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Performing Arts

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Girls dancing at a recital
Student dancing
Student dancing
Students in a drama performance
Students in a drama production

All performance art at Tabor emphasizes the values of process, communication, and collaboration.

For students interested in the performing arts, Tabor offers a wide variety of courses during the academic day and additional programs during the co-curricular afternoon period. All courses and programs develop individual skills through a collaborative, team-based process. In addition to being creative outlets, Tabor’s performing arts programs afford students many leadership opportunities to bring their passions to the whole school community in formal and informal settings.

Professional Performance Facilities

The Fireman Center for Performing Arts in Hoyt Hall ranks among the finest at New England secondary schools. The 650-seat auditorium (with orchestra pit) is suited for concerts and large theatre productions and includes a state-of-the-art soundboard and computerized light board, as well as a fully-equipped scenery shop. Hoyt Hall also boasts seven music practice rooms with pianos, two large classrooms spaces for music theory classes, and two large ensemble rooms. A second, more intimate acting space in Hoyt Hall is the Will Parker '04 Black Box Theatre;  a lab for student actors, directors, and technicians. Lyndon South Auditorium, in the Stroud Academic Center, is regularly utilized for small music recitals and chamber music performances, for Poetry Out Loud recitations, and the freshman class Macbeth Festival.

As a testament to the quality of the performance and rehearsal space that Tabor students have at their disposal, the Fireman Center is the annual host site each July of the Buzzards Bay Music Festival featuring performers from a number of major orchestras across the United States and joined by visiting artists of national and international stature. Tabor has also hosted concerts by the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, the New Bedford Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Tri-County Symphonic Band.

Student playing the violin at a concert

Productions

Although Tabor’s Drama, Dance, and Music Programs have produced many smaller, original shows, including pocket musicals and student-written plays, the main event each year is the Winter Musical. Typically, sixty or more student actors, dancers, designers, and technicians are involved in productions such as In the Heights, Grease, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Hairspray. Because of its scope, the Winter Musical typically draws students from all walks of Tabor life, and these students work through the entire process of the spectacle that is a big-stage show, an education in itself. 

Tabor’s award winning Dance Team also puts on two recitals each year in the fall and in the spring. These recitals feature original student choreography and, in some cases, original music orchestration as well. 

Tabor’s music program often features many instrumental groups including wind, string, and jazz ensembles; as well as vocal groups, such as the Madrigal Singers and a cappella groups. Each of the vocal and instrumental groups perform at one or more of the formal seasonal school concerts, All School meetings, or other smaller recitals at the end of each season.