Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting … (drumroll please) … 5th Grade Original Opera: Covid Edition! We are thrilled to announce not one, but four original operas by the 5th graders at Dwight Englewood School!
Pandemic restrictions threw many obstacles at the opera team: no singing in groups, mandatory mask wearing and social distancing, and insular class pod arrangements to keep everyone safe. These became creative challenges to overcome, and each class solved the problems in their own way. For example, class 5C set their opera in a school during the Covid pandemic, so masks were a natural part of the costumes. Classes 5A & 5G, on the other hand, used a green screen to film, which allowed the performers to be edited together in the same frame with backgrounds created by the designers. And the virtual students of class 5P worked on Zoom and created 8-bit ‘virtual’ designs.
The whole process – writing the script, creating the music and original song, designing the backgrounds and costumes, and filming – had to be finished in 8 weeks! The 5th graders worked with new tech tools such as Padlet and Bandlab, and 5th grader Rajan Dhillon created entire 8bit animation sequences for 5P’s video game opera by himself! There was no time for film retakes, so performers had to quickly learn how to act in front of the green screen with imaginary partners. Throughout the whole process, the 5th graders remained positive, resilient, and creative problem-solvers.
You are now welcome to watch all four short original operas by the 5th grade classes!. Each lasts between 10-12 minutes, and each is completely different. Bravi, 5th graders! You have taken very difficult circumstances and created something absolutely delightful!
Links to the Operas will be made available and accessible from the Parent Resource Board; to view click here . (Please note, LogIn to MyD-E is required; for help logging-in, please email help@d-e.org)
