Chicago Gathering - A Good Time for All!

Eighty people, including Wayland Trustees, Alums, Parents, Friends and members of the Parents Council and the Alumni Board attended a Gathering at the United Center to watch the Chicago Bulls beat the Cleveland Cavaliers. Many came from the Chicagoland area, but there were also attendees from Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and even farther. 

Wayland alumni and friends watched the game from a luxurious suite at the Penthouse Level at the United Center; they had a terrific view of the entire venue. The pregame celebration began at 5:30 p.m., with the game 7 p.m. and ended at 10 p.m.

Attendees received a special treat when former Chicago Bull, Bob Love showed up at the party after recognizing Trent Jackson's name associated with the event. Love's NBA career spanned 11 years, eight of those with the Bulls. He became the second Chicago Bull to have his jersey (#10) retired. Love is a three time NBA All Star and is ranked second on the Bulls' all time scoring roster list with 12,623 points. He now works as the Bulls' Director of Community Affairs.

Wayland Academy would like to recognize the Wirtz Family for their generous contribution to help make the Wayland Academy Alumni Gathering in Chicago possible.  

Laurie Wirtz-Jenkins & Steve Jenkins `86 , Trustee, Burnie Sullivan `69, Arthur `86 Wirtz, & Jennifer Downey-Wirtz `86 and James Wirtz `91

 Click here for more photos of the Chicago Gathering...

Los Angeles Area Gathering - March 26, 2011, at the Ca' Del Sole Ristorante, in Toluca Lake, California. Beginning at 4 p.m., cost is $25 per person. Online registration coming soon. 

Dates for Wayland Academy's

annual Phone-a-thon are set!

We will be calling alums on

February 15-17 and February 22-24. Wayland's student callers look forward to speaking with you!

The Wayland Beat

by Alex Derr `12

Last November, Wayland had the opportunity to experience another of its time-honored traditions: The Fall Play. This core part of Wayland's Fine Arts Program extends back more than 30 years, with countless plays and theater pieces performed. This year's play was the early twentieth century comedic hit, "You Can't Take it With You". It centered around the story of a young woman named Alice, played by Kirstin Lardy `12, who falls in love with a young businessman, played by Chris Booker `14. However, Alice's family is quite eccentric, including a tax-evading grandfather (Will Gill`13), a dance fanatic sister (Esme Barniskis `13), a sex-obsessed mother (Sophie Ptaschinski `11), a firework-inventing father (Doug Heaney `13) and myself as the family's crazy Russian dance instructor. As the play progressed, the families learned that in the end, it doesn't matter what material wealth you have, as you can't take it with you; family and fun is really the most important thing in life.

There is much that goes into developing a play into a show ready performance. The cast spent more than eight weeks rehearsing, learning lines and blocking scenes.

"It was difficult at times to keep my life centered with school, sports and the play," said senior Enrique Galvan. "But we could do homework during practice at times, and we became used to the craziness after a while." The set had to be designed, constructed and painted, with the help of more than thirty students. Ms. Diane Alpaugh H`83, a longtime member of the Wayland Thespian Society and a treasure for the Wayland Fine Arts Department, led that effort. We would be lost without her!

There is also a lot of backstage work involved. actors spent time rummaging through the costume and prop rooms, looking for classic 20's style clothing, typewriters, food and dishes, fireworks, a mustache and even a pipe! With generous help from across both the Wayland and Beaver Dam Community, we were able to find everything we needed!

Finally, show night came and the cast was ready. With a final word of advice from Mrs. Tyranski & Mrs. Bohlig, the Director and Assistant Director, the curtain rose. There were record amounts of people at the show and more chairs had to be brought in to seat them all! It was a great production, and a great time for all involved!

This is of course, just the start of the Fine arts season at Wayland.

This February we will host the Wayland One-acts, a series of student written, directed and acted short plays. This year the One-acts program is being coordinated by Mr. Jeremy Starz `97, who performed in One-acts himself as a student at Wayland. They look to be funny, exciting and a must see for all!