Wake Up Call

By Sam Levine
POSTED JUNE 1, 2008

Forget American Idol. P.S. 150’s performance of “Wake Up! The PAVE-ing of Ewi Valley” rocked the stage last month with vocals, acting, and dancing that would have left even Simon Cowell nodding his head.

The play, a culmination of the school’s Arts and Science Technology Festival, was led by graduating 5th graders; other grades each contributed a scene.

The play’s theme, selected by the students, was environmental consciousness. Its villain was the imaginary Pan American Venture Equities, who plan to turn the beautiful Ewi Valley into a mega-mall and resort complex, thereby destroying the home of the Ewi tribe and the birds, fish and other creatures who live in the valley. Each grade played a different group whose lives were threatened by the developers.

The school’s pre-K class reminded the investors of what the Ewi valley meant to children. The kindergarten class turned into fish, followed by 1st graders whose rendition of the valley’s bees was accompanied by the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “What’s the Buzz?”

The audience may have gotten the biggest laugh from the 2nd grade birds who attacked the slick suits of the developers with “white yogurt.” Third graders performed an Eastern Woodland Indians tribal dance and 4th graders took their fight against the development to the streets, organizing protests.

The acting was engaging, the music infectious.

The audience sang along with Frank Sinatra’s “The Way You Look Tonight” and Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi.” And as part of their skit, 5th graders did a salsa number that had the ushers dancing in the aisles.

Of course, the performers enjoyed themselves, too. “I wasn’t nervous at all,” said Robbie Jenks, 10. “I was having too much fun.”

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