Thank You, Final Thoughts, and Goodbye from Motunui!
From Ms. Kendrick
As the stage is cleared, the last piece of confetti falls, and I complete the never-ending post-production paperwork, my heart is bursting with pride as I reflect on our incredible voyage together and your magical children.
As we draw closer to Passover and Spring Break and farther from the magic that was our production run, and before I turn my full attention to producing the Graduation video, kick off the Thursday ASP Disney Cabaret Club, and managing our end-of-year performing arts events, I want to take a moment to celebrate every cast member, crew, staff, volunteer, and family who joined us on this incredible journey “beyond the reef.”
We are deeply grateful to our alumni mentors and parent volunteers. It truly takes a village—or an island—to produce a show with nearly 160 students and “Broadway” production values.
Click here to access our Moana JR. Digital Playbill to see the heart of our island community.
Click here to view our Moana Jr. Photo Album!
Moana JR. marks The Davis Academy’s 21st all-school musical production, and what a journey it has been! Of all our productions, this show most fully embodied the values we strive to live by every day. Our island—Motunui—was a loving, supportive space where students cared for one another and grew together in social, emotional, artistic, and academic intelligence.
Working with your children has been a tremendous joy. From the youngest coconuts, fish, and voyagers to our seasoned crabs, ancestors, and navigators, from the stage to the booth to backstage, every child brought enthusiasm, creativity, teamwork, and heart to their role. Every hour, minute, and moment spent with them was a blessing in the most supportive, joyful, and uplifting community we could imagine.
Watching our youngest performers step onto the stage for the first time was as inspiring as seeing our older students guide and mentor them with grace and pride. Every cast and crew member—from Mechinas to Middle Schoolers—showed exceptional dedication, maturity, and kindness.
Our students truly embodied the spirit of Davis L.O.V.E., working tirelessly to build a team atmosphere that radiated through every moment of the production process.
Thank you to our alumni mentors and parent volunteers. Your time, energy, and passion made this show's dream a reality.
The all-school musical is a unique Davis experience where ages and grade levels blur, and every child has a spot in the spotlight. Theatre teaches valuable skills such as reading, confidence, collaboration, and problem-solving while entertaining and moving our audiences.
A theatrical production requires creativity, empathy, compassion, and perspective-taking. It shapes identities and empowers children to stand confidently in who they are.
It is such a unique Davis experience to participate in the all-school musical, where ages do not matter, there are no grade levels, where we are one sizeable communal playground, and our classroom is open to every student in the school; every child has a spot on stage in the spotlight.
Theatre is a unique discipline in which we strive to create strong readers, confident and assured voices, collaborators, and problem solvers, all coming together to pursue one communal goal to entertain and move our audiences.
I often tell my students that we learn everything we need to learn, succeed, and be career-ready on, off, and from the stage. This is even more so on a Mechina through eighth educational theatre stage, where curiosity, freedom of expression, freedom to fail, freedom to sing and dance, creative play, open-mindedness, courage, risk-taking, making friends of all ages, and joy of learning are the foundations of rehearsal and putting on a play.
A show is the essence of project management, where collaborative learning, teamwork, leadership, responsibility, self-identity, creativity, communication, and creative differences/problem-solving reign supreme.
An actor is a scientist of human behavior and must speak articulately with an empowered voice to convey the story’s meaning to an audience with the dual objective of entertaining an audience and providing an emotional transformation, educational journey, and perspective-changing of an audience. There is no greater power than using one’s voice to move another human being to laughter, tears, or understanding.
To prepare for a show, problem-solving is vital: how to work with others, deal with creative differences, what if an actor forgets her lines, what if the crew needs to troubleshoot a technical issue, what if the lights go out, what if the curtain breaks, what if a prop is missing, how to deal with stage fright, where do all of these actors stand, how do we design abstractly a set-costume-light design that heightens the tone, mood, feeling, sentiment of the play, etc... It is an exercise in joy, imagination, creative play, grit, collaboration, growth mindset, business, resilience, and empowerment.
The process of putting together a play requires creativity, empathy for others, compassion, perspective-taking, the ability to create worlds never seen or to re-examine history, cultures, and civilizations, to take note of our past, explore our present, and define our future.
Working with children of all ages in theatre, I witness each day the capacity of the human heart and the mind, the shaping of one’s identity, the power of one’s voice, and the ability of children to make imagined experiences real. For this reason, I am confident of theatre’s immeasurable power to affect intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual development. Theatre for children truly is life-changing and assists in shaping their identities as they discover their unique gifts and the conviction of their voices and stand confidently, proudly, in who they are and aspire to be.
Everything we need to learn to succeed and be prepared for life we can learn on the stage. Even more so in an educational theatre on stage where curiosity, freedom of expression, creative play, open-mindedness, risk-taking, and joy of learning reign supreme and are the foundational pillars of collaborative, connected, engaged communities.
As we look forward to next year, we anticipate sharing more love and laughter in our communal playground on the stage.
Until we meet on stage again, remember to "tell the stories of our Elders in a never-ending change!"
With Davis L.O.V.E.,
Ms. Kendrick
P.S. I’ll be in touch again through the blog, Remind, and email once we receive the links to the professional videography permitted by our license for/from our Sunday shows. The videographer is expected to have these ready before the end of the school year or the start of summer break.
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