Contact: Tim Stopper

The greater the risk the greater the reward. Well, it could certainly be considered a risk to tell forty-three students age twelve to fourteen that they are going to create an opera. The rewards, as could be expected, were tremendous. When the students realized that the content, quality, and style of the opera in all of its facets were to be entirely their own, they gained a sense of ownership and to a great degree, responsibility.

Departments experienced what it was like to depend on another department for something you need to complete your work. They also learned that while suggestions are always valid, final decisions for any part of a creative process fall under certain jurisdiction. A performer cannot decide to change a line a writer wrote, any more than a writer can tell an actor how to interpret a line or a costume designer can tell a set designer what the backdrop should depict.

We saw the performers rally around a student who chose performing but spent a large portion of the process trying to separate himself from his peers. With patience and support he began to express, and the entire ensemble gave him encouragement.

Students who worked as production and stage managers filled out purchase orders, managed on-task scheduling, and kept track of properties, equipment, and staging. They had additional meetings with the directors (teachers) every week to set up scheduling for the following week, as well as managed daily group warm-ups.

Students learned to wire, use power tools, but first the design team came up with a "unified design concept" which included a color, a line, a shape, and a texture for the show to keep the look and feel cohesive.

The composers by the end of the production had students standing around them while they "jammed" on the themes, melodies and songs they had created for characters and situations.

The characters in the opera were diverse, but the same age as the students writing the show, which gave the production additional authenticity.

We had visitations from professional lighting and set designers from the Lantern Theater, a trip for the PR department to speak with the people who handle Arts &Entertainment press releases at the "Daily News," instruction from a parent who is a professional electrician on volts, watts, and amps with our electricians and who oversaw their creation of the footlights. Toby Twining, PEW Fellowship composer and GSFS parent, also visited and helped student composers in the early stages of creation with character motifs.

It was truly a community effort. While challenging, it turned out to be a process in which we all learned a great deal about each other, working together, depending on others and being dependable, and finally how there is a way for any student to have an important part in the creation of a work of art that no one student alone could produce.