"When you think of OSA and performances you don’t think of Literary Arts as one of them." --- Winnie Yuasa, 6th grade
When you think of OSA and performances you don’t think of Literary Arts as one of them. You probably think of theater and how they do plays or vocal and instrumental how they do concerts. You might think of fashion doing fashion shows or visual art doing exhibits. You probably won’t think that Literary Arts does performances. Something that Literary Arts does are readings. Readings are when Literary Art students get to share the work that they have created in front of a crowd. Each person who is reading would pick one of their pieces and perform it in front of an audience. It can be fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, and more. There are three in high school and one in middle school per year. On March 6, Literary Arts middle school had a reading.
Amelia Whitcomb, a Literary Arts teacher, discussed the layout of the reading and what exactly happens during it in a recent interview. The readers pick what they want to read. The time each piece would take for reading would usually be under five minutes but sometimes it can go a little over that. Once the reader chooses what they want to read, sometimes they get edits and fix small mistakes. Everyone also practices preforming their piece before the reading. They might get a little advice, like project more or slow down. This is important when it comes to things like nerves. “I don’t like how nerve racking it can be,” said Sayuri Espinoza, seventh grader in Literary Arts. A ninth grader in Literary Arts, Elias Yuasa, agrees with this. He said “There’s nothing I really dislike, though I suppose it can be stressful.” That is the only thing some people don’t like about readings. This is showing how it can be hard to read your work in front of people when you have stage fright. Why the preparation is good is because then you can prepare for all these things. You can have it be your best whether that’s with editing your piece or saying it clearly. It also just helps being able to practice reading in front of an audience so when you do it again it might feel a bit less stressful.
At the reading, there are (of course) people who are reading their pieces, but there are also MCs. The MCs are students who introduce who is going up next. The students that they call on go one at a time, however the order in which they go in is created ahead of time. Around half way through the reading, there’s an intermission. During the intermission, some people might go to the bathroom or get water. You can also mingle, meet someone new, or talk to friends. After the intermission, the rest of the people who haven’t read would then read their work.
Some of people’s favorite parts of the reading is hearing everyone read their work. “It’s really fun to get to see what everyone else is reading, especially since we usually wouldn’t be able to see poetry, and fiction and screenwriting,” said Alice Stewart, a seventh grader in Literary Arts.
Another thing people enjoy are the MCs. “I like the MCs, [because] if you choose the right ones it can be a really enjoyable experience because you'll have that mix of the stories and then the MCs [makes some] inputs and sometimes jokes,” said Espinoza.
Overall Literary Arts readings are known as pretty fun. You get to listen to different kids read their writing whether it’s screenwriting, poetry, fiction, creative non fiction, and more. You might even meet new people during intermission.
Amelia Whitcomb, a Literary Arts teacher, discussed the layout of the reading and what exactly happens during it in a recent interview. The readers pick what they want to read. The time each piece would take for reading would usually be under five minutes but sometimes it can go a little over that. Once the reader chooses what they want to read, sometimes they get edits and fix small mistakes. Everyone also practices preforming their piece before the reading. They might get a little advice, like project more or slow down. This is important when it comes to things like nerves. “I don’t like how nerve racking it can be,” said Sayuri Espinoza, seventh grader in Literary Arts. A ninth grader in Literary Arts, Elias Yuasa, agrees with this. He said “There’s nothing I really dislike, though I suppose it can be stressful.” That is the only thing some people don’t like about readings. This is showing how it can be hard to read your work in front of people when you have stage fright. Why the preparation is good is because then you can prepare for all these things. You can have it be your best whether that’s with editing your piece or saying it clearly. It also just helps being able to practice reading in front of an audience so when you do it again it might feel a bit less stressful.
At the reading, there are (of course) people who are reading their pieces, but there are also MCs. The MCs are students who introduce who is going up next. The students that they call on go one at a time, however the order in which they go in is created ahead of time. Around half way through the reading, there’s an intermission. During the intermission, some people might go to the bathroom or get water. You can also mingle, meet someone new, or talk to friends. After the intermission, the rest of the people who haven’t read would then read their work.
Some of people’s favorite parts of the reading is hearing everyone read their work. “It’s really fun to get to see what everyone else is reading, especially since we usually wouldn’t be able to see poetry, and fiction and screenwriting,” said Alice Stewart, a seventh grader in Literary Arts.
Another thing people enjoy are the MCs. “I like the MCs, [because] if you choose the right ones it can be a really enjoyable experience because you'll have that mix of the stories and then the MCs [makes some] inputs and sometimes jokes,” said Espinoza.
Overall Literary Arts readings are known as pretty fun. You get to listen to different kids read their writing whether it’s screenwriting, poetry, fiction, creative non fiction, and more. You might even meet new people during intermission.