox!  With the help of the Parent Association, PNA will have it’s first ever dinner and a show (ie dinner theatre)!  What an amazing way to build community!  Students will be joined on stage by some of Anchorage’s finest musicians!

In the style of internet sensation, Scott Bradlee and Postmodern Jukebox, PNA students will be performing pop songs in different genres.  You will hear Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” performed in a mariachi style…and in spanish!  Our littlest performers are singing Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” as a lullaby. So what is a musical genre?  A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions.  When you hear a banjo, maybe you think bluegrass or country or Americana. Soaring violins? Maybe you think about the classical sounds of Vivaldi!  But these are the categories we assign to music. My favorite thing about music is when these categories or conventions overlap and something new is created.  And what is art, be it visual or performing, if not the creation of something new and impactful!
When students leave PNA, they will have the confidence to perform in any capacity.  From concert to musical to most likely, a ceremony.  I always hear stories about how the performing arts at PNA help prepare them for occasions outside of school.  From speaking on a debate team to addressing an audience on an important matter facing our community.

” I thought is was going to all romantic, but it was actually very funny!  I really liked all the costumes.  At intermission I looked in the pit and saw a member of the orchestra that taught at my string camp!”

HMS Pinafore is the first show of Anchorage Opera’s 2018-2019 season Through the Eyes of Women.
It runs Nov. 2, 3 and 4.  Call Centertix!  It’s a great way to introduce your student to opera!

I have been performing with the local Opera company for 5 years now!  Everytime I do a show, I learn something new.  I like to bring that back into the classroom.