This week is the fall musical John and Jen. It has been nominated for the Discovery Awards!
The choir and band will perform together on 12/12. The music of the Polar Express.
In February, the drama department will present the play Little Women.
By Jessica Frizzell
Bristow Speech, Debate, and Theatre has been super busy already this year, and has a full schedule ahead.
So far, 'The Crew' (the knick-name of our team) has competed in the 5A One Act Play competition; once in Regionals on October 15th, where we were regional runners up, and then once at state on Halloween where we were then State runner's up. Bristow and the Freeland Center also hosted the state competition. Besides getting runner up as a team,individual cast members Isaiah Wilson, Eva Roberts, and Wake Tidwell where all three were named all star AND all state actors. The name of our one act was an adaptation of the classic Victorian comedy 'The Importance of Being Earnest.'
Additionally,the Speech and Debate tournament season has begun,and we attended our first tournament at Riverfield Day School in Tulsa last weekend. This coming weekend,we will be competing at Mounds High School. Students in the Middle School (7th and 8th grade) compete in the Novice division, and High School students compete in the classed division (4A for Bristow) where they hope to place high enough to attend Regionals in March and then State in April. Speech and Debate lasts from November until April. We attend an average of 8 tournaments,plus Districts, Regionals, State, and occasionally out of state tournaments for my top competitors. Bristow has qualified students for the National Speech and Debate tournament the last several years (where they have traveled to Kentucky, Arizona, and Iowa), and hope to qualify again this year.
Students in Speech and Debate compete in a variety of events; some humorous and some dramatic. They also write their own original oratories, debate topics with cases they have created, and learn the best ways to communicate a message with an audience.
In the Spring, Bristow will perform a full-length play (which has yet to be announced) with auditions open to both the middle and high schools.
The musical theatre and choir teacher, Chapman Shields, also has a bunch of amazing things in the works. I would contact him if you would like more info on Bristow's performing arts!
By Nicole Cooper
The Bristow Pirate Pride has had an amazing start to the 2024/2025 school year.This marching season, they competed at the Eufaula Ironhead Marching Contest, Glenpool's Blue and Gray Marching Competition, the Oklahoma Bandmasters Association State Competition in Yukon, and the OSSAA Regional Marching Contest in Oologah.
At Eufaula the band placed 3rd in their class and made it to finals! Their performance in finals awarded them 11th place out of the 18 bands that were there to compete. At Glenpool, the Bristow Pirate Pride placed 3rd in their class and scored high enough to make it to finals again! Their finals performance awarded them 9th place out of the 18 bands competing that day. OBA was a busy day with a full schedule of performances. This competition was held for bands from across the state of Oklahoma and featured a total of 30 bands, 11 of which were in the same class as Bristow. Here, the band finished in 17th place!
The final competition of the season was the OSSAA Regional Marching Contest, held in Oologah.This competition is different than the others as there are no finals and bands are not competing against one another. Bands come to compete to receive ratings from a panel of judges to earn a scored rating. The Bristow Pirate Pride received a II rating from the judges.This is an 'Excellent' rating and something to be proud of!
After marching season ended, the band switched right over to Honor Band Audition Season.
On November 2, Bristow took four students to Tuttle to audition for the OBA Small-School All State band. Two students made the OSSBDA performance groups! Gage Johnson took 9th trombone for the All-State Concert Band and Kadyn Lamm took 1st Alto Saxophone in the All-State Jazz Band.
The following weekend, Bristow took a group of students in grades 712 to audition for the North Central Band Directors Association Band. While here, we had three students get selected to audition for the OkMEA All-State Band; Mason Hauptman on alto saxophone, Gage Johnson on trombone, and Kadyn Lamm on alto saxophone.These three students will travel to Edmond on Saturday, December 7th, to complete their last step in their audition for OkMEA All-State Band!
On November 16th, Bristow High School hosted 11 bands for the Cimarron Valley Honor Band Auditions.The Bristow Pirate Pride represented themselves extremely well with 16 students (grades 7-12) making the band. Students who made the Cimarron Valley High School Concert Band were: Mackenzie Sixkiller (10th flute), Mason Hauptman (2nd alto saxophone), Kadyn Lamm (1st tenor saxophone), Wyatt Houser (1st bari saxophone), Gage Johnson (3rd trombone), Lizette Martinez (7th trombone), and Amy Welch (1st Euphonium). Students selected for the CVHB Middle School Concert Band were: Amelia Brandt (1st flute), Kira Napier (1st clarinet), Tristian Stinnett (5th alto saxophone), Shiloh Turner (alternate alto saxophone), Brianna Barcenas (4th trumpet), Dylan Pride (6th trumpet), Wyatt Perkins (7th trumpet), Noah Hilburn (5th french horn), and Emori Stevenson (7th trombone). Finally, students selected for CVHB Jazz Band include: Kadyn Lamm (1st alto saxophone), Daniel Campos (2nd tenor saxophone) and Gage Johnson (1st trombone).
The Bristow Pirate Pride is proud of all students who have auditioned for any of the honor bands! It takes a lot of work, dedication, and practice!
You can see the Bristow Pirate Pride march during the Christmas Parade on December 5th!
The Winter Concert, featuring beginning band, 7th grade band, 8th grade band, High School Band, and the Jazz Band, is scheduled for December 10th at 7:00PM in the Freeland Center. This is a free concert, come listen to some amazing music and support the band!
The High School Band and Jazz Band will also collaborate with the choir to put on a Polar Express Concert on December 12th at the Freeland Center!
Please, please, please feel free to edit this and reword it, I am definitely NOT a writer lol! I know that is a lot of information thrown at you and I'm sorry it's so late! If you need clarification on anything, please don't hesitate to reach back out. Thank you for being patient with me as I get my feet underneath me in this new position!!