Arts and Lifestyle — The St. Marker

——By Cathy Zhou ‘21 and Paige LaMalva ‘20

This year’s St. Mark’s annual musical production was “Mamma Mia !” The main character, Donna (played by Mary Flathers ‘19), is a self-employed hotelier in the Greek islands. She is helping her daughter, Sophie (played by Cait Lochhead ‘19), to plan out her extravagant wedding. Meanwhile, Sophie, the spirited bride, has another plan. She secretly invites three men from her mother's past in the hope of meeting her real father and having him escort her down the aisle on her big day.

St. Mark’s Musical Club has a long history. Founded by Ellis Gage ‘17 five years ago, it is a student-led club that puts on a musical in the spring every year. The club holds auditions in early October, and it takes six months of preparation to put together the production. This year, the club has over sixty members across all four forms in its cast and crew. “We are so excited to perform for the community because we have worked so hard to make the show the best it could possibly be,” said the head of the musical club, Shelby Howard.

“Mamma Mia!” was a very intentional choice. According to Shelby, the club chose to perform this musical because of its lively music. “The music in Mamma Mia is all songs that were performed and written by ABBA. Every single song in the show is a jam, including hits like Dancing Queen, Voulez Vous, and The Winner Takes it All.”

According to one of the leading actors, Tommy Flathers ‘21, his favorite part was the song “Slipping Through My Fingers,” Libby Flathers ’21 and Shelby Howard ’19 said that they are most excited for the song “Voulez Vous”. This song is set in a scene at a bachelorette party where Sophie attempts to find out who her father truly is. Lead actress Libby Flathers explained, “We worked so hard on that song. It’s going to be really fun, and I hope the audience enjoys the show.” Shelby Howard ‘19 talked about how the show is full of high-intensity and fun choreography.

Shelby Howard spoke to us before the opening night, Friday 26th. “Opening night is so special because everything comes together like magic. It is also super exciting to see so many kids put themselves out there, and sing and dance for our community. We have an amazing cast and crew, and I could not be more proud of them!” This performance is patiently awaited by the St. Mark’s community yearly. Faculty, students, and friends all gathered to watch their peers put on this incredible student-directed show.

”Mamma Mia!” video link (by SM Funny Movie Corporation): https://youtu.be/pNXzTFIHfto

——By Clara Hua ‘21 and Suha Choi ‘22

In the midst of busy days at St. Mark’s, the appearance of green leaves and fresh breezes signal the arrival of spring. While some may choose to take pictures or tell friends about the nice weather, these actions are sometimes insufficient to appreciate the beauty we see around us. Poetry is a great way to capture moments we find meaningful and to express feelings we have towards them.

Celebrating National Poetry Month, St. Mark’s held a Poetry Week from April 22 through 27. Short poems were hung up throughout the hallways and classrooms. As the innumerable all-school emails from Ms. McCann show, various events successfully engaged the entire school in the spirit of poetry. One of the most popular events was the Haiku-for-a-Sundae activity that took place during co-curricular on Monday. Students could make their own sundae as long as they bring entry tickets, which they exchanged with haikus they composed. With food and House Cup points as incentives, no wonder the Hinkle room was buzzing with excitement on Monday! While haiku may have previously seemed unfamiliar to many students, the ice cream event was as a great opportunity for the students to experience haikus excitement. Furthermore, all students and faculty had the chance to wake up to something fun to read each morning thanks to poems Ms. McCann sent out daily.

Following these activities that encouraged students to dive into poetry, the bake sale was an event that influenced more than just the St. Mark’s community. Filled with cookies, brownies, and cupcakes, the bake sales on Wednesday evening was a delight for students going through the week with immense workload and stress. All of the profits from the bake sale were donated to PEN America (pen.org) to help support the freedom to express creativity. There were many more activities including magnetic poetry contest and poetry reading. The evening chapel on April 30th is dedicated to poetry, specifically presenting poetry works of St. Mark’s students. During the chapel, there were recitations of beautiful poems, setting it apart from traditional evening chapels. As the concluding event of poetry week, this evening chapel gathered St. Markers together one more time to appreciate the art of poetry.

While there exist celebration days for almost all kinds of things, not all events provide ways for people to truly connect with topics of celebration. Poetry week at St. Mark’s is an excellent example of celebration events which everyone is able to enjoy and get more out of.