Open Mic Night: A success for Sunset Middle School fine arts

This year is the start of a new type of performance for Sunset Middle School students. Instead of a typical music concert or art show, the fine arts departments coordinated and organized a showcase dubbed Open Mic Night.

Students from the various choirs, band, orchestra, drama and even visual arts classes came together Feb. 13 to perform and show their work to their friends and families. With approximately 120 student performances, many students were in more than one performance group, or simultaneously had their art journals on display.

"This [event] was really unique," said Priscilla Arasaki, who teaches orchestra. "I was really proud of the effort they put in and the outcomes of the performances."

For the music students–those in choir, band and/or orchestra–the night counted as one of their required performances. Some visual arts students volunteered their work for extra credit, while for others, this served as a formal assessment of yearlong progress. For the drama students, who largely performed slam poetry, this was a voluntary event, but one that proved to be an exciting learning experience.

Regardless of what department (or departments) the students were performing for, there was one common thread: they were the ones responsible for planning, practicing and executing their pieces.

"I had two groups that wrote their own song," explained choir teacher Anna Hansil. "So that, especially, was really rewarding to see them put forth all that effort."

Taking a step back from being in charge proved to be challenging at times, but overall satisfying to see the students take ownership of their art skills. The night also proved to be satisfying because of its unique atmosphere. Unlike a traditional music concert or theater performance, there was more collaboration, between departments as well as between students, their peers and their teachers.

"With after school performances, it is so focused on what we as the directors tell them to do," Richard Johnston explained. Johnston is the drama and a language arts teacher at Sunset. "And with this, more the onus was on them."

And the students rose to the occasion. Most of the music students had time to prepare for the February showcase. Since music is a yearlong elective, this wasn't their first performance, even for the sixth graders. But for the visual arts and drama students, there was arguably more pressure to practice.

Johnston explained that some of his eighth-grade poets used pieces written the year prior, while the seventh graders who had freshly come out of the poetry unit were sharing new pieces. Meanwhile, art teacher Jason Turner explained that his advanced class had sketchbook work going back to last semester, but his beginning students had only about three weeks worth of development.

"Every class, I gave them 20 to 30 minutes to do journal work. As they were doing that, I would throw out a reminder so they might spend some more time on pages they thought were going really well," Turner said. "I think it's really great to show work that's halfway through the year or that's not totally polished up yet...show the process and not just the product. Students come in with this notion that work has to be perfect, but this was a good opportunity to see where ideas come from."

The event was also a good opportunity to see the diversity of students' interests, and to bolster their confidence in their abilities. Students were performing not only in smaller ensembles, but also for smaller audiences, which gave a sense of intimacy. There were five rooms where the performances took place, with the artwork lining the hall between rooms.

"It was a great opportunity, especially for our music students, to perform in a smaller setting," said Madeleine Cort, the band teacher. "The audiences were a little bit smaller, but it was also an opportunity for our audience to experience different music performances... [With the] more intimate setting, they got to experience more of the artwork our students have at Sunset."

All the teachers agreed that the event was an overall success and they hope to continue this fine arts night as a type of Sunset Middle School tradition. In particular, Hansil and Johnston expressed a hope that the night inspired students to try new artistic mediums and perform again at future Open Mic Nights.

"So far, our post-event discussions have leaned toward doing it again," Arasaki said. "In the future, I would love to keep adding onto it and inviting our feeder elementaries or the high school to perform, or we have parents who are part of really cool bands. We're definitely open to all types of performances."