This Monday was the opening of the annual Senior School Art Show. Over 110 students had art on display and Bolton House artists had their fair share of contributions. Derry, Jero, Diego, Bolu, Laurent and Joel all had art up and many more contributed to the two giant collaborative sculpture pieces.

But besides the art show, in many ways we have carried on as normal, each Bolton boy shining and contributing in his own way. For example, Mohammed delivered an amazing speech to the school about his experiences moving to Canada from Oman. His writing was witty and his timing was perfect, eliciting many hearty laughs and full on applause, mid-speech. Meanwhile, David X developed his outdoor leadership skills during a training weekend. Alan can be seen here two, on his way to kendo classes at UVic, taking advantage of living in the city. Also, this week, we had a “Spark” open-house event to welcome new prospective students to the school. The Bolton-Timmis building (seen here with official Spark signage) is always a favorite stop on the tour, known for its beautiful common room, comfortable atmosphere and tidy hallways.

But while many of us were carrying on in our normal way, a group of students were rehearsing, memorizing and giving every moment they had to the production of “Ragtime” our school’s musical this year. If you haven’t seen a SMUS musical, you really should some year, they are massive productions and very well performed. This year Bolton House happened to three Bolton boys in the male leads and two more in major supporting roles. Christian and David A were both cast as Coalhouse, the musician-turned-radical. They each took the lead for two nights and it was amazing to see the variation in approach to both strong performances. Joel, a veteran of school musicals, was joined by Bolu as part of Coalhouse’s gang, both showing great swagger and attitude. The group was rounded out by Will, who graced most of the scenes in the show, playing an disillusioned aristocrat, who also joins the rebels. In fact, there was a major scene at the end, where five of the six people on stage were from good old Bolton.

The musical of choice, which deals with different racial groups, immigration, tolerance and intolerance, was incredibly topical for our time and each performer dealt with it maturely.  Joined by the boys off-stage was Chen, making the magic happen behind the scenes as part of stage crew and Mathias, playing brightly and tirelessly in the pit orchestra. The latter was conducted, of course, by Bolton’s own Mr. Butterfield.

Mrs. Bateman was working backstage and managed to get these great behind-the-scenes shots of her Bolton boys:

Stay tuned for next week when we get to see our Bolton grade 8s as Oompa Loompas, stage hands and Willy Wonka himself in the Middle School musical.

Go Bo!