Performing Arts Centers' Grand Opening Celebration This Weekend

We are re-running this piece to offer readers an opportunity to see what programs are available at this weekend's arts festival.

The LVUSD Festival of the Arts and Education: A Grand Opening Celebration will be held in the newly completed Performing Arts Education Centers of Las Virgenes located on the campuses of Agoura and Calabasas High Schools Jan. 25-26. The event will feature 17 performance and educational events in these new, state-of-the-art theaters.

“We are very excited to open these new theaters and introduce them to the community,” Las Virgenes Unified School District Superintendent Dan Stepenosky said in a news release. “We will forever be grateful to our community for passing the bond that allowed these professional-quality theaters to be built. We envision them as a valuable resource for both students and the broader community, and can’t wait to fill them with vibrant performances, classes, lectures and community events for everyone to enjoy.”

The festival will feature student performances produced by LVUSD’s award-winning music, dance and theater programs, including the following events as described in an LVUSD news release:

• Calabasas High School’s theater department will feature students performing works written by professional writers, professional actors performing works written by students, and a host of additional surprises all centered on the theme of "New Beginnings."

• Calabasas High School’s jazz ensembles will perform big band and jazz pieces that will feature every player, from beginner to advanced.

• The improv teams at Agoura and Calabasas High Schools will go head to head in a Comedy Sportz showdown refereed by screenwriter Cinco Paul, whose films include Despicable Me and The Lorax.

• Calabasas High School’s co-ed a cappella group, Unstrumental, and all-female group, Bare Rhythm, will perform.

• Actors from the AHS and CHS theater programs will be put through their paces in an acting master class taught over the Internet in real time by Academy Award-winning writer and producer Bobby Moresco, whose films include Crash and Million Dollar Baby.

• Calabasas High School’s music program will perform two concerts featuring its wind ensemble, orchestra, concert band, choir and jazz students.

• Agoura High School’s theater department’s IN THE SPOTLIGHT: A Theatre Review will showcase scenes, songs and monologues chosen from the performing highlights of the past two years.

• TEDxConejo Salon will present a one-hour sample of live short talks, performances and recordings from the TEDTalk library.

• The dance programs at Agoura and Calabasas High Schools will join forces in a presentation of hip-hop, jazz and contemporary pieces choreographed by students as well as dance-industry professionals.

• Agoura High School’s music program will perform two concerts featuring its orchestra, wind ensemble, mixed choir and jazz students.

• Alice C. Stelle Middle School students will perform a program that includes a variety of marches, classical transcriptions and light selections performed by Stellar Voices and wind ensembles. Two additional concerts will feature the award-winning music programs from Lindero Canyon and A.E. Wright Middle Schools.

• The Agoura High School film program and Calabasas High School’s Media Academy will each present a screening of student films followed by conversations with the filmmakers.

Gilles Chiasson, the Centers’ theater manager, describes the festival as a "historic opportunity for the LVUSD community to come together to celebrate the talents of students throughout the district and the generosity of the entire community."

To purchase tickets, go to www.lasvirgenesperformingarts.org.