Performing & Visual Arts at SI
SI offers students a chance to shine in nearly all the fine arts, whether their talents lie in drama, dance, photography, music, architecture, sculpture, drawing or painting.
Acting
Each year, student actors perform in a fall play, in the winter dramatic arts festival and in the spring musical. Recent productions have included Dead Man Walking, Once Upon a Mattress, Fiddler on the Roof, and the Diary of Anne Frank. Click here for the line-up of shows for the 2006-07 school year.
How good is our theatre program? Just look at the success of some of our graduates, including Bart Sher ’77, who directed plays at SI and who has since been twice nominated for the Tony Award for best director for the Broadway productions of Light in the Piazza and Awake and Sing!
The theatre program has also caught the eye of the local press. In 1988, the legendary columnist Herb Caen attended the SI production of My Fair Lady and wrote the following: "The best entertainment in our town last week was not in the usual haunts but at 37th and Rivera in the Sunset... where a wildly talented bunch of teenagers from that school did nightly performances of My Fair Lady at a level not far below professional. A lot of people in the audience were moved to observe that ‘There’s nothing wrong the kids of today!’ which is certainly as true as most clichés. They may even be better than the kids of yesterday, despite the bad press they get so often. All I know is that the senior class at Sacramento High in 1932 never came close to putting on anything resembling the ambitious show at St. Ignatius last week."
If you’d rather work behind-the-scenes, SI offers a wonderful technical theatre program, giving students the skills needed to build sets and run a sophisticated computer-driven light & sound system.
Music
Equally distinguished is the school's music program. Each year, SI stages a Winter Pops Concert Series featuring a jazz band, a full orchestra, a handbell choir and a legion of talented singers under the direction of Janet and Nick Sablinsky ’64. The singers return in the spring for another concert and also perform at the Fine Arts Assembly. More than 10 percent of the student body is involved in our successful music program.
Dance
Dancers have a chance to shine at the winter dance concert, with the Dance and Drill hip-hop group, and through a variety of dance classes. They perform modern, jazz, tap, hip-hop and ballet under the direction of Meredith Galvin ’97 and Ted Curry ’82.
Art, Architecture, Sculpture & Photography
If you're a painter, sculptor, photographer or budding architect, SI offers a wide range of fine arts classes tailored to fit your creative goals. Click here to check out our classes and see some samples of student art. These classes are taught by a gifted faculty, including celebrated artist Katie Wolf (who has been honored by the SFUSD and who is the chief fabric artist for St. Mary's Cathedral) and master photographer Carlos Gazulla, whose works have been featured in books and magazines.