The North Pointe Marching Band received 2nd in general effect, 2nd in music, 2nd in visual, and 1st in percussion. The lack of a color guard resulted in a 5th place finish this Saturday at Millennium HS. We will be having our awesome drum line spin flags for a portion of the show, which will help bring up the overall score significantly. Thanks to Lauren Tech for her leadership and ability to adapt mid performance. “You should feel good about your performance because you played well and achieved at a high standard. Sometimes you have to adapt to your audience because they are expecting certain things,” said Director Sadlo.
North Pointe Prep
1984 Cast and Crew Announced
This week students auditioned for the Falcon Player’s production of 1984. The auditions and callbacks were very exciting to watch and it was clear the participants had thoroughly prepared. The Cast will be lead by Jeremiah Thomas and Melissa Mena as Winston and Julia. There were also a significant amount of people interested being on crew, all of who will be lead by stage manager, Kaliegh McAllister. The director, Ms. Gardea, had this to say, “I’m so excited to see the mix of students who have done theatre here at North Pointe before and those who will be jumping in and trying something new! I think this challenging show will be great opportunity for growth for all involved.”
Falcon Players Presents 1984
Cast
Winston- Jeremiah Thomas
Julia- Melissa Mena
O’Brien- Reece Hamilton
Loudspeaker- Shayla Lam
Parsons- Kaitlyn Kief
Syme- Alex Goehring
Landlady- Kristin Smith
Martin/Guard 1- Adalila Machic-Hoitzil
Guard 2- Kania Diaz
Messenger/Waitress- Elizabeth Martin
Coffee Vendor/Gladys- Maya Ferrara
Crew
Stage Manager- Kaliegh McAllister
Assistant Stage Managers- Markita Echeverri and Cadmium Gabriel
Set and Properties Crew Head- Melanie Diaz
Set and Properties Crew- Nicholas Kohlerman, Destin Moss, Kenleigh Dooley, Rylan Rizkovsky, Addyson Bell
Charge Scenic Painter- Madison Hansen
Scenic Paint Crew- Megan Tessensohn, Molly Bragg
Costume Crew Head- Melanie Llagas
Costume Crew- Sharon Larsala, Lizi Gastelum, Amy Trochez, Autumn Carpenter
Hair and Makeup Lead- Sarah Alley
Hair and Makeup Crew- Shayla Sherman and Dayana Morgan
Lighting and Sound Crew- Gregory Aust and Becca Gustafson
Falcon Players to Present 1984
This Fall the Falcon Players will present a production of 1984. The play is a theatrical adaptation of George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel and is sure to be a challenging and thought provoking experience. If you are interested in auditioning to be part of the cast or crew of 1984 you may pick up audition and crew interest forms in the 4A Center or in Ms. Gardea’s class, room 115. Auditions will be held on Monday, August 7th at 3:30pm in the Theater. Ms. Gardea is very excited to be directing this production and is looking forward to seeing all the North Pointe talent at auditions!
Spring Arts Festival – Dance Classes
On April 24th, 2017 the Jr. High and High School dance classes kicked off the Spring Arts Festival and presented Playlist: Hits from Yesterday and Today. Everybody Dance Now, Get Up, Pon de Replay and Who’s that Chick were numbers performed by the jr. high students. The high school performed group routines to Crazy in Love, Motown Philly, Black Beatles, Poison, Cold Hearted Snake and Work. In addition to performing group dance students presented their own choreography to songs like, Get Ur Freak On, My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark, Hips Don’t Lie, Bang, Bang, Talk, Wall to Wall, Gold Digger and Body Movin. “I am very proud of all of the students who performed tonight, they did a great job,” said Miss Cara.
Competition Percussion at Desert Ridge
On Saturday, April 1st, the North Pointe Indoor Percussion traveled to Desert Ridge High School, to perform their show “The Crooked Man”, in the WGAZ Percussion Championships competition. This was the last competition of the season for the group to perform and the students were ready to put forth 100% of their effort and drive as this was the last time they would debut their show to audiences and judges. Of the 12 groups we competed against in our division, the North Pointe Competition Percussion team secured 5th place. Seniors Brandon Fenton and Joseph Perez said “this was our best show yet, and we are happy with the work everyone put in to achieve a successful show this season.”
Directors Justin Kline and Luis Fisher were very impressed with the group’s final performance. “We are so proud of the growth that every student has shown throughout the season, and look forward to what North Pointe has in store for next year.”
Competition Percussion at San Bernardino, CA
On Saturday, March 25th, the North Pointe Indoor Percussion traveled to San Bernardino, California to debut their show “The Crooked Man”, in the WGI Power Western competition. This was the second time that the group traveled to California to compete and perform their show against 22 other groups in our division. Of the many shows and groups that competed, none barred any resemblance to “The Crooked Man” which tells the dark story of an innocent young girl who is corrupted by an evil spirit who eventually takes her soul. Jesse Ponce and Elizabeth Aguirre are featured as the Crooked Man and the young girl, respectively. Although we were placed at 16th for our division, the students used this experience as a motivation to continue to put forth 100% effort as we steer towards our championships performance next weekend.
Directors Justin Kline and Luis Fisher were very impressed with the group’s performance. “We made it to California and we showed the world what we have, now let’s show Arizona what we can do!”
Competition Percussion at Gilbert HS
On Saturday, March 18th, the North Pointe Indoor Percussion team returned to Gilbert High school for a second time this season to perform their show “The Crooked Man”, which tells the dark story of an innocent young girl corrupted by an evil spirit who eventually takes her soul. Jesse Ponce and Elizabeth Aguirre are featured as the Crooked Man and the young girl, respectively. The group worked all through spring break in preparation for today’s show, and it payed off, because they managed to secure a first place win. Many of the judges commented on the group’s ability to convey the story to the audience, and the technical level of marching and music performance the group demonstrated.
Director Justin Kline was very impressed with the group’s performance. “With San Bernardino around the corner, it’s now more important than ever that we continue with our best foot forward and show everyone exactly what North Pointe is made of!”
Speech and Debate at Division II State Finals
Congratulations to The Prep’s Speech and Debate Team for the outstanding performances at the Division II State Finals. Special congratulations to junior, Kaitlyn Kief who placed in four events. Kaitlyn placed 2nd in Poetry Interpretation, 3rd in Dramatic Interpretation, 4th in Congressional Debate and 3rd Place in Public Forum Debate with partner, Vincent Jasso who placed in three events: 3rd in Congressional Debate, 3rd in duo Interpretation, with partner, Daniel Mena, and red Place in Public Forum Debate. Freshman, Julian Alejandre placed second in humorous interpretation and 4th in duo interpretation with his partner, freshman, Ellen Lerma. “This is a fantastic accomplishment for a freshman to place so high at the state finals in such a competitive event; we are all so proud of Julian,” said Coach Richards. “We had a great tournament and each an every team member did their part, as we were competing against schools with many more entries; I am proud of the team and can’t wait to see what the underclassmen can do next year,” Richards added. The team combined to finish fourth in a competitive sweepstakes category. Every team member did their part and contributed to a great state finals!
Humorous Interpretation
Julian Alejandre 2nd Place
Kenleigh Dooley semi-finalist
Michael Palermo semi-finalist
Dramatic Interpretation
Kaitlyn Kief- 3rd
Daniel Winstanley 4th
Poetry Interpretation
Kaitlyn Kief – 2nd
Daniel Mena 5th
Duo Interpretation
Vincent Jasso and Daniel Mena 3rd
Julian Alejandre and Ellen Lerma 5th
Prose Interpretation
James Brady Mayo 4th
Expository Speaking
Amy Lavelle 5th Place
Public Forum Debate:
Vincent Jasso and Kaitlyn Kief 3rd Place
Congressional Debate:
Vincent Jasso 3rd
Kaitlyn Kief 5th
Competition Percussion at Gilbert HS
On Saturday, March 11, 2017 North Pointe’s Competition Percussion Ensemble performed in its third competition of the season at Gilbert High School. This was a regional competition for Winter Guard International (WGI) with a nationally-recognized judging panel. In this competition, North Pointe went up against other marching percussion ensembles from Rincon/University High School and Ironwood Ridge High School from Tucson, Perry High School and Basha High School from Chandler, Campo Verde High School and Gilbert High School from Gilbert, Vista Grande High School from Casa Grande, Chapin High School from El Paso, TX and Dos Pueblos High School from Goleta, CA. North Pointe presented their complete production of “The Crooked Man” in the WGI Scholastic A class competition. North Pointe finished in 7th place with a score of 72.3 after the preliminary round due to a 2.75 point timing penalty. When they returned in the evening for the finals competition they fixed the issues which caused the timing penalty and North Pointe moved up to 6th place with a score of 74.4
According to director Luis Fisher, “our musicians had two long rehearsals this week and used every minute to finish the show and improve upon what they already knew. It was a long day and a true test for what is to come later in the season. We will enter this week with two more long rehearsals where we will work to fine tune our show now that we have it completed.”
Competition Percussion at Desert Ridge
On Saturday, March 4, 2017 North Pointe’s Competition Percussion performed in its second competition of the season at Desert Ridge High School in Mesa. This was a very important competition for North Pointe as it was WGAZ’s Percussion Focus Show with a nationally-recognized judging panel. In this competition, North Pointe went up against other marching percussion ensembles from Rincon/University High School from Tucson, Perry High School from Chandler, Campo Verde High School from Gilbert, Gilbert High School, Basha High School from Chandler, Deer Valley High School from nearby Glendale, Mesquite High School from Gilbert, and nearby rivals Apollo High School. North Pointe added to their production of “The Crooked Man” and gave a much improved performance which put the rest of WGAZ’s Scholastic A class on notice. In a very close competition North Pointe finished in 3rd place with a score of 77.95 behind Gilbert’s Campo Verde Indoor Percussion Ensemble (80.75) and Gilbert Indoor Percussion (79.75).
According to director Luis Fisher, “our students have worked extremely hard to add another movement to their show as well props that added an extra visual dimension. The additions to the show was well received by both the judges and the audience alike. One of the visual judges even said that our performance gave him goosebumps right from the very start. We still have a lot of work to do to finish our production and then clean up the show. We have another huge show this coming Saturday at Gilbert High School. This will put us one step closer to our goal of a state championship.”
Performance Recaps 