Performance arts seniors miss their final bow
Myles Robinson, pictured above, and Karoline Larsen, pictured below, were performers for all four of their years at White Station. Both mourn their final performances as Spartans, lost due to the corona crisis.
For seniors in the performance arts, the end of the year is their curtain call, a time for final bows and goodbyes. Like the rest of the senior festivities, these fleeting moments have been pulled away by the pandemic, leaving students seeking closure.
The initial extra time off was set to lengthen spring break and was met with mixed reactions from the student body.
“When I first saw it, I thought it was fake. Someone had sent a Twitter post into the senior group chat, and I was like, obviously that’s fake,” Robinson said.
The school closures were very real though, and have since grown, with Shelby County Schools currently not returning until fall of 2020, causing a ripple of cancellations for school activities.
While many mourn the loss of events such as graduation and prom, performance arts seniors also mourn their cancelled performances, most of which had been in the rehearsal process for weeks already. Mason Pruitte (12) was set to play the leading role in White Station’s spring production of the musical Big Fish but won’t get to see his work come to fruition.
“I was really looking forward to being Edward Bloom,” Pruitte said. “Just missing out on being able to do those dances and performing and seeing the audience– that’s a really big hit.”
Many seniors have performed since their freshman year and have deeply bonded with the people in their ensembles. Senior Karoline Larsen is in the auditioned mix choir,acapella group Key of She and has been in choir her whole high school career.
“It’s a big family,” Larsen said. “We’re all just a huge community of choir nerds that just love each other and accept each other. We’re just all together to make music.”
Senior violinist Katie Sann felt similarly about the White Station orchestra ensembles, which she has been playing in since ninth grade.
“Making music with other people is one of the most special things ever,” Sann said. You all connect through that music.”
Whether participating in or simply watching the arts, they make an impact, one that is vital to remember during this isolation period.
“The majority of people seem to underestimate the arts. Now that we’ve gone into quarantine, that seems to be the only thing we’ve turned to,” Larsen said. “I feel like that’s something important to recognize. The arts are important to a lot of people.”
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