On Friday, December 13, in the St. Stanislaus Kostka Academy Auditorium at 12 Newel Street in Greenpoint, the students of the schools presented a traditional, Christmas play.
At the beginning, the large audience of over 500 people was greeted by the school principal Dr. Danielle Madden and the school president Mr. Frank P. Carbone.
This year’s Christmas play was titled Straight Outta Bethlehem. The two-part play prepared and directed by Bożena Konkiel and Nicholas Kaponyas was attended by approximately 150 students from grades 4 to 8. Straight Outta Bethlehem is the story of children from an orphanage in Bethlehem and a boy who had just arrived at the facility on the day before Jesus was born. The boy did not understand why everyone was so happy when they were in such a depressing place as an orphanage. The performance itself lasted two hours, while just before it, students from the younger grades performed, singing Christmas songs accompanied by Nicholas Kaponyas.
During the performance, the school dance club performed, enriching the performance with choreography composed to the songs sung. It is also impossible not to appreciate the impressive historical costumes in which the young artists appeared on stage. In addition to those traditional ones from the times of the birth of Christianity and appropriate for the inhabitants of Bethlehem, there were also costumes from the dance club donated to the school by Mrs. Danuta Zakrzewska, who for many years led the well-known Polish community group Iskierki. As usual, some of the costumes were borrowed from the Krakowianki and Górale group. Teachers Helen Kazes and Lisa Ross helped the organizers prepare the performance. It is also worth adding that the poster announcing the event, as in previous years, was prepared by Teresa Kramer.
The fact that the Christmas show was a success was evidenced by both the lively reactions of the audience during the performance and the opinions that appeared after the performance.
We have been organizing our Christmas performances for over 20 years and I am glad that the audience continues to like them – said Bożena Konkiel, Artistic Director and long-time teacher of the Academy. The students are very eager to take part in the preparations and there are always so many candidates for the main roles that we have to organize a casting. This year the songs were very catchy and it was obvious that everyone really liked the music. The plot of the performance was sad, but the show itself was joyful. I would like to thank everyone who took part in the performance, the school management and the numerous audience.
Marcin Żurawicz
Photos: archive of the St. Stanislaus Kostka Academy
