Get Tix Now For Performing Arts Company’s Spring Improv Show On Friday, May 27

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Photo: Poster for the Spring Improv Show

It’s fun, it’s spontaneous and it sells out each year.

Belmont High School Performing Arts Company is presenting its final production of the school year, the annual Spring Improv Show, on Friday, May 27 at 7 p.m. in the school’s Black Box Admission: 

The Improv Show is a high-energy performance, made up on the spot from audience suggestions. This week’s show will feature a set of musical improv games, with made-up-on-the-spot songs!

One of the most popular productions of the year, advance ticket purchase is encouraged. The show is free for the school’s staff and students and $5 for everyone else.

Ticket sales and more info at bhs-pac.org  

Belmont Schools ‘Strongly Recommend’ Masks for Students, Visitors For Indoor Activities

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Photo: Masks are being strongly recommended when visiting or attending Belmont Public Schools

With increasing positive cases of Covid-19 within Belmont schools and after the CDC declared Middlesex county’s community level of Covid cases to be “high”, the Belmont School District is following the lead of the town’s Health Department to ”strongly recommend” everyone wear a mask regardless of vaccination status when indoors at the district’s six public schools.

“We ask for your continued support in this effort, particularly at times like this when we experience increasing cases,” said Belmont Superintendent John Phelan in an email released on Monday, May 24.

While many mandated mitigations have been lifted and as COVID cases continue to rise, Phelan said parents and students should consider the following recommendations as an added layer of protection:

  • Consider having students wear a mask while in school. “We are not mandating but strongly recommend this added layer of protection,” said Phelan.
  • Wear a mask if any symptoms are present, even if antigen tests remain negative.
  • Wear a mask for 10 days if you have been exposed to someone with COVID-19  regardless of your vaccination status. This includes cases within the home. (Per CDC guidance.)
  • Parents, guardians, and family members are strongly encouraged to wear a mask when visiting Belmont public schools. Masks will be made available at all schools.

“With the end of school comes important milestones for many students, whether it is graduation, a moving up ceremony, classroom showcase, performing arts program, or school event; please help us hold these special events without disruption and as safely as possible,” said Phelan.

‘Disney’s Little Mermaid’ (The Junior Version)On Stage At Chenery Middle School, May 19-21

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Photo: The poster to the show this weekend.

The Chenery Middle School Theater will present its production of “Disney’s The Little Mermaid JR.”

Journey “under the sea” with Ariel and her aquatic friends in this production adapted from Disney’s Broadway production and the motion picture featuring the enormously popular Academy Award-winning music and delightfully charming book and lyrics. Based on one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most beloved stories, Disney’s The Little Mermaid JR. is an enchanting look at the sacrifices we all make for love and acceptance.

In a magical underwater kingdom, the beautiful young mermaid, Ariel, longs to leave her ocean home — and her fins — behind and live in the world above. But first, she’ll have to defy her father, King Triton, make a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, and convince the handsome Prince Eric that she’s the girl whose enchanting voice he’s been seeking.

Shows are:

  • Thursday, May 19 at 7 p.m.
  • Friday, May 20 at 7 p.m.
  • Saturday, May 21 at 2 p.m.

The shows will take place at the Chenery Middle School auditorium.

TICKET INFO: ADULTS: $10, STUDENTS/CHILDREN: $5

TICKETS AND INFORMATION AT bhs-pac.org/cms

Performing Arts Company’s One Act Festival Returns With Pirates, Baggage, And A Dead Butler

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Photo: Lincoln Crockett directing the world premier of “The Butler is Dead” at the One Act Festival at Belmont High School.

The sad tales of unclaimed luggage, a murder mystery in which the butler didn’t do it and a verbally gifted pirate in search of a special someone.

These are just a few of the productions presented this week with the return of the Belmont High School Performing Arts Company’s Student Directed One Act Play Festival taking place this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 12-14 at 7 p.m. in the Belmont High School Black Box Theater.

Tickets can be purchased online here. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students.

The annual production is back on stage after a two-year Covid hiatus with a mix of comedy, drama and everything in between.

”One Act is a form of theater that tries to condense a message that could be conveyed in a two hour straight play or musical into 10 minutes,” said senior Lincoln Crockett who is directing the world premier of “The Butler is Dead,” by Eli Barnes, a Belmont High graduate (2019) who wrote the work to be performed in 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic.

See the accompanying video as Crockett goes prepares his cast for the production.

For two BHS PAC veterans who have taken up the mantel of senior director, the return to One Acts now brings new outlook to the theatrical process.

Leeza Pesok is co-directing with Giulia VecchiI “Emotional Baggage,” a one act about suitcases stuck at an airport’s unclaimed baggage counter and all the trauma and problems they go through while complaining about their lives.

“Yeah, it’s a comedy,” Pesok said.

Pesok’s fellow senior, Katie Shea, is directing “Jolly Jack Junior: The Buccaneer’s Bairn” with Talia Fiore, the tale about a pirate named Willie who has been on the hunt for someone special.

Q: What’s it like to be involved with the return of one acts after two years away?

Pesok: “My freshman year in 2019, I was in a One Act as an actor. Three years go by and, out of the blue, I’m now directing one. Seeing the production from the inside-out has given me a truly unique perspective on building a show from the bottom up as a director.

Shea: I was also in one acts my freshman year and being able to direct them now has been such a rewarding experience to see a side of production of theater that I’m not normally on.”

Leeza Pesok and Katie Shea

Q: Why did you select the plays you’re directing?

Pesok: “I just spend a couple of weeks reading different plays. And then this one just sort of jumped off the page. I could really visualize it. And I still can’t forget the moment in auditions when I heard people reading the lines for the first time after reading it for so long by myself. And it was then I just knew I made the right choice. Seeing it in rehearsals and working through it, I’m just so excited for audiences to see it.”

Shea: “When [Fiore and I] found Jolly Junior, we read the script to each other in these ridiculous British accents and we couldn’t stop laughing. We knew that this play would be so fun to produce.”

Q: Unlike a standard play or musical, one acts are known for having fairly sparse staging. How do you compensate for these limitation?

Pesok: “We don’t actually have talking suitcases on stage. The script provides a little brief description for each character – a threadbare Valise from the South or a drug smuggler’s duffel bag – and then we sort of take that and incorporate some character choices and that gives the actors a chance to make the stage come alive.”

Shea: “We were lucky enough to have plenty of pirate costumes left over from “Spongebob” [BHS PACs spring musical produced last month] so that actually worked out pretty well for us. And while we did create a minimalist pirate ship, you’ll definitely get the feel that it is one.

Q: What do you want the audience to take away from your one act?

Pesok: “When you when you go through an airport, you never really think about the experiences that their bags are going through and how it must feel being carried around through your whole life. It’s cool to see all the actors connecting with different aspects of each bags life; how one was meant to go to a Realtor’s convention in Florida but got left behind and she’s so upset about it. It’s a really fun perspective to have when you just are a person and not a suitcase.”

Shea: “We’re just looking for people to have a good time and sit there and laugh for a little bit. The plot of our show is ridiculous: there’s so many made-up words in the dialogue that are supposed to be ‘pirate’ language. The actors have done an amazing job of really bringing it to life on stage. So we just hope people have fun.”

The plays include:

SURPRISE By Mark Harvey Levine
Directed by Grace Sattler
Peter’s psychic abilities are driving his date, Whitney, slowly insane.

JOLLY JACK JUNIOR: THE BUCCANEER’S BAIRN By Jeff Goode
Directed by Katie Shea and Talia Fiore
Looking for revenge, pirate Willy boards a pirate ship and demands an audience with the captain… but instead finds a secret to his past.

ALIEN MONSTER BOWLING LEAGUE By Matthew Lopez
Directed by Emily Kaiser
The arrival of Aliens is threatening Hubbard’s long reign as Bowling League Champion.

HE’S REALLY A GREAT GUY By Rory Leahy
Directed by Chris Jorgenson
Matt wants his friend Dan to get out more and meet someone special, so he sets up a double date with Heather and Annie, but Dan’s secret inner life could be a deal breaker.

1-900-DESPERATE By Christopher Durang
Directed by Claire Svetkey
Gretchen, alone on a Saturday night, impulsively calls 1-900-DESPERATE, a hotline for desperate single people. But you never know who you’ll meet on an open phone line.

EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE By Nina Shengold
Directed by Leeza Pesok and Giulia Vecchi
It’s hard to be a suitcase at the Unclaimed Baggage counter.

THE FIRST NIGHT OF CHANUKAH By Sheri Wilner
Directed by Naomi Stephenson
David Schwartz is the only jew stranded in the Devil’s Lake, North Dakota airport on the first night of Chanukah – until he encounters another traveler with a link to the (historically real) turn of the century Jewish homesteaders in North Dakota.

THE BUTLER IS DEAD By Eli Barnes (World Premier)
Directed by Lincoln Crockett
Several important guests show up to a business meeting at a fancy manor, only to find that murder occurs. *gasp* The butler must have done it…. But…. The butler is dead!

Breaking: Belmont High School Closed After Bomb Threat [Updated 1 PM]

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Photo: Belmont High School on the first day of the 2021-22 school year.

Due to a phoned in bomb threat, classes at Belmont High School have been cancelled for today, Wednesday, May 11, according to an email from Principal Isaac Taylor. Four Belmont Police vehicles and a Belmont Fire engine are at the school on Concord Avenue investigating the threat.

“Out of an abundance of caution the school department has elected to close the school for the day,” noted the Belmont Police twitter account.

Taylor said in his email that he was working on “how we will reschedule AP exams that were supposed to be taking place today.”

Chenery Middle School and Belmont’s four elementary schools remain open.

“At no time were there any threats or concerns for our elementary and middle school buildings,” said Belmont Superintendent John Phelan.

Update: 1 p.m.

The Belmont School District has provided a detailed timeline of the events of Wednesday, May 11:

  • 6:34 am: Belmont Police dispatch received a call from Massachusetts 911 stating that they received a bomb threat specific to Belmont High School.
  • 6:44 am: Belmont High School administration was notified via cell phone  of the threat as they were enroute to the school building.
  • 6:45 am: Belmont Police, in collaboration with school officials, proactively pulled the fire alarm to empty the school of any staff and students who arrived early in the building.
  • 6:56 am: Belmont Police requested permission to bring the Explosive Ordinance Dogs (EOD) from surrounding municipalities to sweep the building.
  • 7:14 am: BHS administration was provided access to the internet to communicate to Belmont High School students, staff, and families of the situation and the school closure decision for today.
  • 7:23 am: District administration sent out the first communication to BHS families, students, and staff.
  • 7:36 am: EOD teams arrived at BHS to sweep school.
  • 7:53 am: District administration sent out an automated call to our Belmont High School staff and families.
  • 8:24 am: District administration sent out an email communication to our PreK-12 community.
  • 8:40 am: BHS administration sent out a second communication to families, students and staff with an update.
  • 9:42 am: School administration was informed that the sweep of the building was complete and school was safe for activities this afternoon and safe to open for a regular school day tomorrow, Thursday, May 12.

Belmont Superintendent Phelan wrote in email to the school community just before noon:

“I want to thank the Belmont Police Department and Belmont High School administration for their vigilance, support, leadership and commitment to the safety of our school community. In addition, my appreciation goes out to our neighboring police departments for their support in sweeping the building.”

“The High School administration will provide an update on the schedules for today’s afterschool activities and the rescheduling of Advanced Placement exams impacted by today’s school closure.”

“My deepest gratitude to all of our staff who supported our students in all schools today as we worked through this morning’s incident. Staff will be made available to talk with students for the remainder of the week, should there be any questions or continued concerns.”

As Covid Cases Surge, Belmont Schools Asking Students To Consider Going Back To Masks

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Photo: Belmont schools are suggesting students consider wearing masks as Covid cases surge

The Belmont school district is suggesting students consider going back to wearing masks as the number of positive Covid-19 cases in the schools, town and county have spiked in the past two months.

“We are not mandating but simply recommending this added layer of protection,” said Belmont Superintendent John Phelan in an email to the school community dated Monday, May 9.

Phelan said that since the April break, the district has ”seen an increase in cases and this is most likely due to the contagiousness of the Omicron variant, as well as, increased social gatherings and travel.”

The surge of local cases has resulted in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to raise the Covid-19 Community Level for all of Middlesex County to the “high” level on May 5.

In Belmont, the number of new weekly positive cases in schools reached 93 as of May 4, a significant increase from previous weeks, shadowing the jump in the general population as the state reported 165 positive cases in the past two weeks. Using the Average Daily Incidence Per 100,000 people, 14 day period measurement, Belmont has gone from a low of 6.8 incidences on March 4 to 43 on May 4.

“We continue to work closely with the Belmont Health Department to monitor cases and keep our students and staff safer. We ask for your continued support in this effort, particularly at times like this when we experience increasing cases,” said Phelan.

Noting that many of the past mitigation measures Belmont and its schools had implemented since March 2020 have been lifted – the town’s mask requirement was ended in the first week of March 2022 – Phelan asked parents and students ”consider” mask wearing as an extra layers of protection and when symptoms are present and antigen tests remain negative.

Pops Concerts Return This Friday, Saturday at Belmont High School – Get Tixs Now

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Photo: The poster for this year’s Belmont High Pops

The Belmont High School Pops concerts are back!

This year’s concerts – scheduled for Friday and Saturday, May 6 and 7 at 6:30 p.m. in the new theater/concert hall – will feature an array of musical ensembles performing lively, memorable music in the new high school’s state-of-the-art theatre. A dessert reception featuring performances by smaller student groups concludes the evenings.

For everyone who loves live music, connecting with the community, supporting the arts in Belmont, and seeing performances in the new theatre, the family-friendly Pops concerts are the perfect opportunity.

Friday night’s concert on May 6 will feature the Concert Orchestra, Symphonic Band and Concert Chorale performing selections from Lord of the Rings, How to Train Your Dragon, Carmen and Pentatonix.

The music continues on Saturday night, May 7 with the Chamber Orchestra, Wind Ensemble and Chamber Singers. Highlights include selections from West Side Story, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and songs made popular by Five for Fighting, the Boston Pops, and Simon and Garfunkel. For a grand finale, the Chamber Orchestra and Wind Ensemble will join forces to perform music from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Here’s a little teaser from three years ago. Yes, that is the cafeteria in the old high school

The Pops concerts are a fundraiser for Belmont’s POMS (Parents of Music Students), which serves Belmont band, orchestra and choral students from elementary through high schools.

“The funds raised by POMS provide our students with instruments, equipment and enrichment opportunities,” said Arto Asadoorian, director of the district’s visual and performing arts department.

“By attending a Pops concert, not only are you going to hear great music in a beautiful performance venue, you will also support an organization that is incredibly valuable to Belmont music students in every grade.”

Visit https://pomsbelmont.booktix.com/ to purchase tickets. Tickets for adults are $15 for one night ($25 for both nights). Tickets for students and seniors are $10 for one night ($15 for both). The admission price includes dessert. The Pops concerts are appropriate for children ages 5 and up. For more information about POMs, visit https://belmontpoms.weebly.com/

Belmont High PTSO Speaker Series Understanding Youth Mental Health: Guidance for Parents and Guardians On May 3

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Photo: The poster for the Speaker Series event on May 3

On Tuesday, May 3, at 7 p.m., the Belmont Wellness Coalition will be present a ZOOM talk as part of the 2022 Belmont High School PTSO Speakers Series on “Understanding Youth Mental Health: Guidance for Parents and Guardians.”

A panel of BWC experts and a member of the Belmont High School Crisis Team will discuss topics such as:

• How to distinguish typical versus concerning behaviors,

• How to create a crisis plan,

• Self harm versus suicidal ideation,

• What to do when your child is in crisis, and

• The Belmont Schools Crisis Teams – who they are and what they do for students and families. 

Zoom Link

If you would like to submit questions in advance, please fill out this Google form:

Pair Of Chenery Middle School Musicians Awarded Annual McLellen Scholarship

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Photo: This year’s recipients of the annual John McLellan Music Scholarship (from left) Chenery Middle School students Markus Sendzik and Fiona Rodriguez-Clark with John McLellan

Markus Sendzik, a 7th grade violinist, violist and pianist, and Fiona Rodriguez-Clark, an 8th grade cellist, are the 2022 recipients of the annual John McLellan Music Scholarship, created to help Chenery Middle School students achieve new levels of musical accomplishment.

They received the $500 scholarship, which honors long-time Chenery Middle School band director John McLellan, who retired in 2018 after inspiring thousands of Belmont public school students to love music during his 35-year-career, at the Chenery honors ensemble choral and orchestra concert on April 12.

Sendzik and Rodriguez-Clark applied for the honor and were selected by the Scholarship Committee for their leadership, scholarship, musicianship, and mentorship. The students plan to use the awards to further their music education this summer. The scholarship is administered by POMs, Parents of Music Students. More information is at http://belmontpoms.weebly.com.

Belmont’s Last Day Of School Falls On The First Full Day Of Summer

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Photo: Last day of school for fourth graders at the Wellington Elementary School

How can it be any more appropriate that the final day of school in Belmont falls on the first full day of summer?

After using two of the five “snow” days built into the 2021-2 calendar, the Belmont School Department determined the district will reach the 180 days of learning required by the state on Wednesday, June 22.

The date was approved unanimously by the School Committee with the hope there will no plowable snow events after April 12 and families can begin making plans for trips, camps and vacations.