![IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Junior Zalie Mann performs “I Love to Cry at Weddings,” an ensemble piece from the fall musical Sweet Charity, to prospective students during the Fine Arts Showcase on Wednesday, Nov. 8. The showcase is a compilation of performances and demonstrations from each fine arts strand offered at McCallum. This show is put on so that prospective students can see if they are interested in joining an academy or major.
Sweet Charity originally ran the weekends of Sept. 28 and Oct. 8, but made a comeback for the Fine Arts Showcase.
“[Being at the front in the spotlight] is my favorite part of the whole dance, so I was super happy to be on stage performing and smiling at the audience,” Mann said.
Mann performed in both the musical theatre performance and dance excerpt “Ethereal,” a contemporary piece choreographed by the new dance director Terrance Carson, in the showcase. With also being a dance ambassador, Mann got to talk about what MAC dance is, her experience and answer any questions the aspiring arts majors and their parents may have.
Caption by Maya Tackett.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/53321803427_47cd17fe70_o-1-1200x800.jpg)
![SPREADING THE JOY: Sophomore Chim Becker poses with sophomores Cozbi Sims and Lou Davidson while manning a table at the Hispanic Heritage treat day during lunch of Sept 28. Becker is a part of the students of color alliance, who put together the activity to raise money for their club.
“It [the stand] was really fun because McCallum has a lot of latino kids,” Becker said. “And I think it was nice that I could share the stuff that I usually just have at home with people who have never tried it before.”
Becker recognizes the importance of celebrating Hispanic heritage at Mac.
“I think its important to celebrate,” Becker said. “Because our culture is awesome and super cool, and everybody should be able to learn about other cultures of the world.”
Caption by JoJo Barnard.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/53221601352_4127a81c41_o-1200x675.jpg)
Family and Consumer Sciences teacher Elizabeth Warren was selected to go onstage and meet Keith Urban during his concert at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, TX on Oct. 1. This was far from Warren’s first Keith Urban concert, as she has been attending them since she was 13 years old.
“That was my tenth overall Keith Urban concert since I was in seventh grade,” Warren said. “I always go and see him, and he has not had a concert since 2019. So this was the first concert I’ve been to in a long time.”
Urban has a tradition at his concerts, Warren said, in which he selects an audience member’s sign and that fan gets to join him on the stage.
“He will always pick a member from the audience that made a sign, and so ever since my mom let me go to my first concert, I always made a sign,” Warren said. “I have made nine signs – none of them got picked until this time.”
Warren said her sign was based on conversations she had last year with the students in her fifth hour Baking and Pastry class, as well as with students who ate lunch in her room. She said multiple of these students reached out to her after seeing her post on Instagram to congratulate her on having her sign chosen. During the concert, Warren’s sign was blocked by many others in front of her because her seat was in the eighteenth row from the stage. She said this prompted a security guard to move her into the aisle and have her walk toward the stage.
“All of a sudden, here I am with my sign, walking down the aisle. As soon as I do that, Keith Urban starts reading my sign and now I’m shaking and trying not to cry,” Warren said. “He read the whole thing. It said, ‘My students bet you wouldn’t pick my sign, prove them wrong,’ and he said, ‘All right come up here.’”
When on stage, Warren said Urban asked her about what brought her to the concert, what she teaches and what the bet entailed. She said she explained that her students did not believe that she would get chosen. She said she was nervous while talking to him but was able to explain her story while onstage.
“He asked about the bet, so that’s when I went into my whole long story about how [I had been to concerts] my whole life,” Warren said. “Then [I said] my students have heard my stories and never thought you’d actually pick my sign.”
This story was originally published on The Express and Husky Headlines on October 24, 2022.
