A “Storied” Season on the Field and Stage: Fall Season Wrap-Ups for Park Athletics and Drama

As students settled into a new school year, they brought great enthusiasm to Park’s after-school programming in athletics and drama, as anyone who stood on the sidelines at a game or attended the production of Haroun and the Sea of Stories witnessed. 

We are pleased to share some highlights of the season.  (The students on our Robotics Team were also diligently engaged after school this fall and are continuing their work into the winter, when they will have the opportunity for tournament participation. We look forward to sharing more about them in our winter wrap-up.)

Athletics: 

Our Upper Division athletes competed on ten interscholastic teams representing five different sports (cross country, field hockey, flag football, soccer, and volleyball), and Grade 4 students had the opportunity to participate in an intramural program to learn the basics of these sports. Athletics Director Jen Viena reflects that improvement and partnership were the overarching themes of the season.  

All teams demonstrated significant improvement between September and November. Coach Karl Dreyer was particularly impressed with the Cross Country team’s increase in stamina: “At the beginning of the season, there were many walkers even on a 10-minute run, but by the end of the season, everyone was able to run nonstop for at least 25 minutes. They also got much faster at the post-run sprints!”  MS 5/6 Flag Football started off 0-2 but proceeded to win seven of their last nine games.  Coach Jason White notes, “Our defense, which is dependent on every member of the team working together, never gave up more than six points in our last four games.” Coach Mina Roustaei says that a highlight of the Varsity Volleyball season was seeing athletes new to the sport learn techniques at practice and then “watching them deliver these new moves and celebrate their victories on the court at each game!” JV Volleyball had many athletes who were new to the game, but buoyed by great team spirit, the group worked hard and produced some exciting wins, including a thrilling victory on Park vs. Shady Hill Game Day. Boys’ Varsity Soccer also showed marked improvement during the season, perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that they lost to Derby 8-0 early on and later almost tied the same team in a tight game with a completely different tenor.

Partnership was also a key theme for fall sports. Jen notes that both Boys’ and Girls’ Varsity Soccer had far more successful campaigns this year because several athletes who had chosen to play for club soccer teams in the past opted to play for Park this fall as well. Jen was pleased with the partnership between the school and these athletes as they navigated conflicts in ways that respected everyone’s needs. Jen also notes that partnership was essential in allowing us to assemble a Varsity Field Hockey team. Only seven girls signed up to play field hockey this year, but we were able to borrow players for games from the nearby British International School of Boston, thus enabling our athletes to participate in the sport of their choice while having what Jen describes as a “very positive experience.”

As always, a highlight of the season was the Larz Anderson Invitational race hosted by Park. Close to 300 cross country athletes from 18 schools, including Park’s team of 19 runners, came together on a beautiful Thursday afternoon to give the steep hills of Larz their all. Another memorable moment came when Grade 8 athletes received their varsity jackets, a new tradition that generates much excitement and pride.  

Drama: 

On November 21 and 22, Park’s Theater was filled with audiences eager to watch the Grades 6-8 production of Haroun and The Sea of Stories, a work of magical realism by Salman Rushdie. The play dramatizes the tale of Haroun, the son of a famous storyteller who loses his ability to tell stories after his wife leaves, and Haroun’s quest to restore his father’s storytelling powers by battling a villain who wants to poison the Sea of Stories.  

Drama Department Head Kyra Fries says that she was guided in her selection of this play by Park’s revolving stage because she wanted to select a show that would take advantage of this special feature. The play tells a “portal story,” and the revolve inspired many ways of showing the literal and figurative transformation that occurs when characters travel to other places and learn about themselves. Kyra also liked that Haroun is an allegorical play about the value of freedom of speech and the importance of love and stories.  

One challenge presented by the play had an unexpected benefit: the drama team needed to figure out how to represent storytelling, and their solution of using shadow puppets became a creative project that involved community members from all over school. Kyra also notes that the complexities of the play provided an opportunity for every cast member to engage thoughtfully with the text and grapple with its meaning. 

Meanwhile, an eager group of Grade 5 students had the opportunity to participate in a new drama after-school offering called FUNdamentals. In this skill-building workshop, students learned about acting, playwriting, theater tech, choreography, and costume design under the tutelage of staff members Lily Mittnight and Meredith Hauser.  

Over forty students participated in our drama program this fall–whether as cast members, technical crew, costume designers, or FUNdamentals students–and Kyra is looking forward to building on this foundation for the winter production of Newsies and the Grade 5 and Grade 8 plays in the spring!

By: Elizabeth Prasse P’27, '29, Park Perspectives Co-Editor

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