Media and Arts Highlights of the School Year
Streaming live sports events, performing arts performances, or organizing a conference with a couple hundred people: The FIS Media team has achieved some great success over the 2022/2023 school year.
One of the main outcomes achieved this year was reintroducing the real program to the Media club, making it accessible to younger children again, and letting them engage more with the media experience. There was also a significant rise in views on the FIS Youtube channel with more than 87,000 views over the last year. The Media team was streaming weekly sports live streams, with Golf being recorded for the first time in school history and hosting the first AI symposium ever. Besides that, the performing arts department staged two incredible high school productions which were filmed in their full length, as well as the Girl Up charity fashion show.
Being a member of the Media Club takes a lot of dedication and effort as there are consistently various events happening in our school community. Therefore, one of the goals for next year is to find a new team of students who share the passion for Media and are able to take over a leadership role. This is of great importance since a number of students on the team will be graduating in the next school year. Without the media team and all their hard work, we would not be able to enjoy even half of the things our school has to offer. Needless to say, the media is an integral part of the future and society. In a world that is constantly changing and evolving, it is crucial to introduce younger generations to the world of technology and how we can use it to have a positive impact on the world. “With media, we are providing access to capture events and moments that students cannot attend. As an international school this is even more important, as there are so many students that have extended family living across the globe,” Julius, student and current leader of the Media club, said. This way, everyone can benefit from the outstanding events our school has to offer.
The media team has not only put in lots of work into showcasing school events but also supporting the Fine Arts department! Drama teachers Mr. Sarstedt and Ms. Abrams as well as dance teacher Mr. Gregg have directed and choreographed three incredible productions, with two of them being for high school and middle school and the third one being a middle school play.
The 2022/2023 school year started off with Henrik Ibsen’s classic realist drama “An Enemy of the People”. The political thriller explores the conflict between science and politics, and the effect this has on our environment. The text was adapted by Arthur Miller in the 1950s, at a time when political pressure had a major influence on one’s freedom of expression.The play was over 2 hours long and the students put in tremendous effort and hard work to put on this piece of theater. With an ensemble of students from different grade levels, the students had a lot of fun creating and collaborating on this piece.
The second major production of this school year was “Break the Mould”, a reimagination of Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. This was not just a conventional theater piece, but also a dance theater without any text. The idea behind this was “to change the way something has traditionally been done, and do it in a new way”, Mr. Gregg, a dance teacher and the director of this piece, said. The FIS dance company has spent numerous hours and long weekends in the dance studio to break the mold and make this an unforgettable experience for the audience. Not unexpectedly, this dynamic and colorful show was a great success with five completely booked-out performances, enjoyed by all age groups. The last production is “Ulysses”, a middle school play and ensemble piece directed by Ms. Abrams.
Overall, the main outcome achieved this year by the drama department was having a full season of plays without having to postpone one of them. After the pandemic, it was amazing to get back to having a regular season with normal rehearsals and being able to perform in front of a live audience. Besides that, “An Enemy of the People” was a double-cast production, meaning that everyone who auditioned for this piece was able to perform and was given a chance to be part of a production. Next year’s goals include performing a musical as the high school play, which has been requested by students for a very long time. It will be the first one in five years but the department has not decided on which one yet. Since it will be a piece of musical theater, there will also be more cooperation between the drama and choir department.
“Being part of an ensemble establishes a great sense of community. It is about team-work and collaboration and teaches you discipline and commitment,” Mr. Sarstedt, drama teacher and director, said. Mr. Sarstedt, a drama teacher and play director expressed that “Being part of an ensemble establishes a great sense of community. It is about team-work and collaboration and teaches you discipline and commitment.” With that being said, we are more than looking forward to what the next school year will bring to our FIS Media and Arts departments!
