Portland Adventist Academy was thrilled to share its first ever virtual Performing Arts event despite the Covid-19 pandemic! The program premiered on the school’s Youtube channel on December 17, 2020.
The benefit of a virtual program is that it is allows grandparents and far-away friends and family the chance to see their loved ones perform. And it will serve PAA students as a forever memory of their ability to thrive even in this challenging time.
Because of the pandemic, students pioneered their way through strange new territory. Their hard work brings much pride and joy to their parents and the entire PAA community!
So how was this accomplished?!
With determination, tenacity, patience, and passion!
With the leadership of Performing Arts teachers Dr. John Carter, music department chair, and Jeremy Long, Performance & Production teacher, PAA students courageously rose to meet the challenges.
Music students were heavily dependent on new-to-them technological tools. They met individually with their teachers online, they practiced entirely on their own with e-tuners and metronomes, they met with their ensembles on Zoom, and finally recorded their individual parts at home.
PAA’s Drama Class performed “10 Ways to Survive Life in a Quarantine”
The Drama Class learned their lines, practiced over Zoom, and recorded their performances.
Dr. Carter and Mr. Long, also rose to new challenges by producing all of these virtual performances. This meant making sure students were in tune and following the same rhythm despite not being in-person. Doing this in-person is hard enough, but online requires much more patience and tenacity.
When students were allowed to be on campus, they wore masks while they sang or played their instruments.
These kinds of challenges are personal.
No one joins choir to be a soloist. No teenager truly desires to sing on camera, unaccompanied, and without a friend. No young person gets excited about Zoom guitar lessons or playing a clarinet with a mask over their nose. No actor desires to perform a play without a stage or audience.
These challenges require individual courage; the kind of courage that they will take with them beyond the pandemic.
With Jesus by their sides, both during the pandemic and afterward, they’ll perform from the deepest parts of their hearts, they’ll play their instruments with renewed joy, and they will sing with sincerity “All is Well.”