TOWNSHEND-- After a long semester of hard work, Journey East: Leland and Gray's Sino-American Academy and Arts Exchange Program started their series of performances, "Out of Our Element." The series began at Newbrook Elementary on Friday, April 26. Since the 26, the group did a community performance on Saturday night at Leland and Gray, and then performed in front of the Leland and Gray school on Monday at an all school assembly. Their next performances include Grafton on May 10 at 8:30am, Jamaica on May 24 at 8:30am, and Wardsboro and Windham on May 25 at 1pm.
This year's performers included Ethan Abbot, Madison Chase, Trey Crego, Emily Frost, Ben Kelley, Quinn Kelloway, Elly Longo, Caroline Mehner, Rita Messing, Lucian Parker-Jennings, Isabella Schmidt, Siena Sperling, Alex Urbaska, and Avery White. Jesse Riemenschneider was the Journey East Director; Karly Kaufeld was Creative Director, and Kevin Burke was the Communication Technologist.
The show started with the performers erupting into song, dance, and skit. The Newbrook students were loudly laughing and applauding as the evil spirit, played by Rita Messing, disrupted the balance between the four elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Each of the skits was centered around the four elements. With colorful cloth, acrobatics, fight scenes, and songs the performers brought up important themes of acceptance and teamwork.
In one of the skits the students in the audience strained to see what the performers were doing on the floor. Once they could see, they figured out it was a fire skit that included Ethan Abbot, Trey Crego, Quinn Kelloway, and Lucian Parker-Jennings. The four of them made the Newbrook students in the audience giggle.
The 45 minute long performances kept the elementary students engaged for the entire time. After the performance some of the Newbrook students stayed behind and said how amazing the show was and that they can't wait to watch it again in two years. Watch the video below for their reaction.