We have come to the end of another amazing week at Days in the Arts. Thursday afternoon we took a trip to Williamstown to see a wonderful production of Lady Windemere's Fan. Students enjoyed the production in the brand new theatre at Williams College. The Williamstown Theatre Festival is one of the oldest festivals in the country. They draw some of the best actors around. In this production one of the main roles was played by Jean Smart. Many of us recognize her from the show Designing Women.

When we returned to Simons Rock the students began their weekly presentations. We started with Creative expression. Our wonderful first time Darties Andi, Diane and Jason helped the students present the wonderful work they had done this week. Including mandalas that they made into a quilt and a mural of things they enjoyed through the week.

After the creative writing presentations we were treated to a theatre performance led by Susan Fischer. The students did an excellent job with a play that included singing and speaking parts. The play had a patriotic theme and used many quotes from famous americans that focused on the weeks theme of the 1940s. We then proceeded to the dance studio. Annette Brown's dancers performed an example of a warm up created by Katherine Dunham and then performed to the jazz piece "The A Train." Stacey Piwinski's artist shared individual and group projects. The individual projects included weavings using photographs of the students, The photos were remnisent of artist Dorothea Lange. Students also made prints that reflect qoutes from the forties. As a group the created a painting and a chandelier.
The instrumentalist led by Ed Oliver did a fantastic job presenting their work. This week they teamed up wth the vocalist to perform America the Beautiful. The final performance was by Phil Mccullough and his vocal group. The did some really nice selections from the forties and were a nice close to the arts workshop presentations.

After the Arts workshop presentation students did a sensational talent show and then we had a dance before a late goodnight.

Friday morning we were at Tanglewood where we met one of the members of the Bass section. He answered questions and played some music. We then proceeded to a closed rehearsal of the Boston Symphony. They were preparing several works for a chamber size orchestra and it was exciting for us to see them work.