Kudos to Junior Leah Webster and Senior Matthew Lewis, winners of the VSA Arts Playwriting Competition. The contest is a statewide program to discover playwrights in middle and high schools. Leah and Matthew had submitted a one act play that they had written in Kara Kindall’s Advanced Acting/Directing class last fall. The students received a plaque and $ 100 for their submission at an awards ceremony in TPAC’s Johnson Hall on April 23 . The play, entitled “Aurora”, examines how disabilities affect young lives and the lives of others.
VSA Arts Tennessee stands for Vision, Artistic Expression, and Strenght. It is a non-profit organization with the mission to create opportunities for people with disabilities to learn through, participate in and enjoy the arts.
Leah’s and Matthew’s play has now been entered in a national playwriting competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
For the first time in the history of NSA's Forensics Program, 13 students participated in the Smoky Mountains Invitational Forensics Tournament in Gatlinburg. The group left on Thursday, February 26 and returned two days later. They competed in categories such as Prose, Duet Acting and Impromptu Speaking. Competition was tough and only one Duet Acting Team (Angelique Howington and Markus McClain) managed to get to the semi-finals before getting defeated by other forensics teams from all over the South. If the team gets invited again next year, Mass Media teacher John Newsom hopes to have NSA students reach the final round of competition.
Pictured in the photo: From left to right: Jan Newsom (John Newsom's wife and volunteer forensics judge), Alexis Rodriguez, Angelique Howington, John Newsom, Markus McClain
John Newsom briefs his students at the Forensics Tournament in Gatlinburg.
Markus McClain and Angelique Howington pose at the poster announcing that they made it into the semi-final rounds of the forensics competition.
In the 10/10/08 Davidson AM section of the Tennessean there's an article about Isabel Simpson-Kirsch and Natalee McCartney and the volunteer work they're doing with art. NSA is mentioned on the cover, and NSA and Art Honor Society are mentioned in the article on page 7.
If you missed it here's a link to the on-line article.
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081010/MICRO020201/810100365/1554/MICRO0202