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THE EPHRATA REVIEW WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2012 B3

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A fond farewell anda nal bow

Keren Luecke: Passionate about painting

Keren Luecke takes a break from painting to smile for the camera.She also displays one of her favorite pieces so far, an abstract self-por-trait.

Seen here in between rehearsals, Dierwechter greets thecamera demonstrating the same animation he works to instillin his productions.

When Mr. Huck announced tohis Art Concentration class that theywere going to begin working on anew painting, Keren Luecke wasecstatic. Painting is Kerens absolutefavorite form of expression.

She said,There is just so muchyou can do with it. You can addtexture or it can be smooth. You canuse dots orstrokes. It isju st so ve r-s a t i l e , a ndit really letsyou get rid ofsome of thosepent up emo-tions.

The cur-r e n t p a i n t -ing that ArtC onc e n t r a -tion class isworking onis a still lifefrom a set upin Mr. Hucksroom.

K e r e nusually paintsabstract art, but she enjoys the chal-lenge of painting a still life.

Of the current project she said,It is my rst time doing a still lifepainti ng, so it seems a bit odd. Ihave always done these things withdrawing.

Kerens biggest inspiration forher art work is the French impres-sionist painter Claude Monet, fa-mous for his beautiful depictions ofnature. Monets studies in color andlight paved the way for Pointillism,a painting technique in which dots oftwo unmixed colors optically form

a new color when viewed from adistance.

Keren said, I have always loved

the Pointillism style due to the mas-sive amount of work the artists haveto put into their paintings.

Keren may seem shy at firstglance, but once you get to know hershe will open up very easily.

Besides painting, Keren loves toplay video games in her spare time.Her favorite video games are Japa-nese role-playing games such as theFinal Fantasy series.

She is also fascinated with mu-sic that is sung in other languages.

Right now Kerensays that she is ob-sessed with Swed-ish pop.

Ke r e n a l s onds a creative out-let in writing. Sheparticipated for thethird time in Na-tional Novel Writ-ing Month in No-

vember, a monthdedicated to get-ting at least 50,000words written in 30short days.

Her novel isabout a boy namedSeth who is search-ing for his lost sis-

ter in the midst of the zombieapocalypse. He joins a group of teenswhose goal is to help the survivors.In doing so, he learns valuable les-sons and discovers something helost long before the d isaster. Kerensnal word count is 50,127 words;denitely no small feat.

After high school, Miss Lueckewill continue to focus on art. She willbe attending Hofstra University nextfall, which is conveniently located inKerens former hometown in LongIsland, New York.

Keren aspires to become an art

teacher so that she can transfer herlove of all things creative to youngstudents in elementary school.

by Hannah Mantangos

News Co-Editorlong is because he loves helping highschool students develop their charactersand learn from rehearsals and perfor-mances.

"The best way for students to learnis by expanding their horizons and chal-lenging themselves. Also, participationis key," he said.

Understandably, Dierwechter is ahuge advocate for the arts, and he feelsit's a shame that, in recent years, thenumber of patrons has dwindled.

"I have full respect for all extracur-

ricular activities, but you can still partici-pate in theatre when you're 70, whetheryou're an actor or an audience member.It's a life-long experience."

Regardless, he won't be bored duringhis retirement, however, as he is activelyinvolved at the Sharadin Bigler Theatreas a special events and fundraisingcoordinator.

"I'm really going to miss workingwith the high school students though.[After all], you guys keep me young!he said.

And, the Ephrata Theatre Depart-ment will miss him as it will forever tryto preserve the memory of Dierwechtersdedication to the students and the theatre.

This year the theatre department willexperience a tragic loss at the end of theirspring production of Little Women:David Dierwechter will be retiringafter many years of directing Ephrata's

productions.Dierwechter graduated from Mill-

ersville University with a degree inelementary education with his masterthesis emphasizing the role theatre may

play in education.

"Theatre is a learning experience.Kids are able to experience life from the

perspective of another person. [Some-thing] they can then learn from," saidDierwechter

He rst taught at Bergstrauss El-ementary, directing the fth grade play.He then taught sixth grade math andlanguage arts at Ephrata Middle School.All the while, he was directing school

performances and shows at SharadinBigler Theatre, formerly known asEphrata Performing Art Center. He wasalso the head of the board at SharadinBigler for a time.

The main reason Dierwechter hasstuck with the theatre program for so

Photo by Karly Soldner

Photos by Karly Soldner

by Deb MartinA&E Editor

The Scholastic Writing Awardswere announced in late January.Sponsored by the Alliance for YoungArtists & Writers, this long-running,pr es ti gi ou s co mp et it io n an nu al lyawards 7-12th grade students for theircreative achievement. Nationally,over 50,000 students are recognizedevery year in their communities forwinning regional awards.

Students arent just being recog-nized by their teachers, said CherylFritz, whose Creative Writing classhad several winners. Theyre alsobein g reco gniz ed by an elit e grou pof officials.

Students in Creative Writingwere able to enter whichever piecethey felt was worthy of recognition,continued Fritz. So when they wererecognized, it meant they had donewell with something they themselveshad written and chosen.

This year , Ephrata had sev-eral gold key winners. Gold keys,which represent the highest level ofachievement on the regional leveland are given to less than 10% of allsubmissions, were presented to JuliaFreidly, Ginger Hershberger, AllisonSmith, Andrew Burkholder, Grace

Chon, Emily Epler, Anna Martin,Moriah Pfautz, Kimberlee Roberts,and Arielle Roth.

Their pieces will all go on tothe national level of the competi-tion, with the chance to be honoredin Carnegie Hall and have theirpiec es pres ent ed in vari ous NewYork City museums.

Silver keys, typically given to10-15% of all writing submissions,were awarded to Hannah Smith,Sarah Dover, Katie Hammaker,Annie Wise, Ashley Fry, Rhian-non Jacobs, Sara Martin, LaurenOverly, Ryan Schwark and LueVang.

Honorable mentions for artisticpote ntia l were g iven to Sea n Lam-mer, Erica Voigt, Andrew Putt,Evan Weaver, Loran Kachel, Mi-chaela Werner, Paige Hammakerand Tucker Keefer.

Recognized Ephrata studentswere honored at Hempfield HighSchools Performing Arts Centeron February 3.

Winning a gold or silver keyor an honorable mention in theScholastic Writing Awards is a bighonor, said Cheryl Fritz. Itsa nationally-recognized contest,so students should feel a sense ofpri de and acc omp lis hme nt wi ththeir writing.

Photo by Preston Whitcraft

This year's Scholastic Writing Award winners: (front row, left to right)Julia Freidly, Ginger Hershberger, Allison Smith, Andrew Burkholder,Grace Chon and Emily Epler; (second row, l-r) Anna Martin, MoriahPfautz, Kimberlee Roberts, Arielle Roth, Hannah Smith, Sarah Dover

and Katie Hammaker; (third, l-r) Annie Wise, Ashley Fry, Rhiannon Ja-cobs, Sarah Martin, Lauren Overly and Ryan Schwark; (fourth, l-r) LueVang, Erica Voigt, Andrew Putt, Evan Weaver, Loran Kachel, MichaelaWerner, Paige Hammaker and Tucker Keefer. Missing from photo is SeanLammer.

by Hannah Matangos

News Co-Editor

Winter writing winners

Mini -Thon AssemblyPhotos by Joel Bischoff

Pictured above, theSmith family tells of

their daughters battlewith childhood cancer.

To the right, iconicsuperheros know thatanyone can help thecause against child-hood cancer.

To the right, mathteacher Bret Mar-zock demonstrates hisdance moves in prepa-ration for the dancemarathon, March 10th.

Pictured above, Ke$ha pays a visit to show hersupport for the 4 Diamonds Fund.

The Kardashian family, pictured left, hosted theshow with lots of laughter.