Melanie Schaefer Makes Waves at State Meet

by Beth Gardiner

  The girls' swimming season lasted an extra week for one special competitor. Melanie Schaefer had a phenomenal sectional meet, qualifying her for the state competition. Freestyle being her main event, Schaefer placed second in the 100 free and fourth in the 200 free at the sectional meet. “I was really excited this year because I was going to compete at state level as an individual for the first time. This meant a lot to me because my hard work has finally paid off,” shared Schaefer.

  The State meet was held on November 15th at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Natatorium. The day started for Schaefer with a PHS pep rally, so that students could send her off in style. Schaefer and Captain Maddie Kieler headed off with Coach Peters and Coach Wunderlin for a relaxing day in Madison before the big meet.

  The big race on Friday night went very well for Schaefer. With many of her close friends cheering her on, Schaefer’s hard work paid off, as she placed 13th in the 200 and 9th in the 100 freestyle events. Schaefer reflected on the trip by describing the feeling of representing her school at the state level. “Being on the opposite side of the pool and seeing all the fans representing their school by their state shirts was an incredible picture to see.”

Alumni Runners

by Allie Serres

  Platteville Cross Country has always had a legacy for greatness, but some of Platteville High School’s runners go on to be even greater. Laura Donovan (‘13 graduate) and Tricia Serres (‘12 graduate) are now all competing at the college level.

  When Laura Donovan first went to UW-Stout, she wasn’t really sure what to expect. As if trying to make the cross country team as a freshman wasn’t scary enough, Laura was coming off a torn ACL injury. But that didn’t stop her. Not only did Laura make the team, she ran on varsity. On Saturday, November 16th, she competed in the Regional, National Qualifiers meet in Rock Island, Illinois, where she ran 6 kilometers in 23 minutes and 53 seconds.

  Tricia Serres went to Luther, where she is in her second year of collegiate running and loving it. Tricia had an amazing season. She led her team to the Regional, National Qualifiers meet in Northfield, Minnesota, which was also on Saturday, November 16th. Her 6k time was a 21:42, putting her in 3rd overall, which made her an automatic qualifier for the National meet. At Nationals she placed 32nd with a time of 21:57, earning her another All-American title (The top 35 receive All-American honors).

  In order to qualify for Nationals, you must either be a part of one the top two teams from each regional meet or be one of the top five individuals that are not part of the qualifying teams. Luther Girls placed 4th as a team in their regional, but coaches got together and picked several “At-Large” teams (teams that, once compared to other teams that have qualified in other regionals, deserve a spot at Nationals). Luther was one of the teams chosen to make make the trip to Hanover, Indiana on Saturday, November 23rd for the NCAA Division 3 National Cross Country meet. There they placed 27th out 42 teams.

Supporting Your School

by Carla Hoppe

  One word describes Platteville High School’s fall sports season: Wow! There are several reasons why Platteville teams had such great seasons: hard work, dedication, great coaches, and amazing people to be around. There’s a long list of great accomplishments from this fall, including boy’s soccer winning our conference, girl’s swimming having a state qualifier, football going to state, fall play getting to sectionals, girl’s cross country qualifying eighth at sectionals, and boy’s cross country placing sixth overall at state. These are all AMAZING accomplishments, and we should be proud of all of these groups.

  But what if there weren’t any fans at these events, or any support for these participants? Would they have gotten as far as they did? As Psychology Today puts it, on an article related to school pride and its effects on a school, “School spirit appears to be a surprisingly powerful phenomenon.”

  Let’s pose another question: What if the crowds that came to the football games toward the end of the season came to every event at our school? Now, as football is the American pastime, the crowd of supporters that came to the state game would realistically not show up at all of the events in our school, but the encouragement could be just as strong.  

  All of the send-offs, encouragements, announcements, signs, and support from Platteville community and schools contribute to the success of our activities. Every single one of the events previously listed made it to their goals because of a member of our school or community supporting them.

  Be an athlete, a competitor, or a supporter. There are so many activities to choose from! At the very least, let’s gain more respect for all school events and more knowledge of each event. Platteville is an amazing community with countless opportunities and records of success, so  become a part of that success.

Behind the Scenes of Working

by Rachel Lueder

  Picture a tree in your mind…what do you see? Big beautiful boughs, towering over Earth’s dark soil. A sea of green leaves on an endless number of intricately woven branches. What you usually wouldn’t think about are the roots. The roots are what keep the tree standing tall. They make sure water is evenly distributed throughout the trees’ branches. In the standpoint of a musical, the cast would be the branches and leaves, while the crew would be the roots.

  I sat down with Bryn Bowden (‘14), one of the stage managers from this years musical, to learn more. When asked about what the job of a stage manager entails, she told me of all her duties and those of the crew. I was intrigued at the amount of work put into the musical by the crew to make the show what it is. Right at the very start, the crew is busy making plots for lighting, sound, and for stage. They then make a prop list and scavenge around for all the things needed. If something on the list can’t  be found then it is the job of a crew member to build it. With the help of Mr. Urness and Mr. Swailes, the set for the musical begins to take shape. Things start to come together. Production is now in process. The crew is still busy, though. They have to move pieces of the set onstage, take them back offstage, and yell out lines to those who have forgotten them. Each crew member has a different responsibility. One crew member might have to remember to bring a box onstage, and another might have to remember to turn on a mic at a certain time.

  When asked what her favorite part about being on crew was, Bryn stated it was the family aspect of everything. “When you spend hours upon hours backstage with someone, you tend to get to know them really well.” said Bowden. Being in the cast, I can attest to the amount of hard work that goes into production. So the next time you see a bunch of black-clad people assemble on stage at the end of a show, make sure to give an extra hoot-an’-a-holler for those that dedicate their time and effort to make everything go as smoothly as possible.

Word of the Year

by Saafia Masoom

  The company Global Language Monitor (GLM) says that every 98 minutes a new word is created. And somewhere along the way we got Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year for 2013: “selfie.” Though the term was coined in 2002 on an Australian online forum, it only began to see a rise in usage over the past year. Who knew people were using this kind of terminology in those days?

  Oxford offers the alternative spelling “selfy” for the more common usage of “selfie.” While the actual entry defines it as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website,” we’ve observed the word being slipped into context rather casually to suggest that it is merely just a picture taken of oneself. It all seems pretty selfie-explanatory.

  Think back over the past twelve months to how many times you’ve typed the word “selfie” into Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. If you answered with “0” then clearly you didn’t contribute much to the 17,000% surge in frequency that Oxford editors reported seeing since last year.

  As alluded to before, the Word of the Year doesn’t necessarily have to be new; it just has to demonstrate notability or frequent usage. The choices are selected based on their representation of the particular year’s characteristic mood, philosophy, or cultural mindset. Thus, it’s probably not a surprise that the U.K.-centered Oxford Dictionaries offices and the U.S.-based teams have chosen different words over the past few years. A special research program called Oxford Dictionaries New Monitor Corpus scans web data each month to obtain about 150 million words in use from the English language. It provides statistics based on what’s being used where, how often, and identifies new words. Ultimately, a panel of editorial, publicity, marketing staff members, lexicographers (people who write the dictionary), and other consultants pick the winning word from those that appear on the New Monitor Corpus radar often.  

  This year’s candidates ranged from “bitcoin” to the obvious “twerk.” In the end, it was decided that “selfie” would triumph all by being rewarded with the online dictionary entry. But, let’s face the facts. It’s a well-deserved honor since nearly everyone, including Justin Bieber and Hillary Clinton, has hopped on the selfie train. And that, combined with this recognition, makes “selfie” one pretty special word.  

A Novel Idea

    Writing a novel seems like a daunting task, yet over 300,000 people manage to achieve this goal every year. Formerly known as the Office of Letters and Lights, the National Novel Writing Month office is located in Berkeley, California. Classrooms, coffee shops, and libraries will be filled with authors as this non-profit organization encourages aspiring writers of all ages and from all over the world to step up to the challenge and write 50,000 words in the month of November.  

    There are no rules, except to finish the novel before 11:59 PM on November 30th. Starting November 25th, all participants who have reached the 50,000 word goal can submit their work on the site, and the novel will be evaluated to make sure it is not just random words. Their website, www.nanowrimo.org, helps the author keep track of word count, with a bar graph indicating the progress. This organization gives all writers the chance to finally write the novel they had always dreamed of writing, but had never found the time to complete.

    NaNoWriMo’s popularity has grown since it was founded in 1999. It has gone from 21 participants and six winners to 341,375 participants and 38,438 winners in 2012. A “winner” is someone who manages to finish the novel and enter it before the deadline. Over 250 novels written for NaNoWriMo have even been published, including Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl. Many stories are still unwritten as their authors keep putting the task aside, waiting until they will have enough time. NaNoWriMo stimulates the writers and helps them put their stories on paper, calling all authors to action with their slogan, “The world needs your novel.”

Keeps Me Logged In: How Technology's Physical Warmth Brushes Your Thigh and Creates Lust, Not Love

be E.J. Kruser

  Social Media is part of all of our lives, whether we like to admit that we still have a Facebook account, which stopped being cool two years ago, or not. Just kidding, it was never cool. But do you know what is cool? High test scores and extracurricular activities! Straight A report cards! A clean and healthy colon! Scholarships to Ivy Leagues and student loans under 30 Gs! Do you feel me, PHS? Or, is it necessary for me to punctuate the end of each sentence with “#Realtalk” for everyone to understand that, by typing these individual characters on my keyboard, I’m really saying words? #Thatsunnecessary

  The point is this: social networking negatively affects our productivity. In the United States alone, 12,207,423,487 collective hours are spent browsing on a social network every day. I use the word “spent” and not “wasted” because I am not some all-seeing omnipotent being, and therefore cannot know for certain whether you took two-and-a-half hours to arrange your silos in Farmville or were reconnecting with your estranged, long-lost cousin via instant message. I’m fairly certain, however, that the time you spent on YouTube did not help you get any further in understanding your essay assignment on transcendentalism. According to sources, the GPA of college students that regularly use Facebook is a full point lower than peers who resist the urge to check the “Keep me logged in” button. Today’s youth need some sort of outlet for all their creativity and desire to share their own subjectiveness regarding such subjects as what I ate for lunch and collections of low-resolution pictures of my cat, but more importantly, they need to develop their brain regions. Developing and stimulating are two very different things. Social networks are good for the latter. It only makes sense that young adults in America are drawn to social networking sites, because it’s all they know.

  Our generation grew up in correspondence with the ever-evolving world of technology. It’s always been there, and it just looks so darn attractive! Recalling my 8th grade health class, this is known as lust, and not love. Paul thinks he’s in love with Susie because she’s the only one whose hair holds that alluring aroma that he can never quite put his finger on. It’s conditioner. There are a thousand other females who use the exact same Herbal Essences product. Unfortunately, Paul hasn’t come within close enough proximity to 999 of these lovely ladies to adopt the same feelings he has for Susie. This same principle applies to the world of social media. Because we haven’t encountered anything quite like Tumblr in our real lives, we feel like this must be the one and most amazing way to share photos and videos with your friends. Well, maybe it is, or maybe the face-to-face interaction that occurs when indulging in the old-fashioned way of photo sharing (showing your friends physical Polaroid photographs) offers a much greater form of satisfaction on a far deeper, more personal level. If you never strive to obtain the next best thing, you will never know it. If you don’t thrive in school because you are preoccupied with status updates and Imgur albums, how will you ever make it to the Big Apple, where your would-be soul mate Fernando awaits to share wisdom and the greatest cat pictures ever taken with you? You won’t. But you need to. Not for yourself, but for everyone else whose lives you are affecting by blowing up news feeds and photo-bombing friends’ selfies. Log off the interweb and start taking steps towards your real-life goals. Be all that you can be. Do it. Do it for Fernando.

One Card to Rule Them All

by Max Frommelt

Do you know what’s troublesome? Cards–there are simply too many of them. Credit, debit, rewards, point and gift cards. If you want to simply carry them all, you have to be able to find all of them first. Then, when you want to use one specific card, you have to root through your bag to find it. Meet Coin, the electronic, swipeable card that can hold the data from all of your cards in one place. You scan in the card from the downloader. Once it is recognized, the downloader pulls the information into your iOS or Android device. You then take a picture to be able to see your card on the mobile app. Coin combines this scanned image and the data it receives from the scanned card. Once that is done, it pulls the information from your mobile phone and works in tandem with it. This means that Coin is the physical card, while the mobile app creates and organizes your cards over bluetooth. So, if you don’t have the your phone with you, you can still use the physical card itself. However, you might want to make sure you have your phone anyway: you can store any number of cards on your mobile device, but Coin has memory space for up to only eight of your most frequently used cards on the physical card. Worried that you’ll be billed multiple times for the same item? If you want to make sure a purchase is only charged to a specific card, the Coin app will lock Coin so it only uses the card you select. You might think that this would make it really easy for someone to steal all of your cards at once, and with it, your identity. However, along with convenience, security is a big feature of Coin, too. Let’s say you leave your Coin behind. When Coin senses that you're not near, it sends a notification to your phone to tell you that you forgot it. It also locks the physical card, so if someone has stolen it, they will be unable to use it. Simple, easy, secure–and only $55 on pre-order. To purchase Coin or find out more about this revolutionary idea, go to https://onlycoin.com/.

Console Wars

by Neil Perry

When Microsoft and Sony both announced the Xbox One and the PS4 respectively, people strongly favored the PS4 due to poor marketing decisions on Microsoft's part. They initially required the console to be always online and required the Kinect to always be plugged in. Because of this, Microsoft has had to go back on many decisions and work twice as hard as they thought that they would need to in order to stay in the game against Sony. Luckily for them, their efforts have paid off since the pre-order numbers for both consoles were incredibly similar.

When comparing, the Xbox One has a stronger launch line up than its rival, the PS4. The Xbox One has Dead Rising 3, which looks fantastic, and there’s the surprise that came out of nowhere, Killer Instinct. Dead Rising 3 scored well (8.3), but Killer Instinct also scored well (8.4), especially considering how most people thought that it would be the weakest launch game of both systems, as many thought that it shouldn't have even been made. The Xbox One's games are not perfect, though; they have their own version of Knack. They have RYSE (6.8), a game with a fantastic story and incredible graphics, but the combat system falls short. The awful combat system combined with only a six hour campaign really put a dent in its score.

Only time will tell who the winner is in this ten-year battle between Microsoft and Sony. Sony may have a small lead, but the Xbox One's better launch line up and Titan Fall releasing next year could soon turn this into a one sided battle.

The Evolution of Dances

Story by E.J. Kruser

With all the buzz around Homecoming 2013, there are plenty of age-old traditions to discuss: the ceremonial bonfire, the pep rally, the big football game, but the most noteworthy event would have to be the Homecoming Dance. Now, we’ve all had grandma/grandpa pull us aside and tell us what life was like way back yonder in the good ol’ days of five cent moving picture shows. Once we learn to see past the freakishly long nose hair, we’re able  to uncover some insight into our American society’s progression. I remember Grampa Eldon telling me the story of his last high school dance before he was shipped off to the U.S. Army. From the details I was able to catch between my inevitable yawning fits, dances in the 1940’s were a formal, romanticized type of extravaganza full of jiving, swinging and chivalry. Upon recollecting my last dance, I remember being peer-pressured into joining what I heard was referred to as a “grinding train.” By no means could I, a staff writer for the PHS Voice, in good conscience condone such activity, but I would not condemn it, either. I’ll stay neutral in the debate over appropriate dancing techniques, and, instead of writing an opinionated article on why the act of teenagers “bumping uglies to the beat of the bass” is morally bankrupting America, I’d like to talk about the shifting of popular dance styles throughout the last century in our home: the Land of the Free, where it is up to us, the American people, to decide what is right and what is overly-sexualized.

At the turn of the 20th century, the most risque form of dance was a barefoot jig to the classical stylings of Chopin and Strauss. Shortly after, dances like the Foxtrot, the Shimmy, and the Charleston rose to popularity. In these times, scandal arose when a young lady exposed her shins on the dancefloor. Trends changed quickly, however, and by the time the 1940s rolled in, dresses were being acceptably hiked up to the knees for dances like the Jive, the Swing Trot, and the Harlem Shuffle. Fast-forward to the era of free love and disco, where dances like the Twist, the Robot, the Hustle, Moonwalking, the Worm, and breakdancing became common, and we can see just how rapidly the change in what is acceptable in American culture occurred. The Millenium brought few new options to dance, most notably the one-two-step and “krumping.” I don’t know what the term “krumping” means, but I do know this: the times are changing fast. For those of you who disapprove of the modern era’s choice of personal expression on the dancefloor, don’t  worry! According to trends, the newest provocative dance style is right around the corner! Just think, a century from now this “grinding train,” that I’m sure most of us are familiar with, will seem comparable to the famous 1911 “Bunny Hug” in terms of social acceptance. I, for one, am just glad to live in a country where we, the people, decide what is acceptable and what is not. You can dance if you want to.You can leave your friends behind. Because your friends don’t dance, and if they don’t, then they’re no friends of the American media.

What's With All Those Shoes?

Story by Allie Serres

At Platteville High School we don’t see shoes as an issue. People here have multiple pairs and some have so many pairs of shoes that they don't even know what to do with them. Throughout the world, each year 300 million pairs of shoes get thrown away and put into landfills, yet in many places around the world the average person doesn't have shoes at all. in. In fact, approximately 1.5 billion people don't have shoes to wear.

In order to help this world issue, the cross country team has teamed up with Shoe Box and set out collection boxes around the school so students have the opportunity to recycle their used shoes. Coach Serres says, “I got an email from Shoe Box explaining the idea, and I was intrigued by the great opportunity to teach students to give back and help the less fortunate. Although I am happy with the results so far, I would like to see more shoes coming in. The school is going to have a Shoe Blast day, and I am hoping that we bring in about 300 pairs of shoes. This is something that I hope will go on forever, and hopefully people will realize shoes are recyclable just like anything else.”

Not only is this an opportunity to help others around the world, but this program will also benefit the cross country team. Each collection box can hold about 40 pairs of shoes, and for each box filled and sent in to the Shoe Box company, the cross country team receives $20. So bring in shoes to support the team and to help those in need. It is easy to take things for granted, but before you put those shoes in the garbage, think about the child, mother, father, or grandparent that would love to have those shoes that you consider to be trash.

About the QR Codes...

Story by Max Frommelt

Asmany of you have noticed, there are strange images of Henry Hillman floating around the school. These images are QR codes, a coded image that you can “scan” with a QR app like QRReader. When you open the QR scanner and scan the app, you are taken directly to the pre-programmed location, usually a website. In the case of the QR codes around PHS, these QR codes take you directly to The Voice’s blog. After so many years of just printing the paper, you might wonder why we bothered making a blog this year. “The purpose of this is simple,” describes Editor-in-Chief Sumaia Masoom (‘14). “The whole goal of the newspaper at PHS is to create an open forum for discussion about relevant issues, but as with all newspapers, the ability to directly respond to The Voice is limited. Your interactions with the stories are relatively one-sided, unless you choose to write a letter to the editor. Even then, your response won’t be printed until a month after the original story comes out, since we’re a monthly newspaper.” She continues, “With the blog, not only can you comment directly on the stories, but you can also access them from anywhere you have an internet connection.”

  So far, the response to the QR codes has been positive. Carla Hoppe (‘14) says, “With the QR codes, it is simple to get to the web site and it is easy to talk about the subjects. I have recommended to friends to scan the QR code when they’re bored in study hall. The blog has everything from student profiles to polls you can vote on, like the appropriateness of Miley Cyrus’s performance at the VMAs.” The other simple aspect of the QR codes is you do not have to remember or bookmark the web site for the blog. Just hold your mobile device to the code and scan it. The device does the work for you. The newspaper staff uses this site as a feedback mechanism so the newspaper is more of what you want to hear. If you don’t already have it, download QRReader on your device and check it out!

PHS Student Goes to Korea

In case you hadn’t been informed, this year a Platteville High School student is studying abroad. Anna Whisenant (‘15) is spending a year in Uiwang, South Korea, through the Rotary Youth Exchange. Staffer Adam Roberts had the opportunity to ask Anna a few questions about her experience.

What are some differences you’ve noticed about Korean life?

AW: Life in Korea on a day to day basis isn’t really that different than life in America.  There are some differences.  School is harder, and people generally work harder at what they do.  Sometimes my host parents don’t come home from work before 11 at night, and never before 7.

Has learning a new language been a challenge?

AW: The Korean language is really hard.  The language barrier has sucked.

What has been your favorite part of the experience so far?

AW: I love the culture and how beautiful it is.  I love the landscape as well.

What do you miss about Platteville?

AW: I really miss my friends and American fast food.  

How has your experience with the Rotary program been?

AW: It’s so rewarding. We help in the community and try to give back.  I love my host family so much.

Do you have any advice for others who want to travel to a foreign country?

AW: I think everyone should be able to live outside of the country at some point.  If you think that America is the best place out there, it’s time for a reality check.

Interested in reading more about Anna’s experience?  You can follow her blog for updates:  http://anna-all-over.blogspot.com/

Swim Team Journeys to Chicago

Story by Beth Gardiner

At the end of September, the Platteville-Lancaster Girls’ Swim Team took their annual Chicago trip. The girls had the opportunity to compete with excellent swimmers and also have some fun. They enjoyed team bonding, city touring, and of course, some intense swimming.

The swimmers left very early in the morning on September 27th to depart in a coach bus. During three hour journey, they kept traditions of watching The Big Bang Theory and other movies, such as High School Musical. Once they arrived in Chicago they set out to tour the city.

In Willis Tower (Sears Tower) the girls loved going in the skydeck and also taking pictures to remember their trip. Millennium Park was a favorite for many of the swimmers. They hung out at the bean, spitting fountain, and exotic art monuments. The team, dressed in their bright orange swim team shirts, played an exciting game of statues with one of the team captains, Maddie Kieler (‘14), leading them. The best part was when other tourists joined in on the fun. Several swimmers said this was one of their highlights from the trip. The team dined at Giordano’s, Portillo’s, and Barnelli’s Pasta Bowl to get a full taste of Chicago.

To compete on Saturday, September 28th, the team swam at Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois. Here the Platteville-Lancaster team had the opportunity to see and learn from the best of the best swimmers. Elissa Bahr (‘13) recapped the trip by saying, “We have all put in a ton of hard work this season. The Chicago trip was a great opportunity to have fun and bond with each other by having a good time.”

Senior English Students Battle Sun, View Hamlet

Story by Justin Phillips

    In early October, students in the senior english classes took their annual trip to the American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin to attend the Shakespeare classic, Hamlet. Seniors have been reading Hamlet in class, so understanding the plot and characters came easily.  The trip lasted for the entirety of the school day, influencing many students ability to take this opportunity, but miss all of their classes. Mr. Freitag, the senior English teacher, advertised the class trip to students by inviting actor David Daniel from the play to visit classes a day prior to the performance. Mr. Daniel, who played Polonius, a main character in Hamlet, used a couple different acting techniques to entice student interest by touching on relatable subjects such as ADD and “the hallway of crap that is high school.” He also used students to demonstrate the meaning behind Shakespeare’s extensive wording with humor and playful humiliation.

     The actual trip to this outdoor theatre took place on a particularly sunny and warm day for October. Although there was shade surrounding the stage and actors, the majority of students had waterlogged shirts by intermission. Even after Ben Hasker (‘14) had “cowardly” applied sunscreen preceding the show, he was noticeably sunburned and perspiring.

     The acting was exceptionally well done. The entire cast was exuberant in manner, and the lead, Hamlet, in particular was very animated and possessed the insanity needed to portray an allegedly crazy man. Ophelia, Hamlet’s love interest, was also very convincing with her delirious singing and disheveled looks.

     Overall, the senior expedition was a pleasing experience and enjoyed by even those who did not particularly care for reading Hamlet in hardcopy form. “The costumes were very realistic, and the accents were great. I almost felt like I was actually there, in England!” exclaimed Maddie Kieler (‘14). So just wait, juniors–next year, you too might take the trip of a lifetime without ever having to leave your seat.

PHS Presents: Working

Story by Saafia Masoom

The long-awaited month of October is finally here for the individuals of PHS seeking involvement in this year’s musical Working. Each year students are given the chance to audition for roles in the cast, apply for the stage crew, or put their instrumental skills to the test in the pit orchestra.

Based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize winning author Studs Terkel, Working gives the audience a look at the lives of twenty-six people from an array of different backgrounds in the course of just one day. The everyday hopes and dreams of a school-teacher, a waitress, a steelworker, a migrant worker, and a housewife, among many other workers, are explored through many songs and dance numbers.

Working also features the music of various composers: Craig Camelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers and Susan Birkenhead, Stephen Schwartz (also the director of the Broadway version), and James Taylor.

The audience may have to keep the characters and storylines straight, but that’s nothing compared to the rigorous schedule that the musical’s cast, crew, and pit will face. Over the weeks to come, the cast will have to spend hours learning the dance routines, blocking onstage, what to say, and when to say it. Musical director Mrs. Armstrong dedicates months of work into the perfecting the productions. Sounds pretty intense, right?

Well, the workload isn’t just forced on the cast, because the crew must work hand in hand with them to learn the show by heart and pull the strings backstage to make sure that everything goes smoothly. And then there’s the pit, directed by Mrs. Fairchild.

“The pit orchestra for any musical is the glue that holds the entire production together,” she describes. Working will feature a piano, electric and acoustic bass, drum set with some synthesized keyboard, and guitar part for three different types of guitars.

In fact, the pit is given only two rehearsals together before meeting up with the cast since much of the music must be learned on their own. The members can then “figure out how to jell as a unit and provide support for singers on the stage,” as Fairchild puts it.

In this sense the musical is a lot like any team sport in which participants must work together to make things happen. So, when production week rolls around, we should all just remember to be supportive of the brave individuals who are taking on quite a challenge this year with Working. It’s just the beginning of the long rehearsal process for the musical bunch, but we can rest assured that they’ll be ready to put on a great show when the time comes.

Trending Now: The Dark World of ask.fm

Story by Sumaia Masoom/Carla Hoppe

  “It’s stupid; you’re setting yourself up for bullying.” Brooke Groom (‘14), comments on the latest social media trend to hit teens worldwide, the website ask.fm. The website, based in Latvia, was founded by brothers Mark and Ilja Terebin in June of 2010. The site allows anyone to ask registered users questions anonymously. People can, however, question others with their chosen username if they have also registered with the site. For example, ask.fm makes most of its money through advertising, as it allows businesses to get their name out by “sponsoring” questions.

  While the main purpose of the site is to merely “ask and answer,” as the simple homepage describes, the only feature on each individual’s pages is a text box that allows for 300 characters. This means that users don’t even have to ask questions, and can simply comment as they please so long as the comment fits within the character limit. This has led to a definite increase in anonymous cyberbullying. In several incidents--nine of them confirmed--bullying through ask.fm has even led to suicide.

  Erin Gallagher, a 13 year-old from the U.K., is one of the victims of harassment who eventually hanged herself. The teenager left a note saying that she could no longer handle all the bullying, and specifically named  ask.fm as one of the sources. Her 15 year-old sister, so distraught by her sister’s death, also killed herself two months later. Their mother, Lorraine, was understandably shaken and commented a few weeks later after yet another girl had also committed suicide for the same reasons, "I want ask.fm to shut down because I don't want to turn on the TV again and see that another kid has killed herself because they have been bullied on ask.fm.”

  Here at PHS, the situation has not escalated to quite such levels. However, there have still been multiple incidents of harassment related to ask.fm. This begs the question: why even open yourself up to even the possibility of such bullying? “I wanted to know what it was about,” says Elissa Bahr (‘15), “but I don’t even use it.” Melanie Schaefer (also ‘15) adds, “I wanted to see all the questions being asked.”

  Let’s say you decide to create an account, whether it’s for any of the reasons mentioned above or something else. Is there any way to protect yourself from the “kill yourself” and “drink bleach”-type comments? Ask.fm’s founders, although they refuse to take any responsibility for their part in the bullying, have included a section about safety and privacy settings on their website following the many incidents. You can also report any abuse on the website itself, as well as to school administrators. Finally, there’s also a way to block anonymous questions altogether: just log into your account, go to your privacy settings, and check the box that says “do not allow anonymous questions.” You can block known registered users from asking you questions as well by adding them to your “Blacklist.”

  In the end, ask.fm might be a great site for innocent fun, but it also appears to allow many bullies to hide behind their computers. As with all things related to the internet, it’s important to remember to be careful. As for those of you who may have said some unsavory things in the past, remember to watch what you say: nothing is ever truly deleted.