Oratory’s Newest Club: The Performing Arts Club

Are you interested in music, writing songs, acting, dancing, or filmmaking? Then the new Performing Arts Club is for you! The club is combining the Ukulele Club with all of the performing arts into one club. The benefit of this it that it will tailor to each student’s desires on a wide list of topics from music to dance to acting. The club will also combine the passion and love for music that the Ukulele Club had with a teacher who can help students be ready from a performance and sound perspective.

Mrs. Clark created this club after seeing the creative talent from students in her English classes, the Music Ministry, and the few performances OP has throughout the year. Mrs. Clark says that she felt like this club is important to her because if she was a student at Oratory she would have previously felt that there wasn’t a club that she would have been inclined to join. Mrs. Clark has a lot of experience in performing arts as she plays the piano and guitar, sings, and participated in musical theater.

The club will really be run by the students as they will have much of the say in what they do, what sort of investments in equipment they’d make (should PAC get a grant), and the aspects of performing arts they will practice. Mrs. Clark is already setting up a number of workshops for students interested learning guitar, film, music composition, comedy, and more. These workshops will run late in the fall and are open to all students. Students can also help teach the workshops as well.

“If [students] are only interested in [learning] one thing, we can accommodate that.” -Mrs. Clark.

To join this club, students will not have to learn about all performing arts. Mrs. Clark is working hard to make this club a community where students can focus on their interests and talents as well as find others to collaborate with who share those interests and talents. Mrs. Clark will also work to make sure all students are prepared to perform.

The main objective of the club is to contribute to a revamped Arts Alive in April, which is the annual  visual and performing arts showcase  at Oratory. Mrs. Clark has decided to unify the acts of Arts Alive with a theme, the first of which will be centered around the Beatles. She looks forward to working with Mrs. Preston, Mr. Plagge and others, to develop contributions related to that theme. Mrs. Clark picked the Beatles because they went through many artistic phases, have a wide range of genres, and have different ranges of difficulty in their music. Mrs. Clark is hoping that people familiar with the Beatles will attend Arts Alive, rather than just attending because they know a student who will perform. This gives students and teachers a lot to work with. While not every performance or work of art will be a musical cover of or an image related to the Beatles, pieces will have a Beatles-related theme, such as friendship or love, or a Beatles-inspired aesthetic, utilizing animation or psychedelic colors.
If you are interested in joining the club or have any questions, please contact Mrs. Clark.