At the end of the year, AVPA puts on a showcase called Java Gala, which each department contributes to. This year AVPA has made some exciting changes to the event, including new exclusive experiences. The “Choose Your Own AVPA Adventure” tour will allow guests to view art in action throughout campus. During this portion of the event, attendees can enjoy seeing a live film shoot, live music, dance rehearsals, and theater performances.
Music will be playing instruments at many different performances during the event. There will be the jazz ensemble, jazz combos, string group, and orchestra. Additionally, there will be a show in the Robert Frost Auditorium where music will be performing the famous song ‘Bolero’ by Maurice Ravel.
“Java Gala is an amazing showcase of all the departments’ hard work,” said Tessa Farrell, Co-President of AVPA Music.
This year, Farrell said that she enjoyed “participating in the pit orchestra for the musical,” which was Mamma Mia this year. She loves “collaborating with theater” and enjoys performing in front of hundreds of students and other members of the community. She also enjoyed performing at the “annual Halloween Concert and Carnival” because she liked running games for children, distributing candy, and performing Halloween songs.
Dance will be adding an “interactive element this year” at Java Gala. They will be performing three dances from the spring concert, and interacting with the audience by “exploring creative movement”. This is similar to “choreography class in AVPA,” said the president, Nava Waisman.
This year, Waisman “loved the dance concerts this year” which were titled “Elements” and ”Once Upon a Time.” She said that both were “such great experiences” where students were able to “express themselves through choreography”, and learn about the process of performance production.
Film is shooting a video titled “This is AVPA”, where they interview students across departments about their experiences in AVPA. They are also doing some interactive sets that are “partially based around the Alice in Wonderland theme” where participants are going to be able to “experience what it’s like to be part of a film set,” said Co-President Julia Rottenberg.
This year, Rottenberg had fun shooting films. “My favorite thing in AVPA Film is always our Sony films,” she said. The department works together to make “six 10-minute long shorts” which are featured at the Sony Studio lots. She said that it is a “hard feeling to put to words” to see something you made be featured at Sony Studios, but that
“nothing is cooler than getting to see something you worked on make it to the big screen.”
Theater will be performing “a scene from ‘Merry Wives of Windsor” during the tour. This scene won fourth place at the DTASC event this spring. Actors from the department will be dressing up as characters from “Alice in Wonderland” to go around and interact with guests. At the end, they will perform “a 10-minute version of the musical ‘Cabaret,’” said Nene Makinoda, Co-President of AVPA Theater.
This year, Makinoda’s favorite event the year was the spring musical, “Mamma Mia.” She said that it was a very fun and special experience, especially because everyone involved “worked very hard to put the show together”. She also had fun performing at DTASC (Drama Teacher Association of Southern California). Attendees were able to “see other schools perform their wonderful scenes and monologues”. They attended two DTASC events this year, and “brought home multiple trophies” at both events.
Visual Art’s contributions “are slightly different than the previous ones,” said Ben Scully, Co-President of SOVA. The art department is holding a gallery walk. Because the theme for this year is “Alice in Wonderland” the School of Visual Arts is going to be painting two carnival face cut out boards and two large 8 x 4 ft panels for a scene from the musical Cabaret.
This year, Scully enjoyed participating in the “Memory Project” where students “received photographs of children in third world countries” to draw and mail back to the children. He also enjoyed the senior art show titled “Art? A little bit of Everything” which was created by students. He appreciated his art exhibit because fellow young artists were able to “present their work to the public”, which was exciting because they “would likely never have seen it otherwise.”
