The Student News Site of McCallum High School

The Shield Online
The Student News Site of McCallum High School

The Shield Online
The Student News Site of McCallum High School

The Shield Online
Francesca Dietz

Francesca Dietz, Knight co-editor in chief

Bio goes here.

All content by Francesca Dietz
Senior Jaella Brush performs “Meet the Plastics,” a piece from the musical Mean Girls. Brush went into cabaret with a mission in mind. “Going into cabaret I was excited to be more involved in the production and to show people that choir’s not just about singing classic choral music,” Brush said. The trio Brush performed in was a long-awaited partnership. “I was thrilled to get to work with and perform with two of my best friends,” Brush said. “We’ve always known we wanted to do a trio song together our senior year, so it was exciting to finally make it happen.” Brush gave this Cabaret her all because it was her last one. She wound up very happy with the performance. “I definitely committed to Cabaret,” Brush said. “I put in a lot of time and effort into the show. This being my final Cabaret, I wanted to make it count, and I think the performances went as well as one could hope for.” While some elements of the performance were very well-rehearsed, others could have used some more work. “I think it could have been better if I had spent a little more time on the vocals, as silly as that seems,” Brush said. “There was so much energy put into the choreography and theatrics of it all that sometimes the vocal energy was lost.” Other challenges this trip faced was picking out a song they felt was fitting. “Choosing the song was a tough process for me and my friends,” Brush said. “We knew we wanted to do a trio song together, but it was hard to find a song that matched our energy and dynamic as a group. We settled on Mean Girls because it’s such a fun [musical], and the whole idea of us portraying the iconic trio was exciting to explore. Plus, everyone loves Mean Girls.” Everyone in the group was good with choreography, so it was relatively quick process to put the performance together. “Practice for ‘Meet the Plastics’ specifically didn’t take too long,” Brush said. “We all are pretty good about getting the job done when it comes to choreography because we helped choreograph five numbers in the show. We probably spent a total of three to four hours choreographing and rehearsing.” While Cabaret may have its down moments, Brush had a good experience overall. “Even through the stress and pressure of being so involved in the show, I had a good time participating in Cabaret this year,” Brush said. “Getting to spend time working with some of my favorite people to put on this show was really sweet.” Caption by Shila Gill.

[Photo] Who’s Who 2024

June 1, 2024
SENIOR SOLO: Senior Naomi Di-Capua sings “Losing my Mind” from the musical “Follies” during a solo performance. Because she is not planning to pursue music in college, Di-Capua felt the need to go all out and audition for a solo. Out of over 60 auditions for solos, duets and small groups, only 17 made it into the show, one of which was Di-Capua. “It was really rewarding to know that I made it past auditions,” Di-Capua said. Auditioning was just the first step for Di-capua, though. She still had to perform in front of a large audience--for multiple nights--which came with its own difficulties. “Just getting up on stage and performing was a huge accomplishment for me because I have struggled with performance anxiety for a while,” she said. “So walking away from it I’m just really proud I was able to overcome something that I had previously struggled with.” Di-Capua’s struggle with stage fright wasn’t the only problem she came across; she also had to alter her song of choice to fit her vocal range. The song, typically sung by altos, was not going to work for her; a soprano one. To combat this issue, she had to sing the song in a completely different key. “The song is typically sung by older, alto-y, musical-theater singers, which is definitely not me,” Di-Capua said. “So honestly the hardest part of the whole process was transposing it into a higher key while managing the warmth of the piece.” Caption by JoJo Barnard.

[Photo] Choir harmonizes new changes into Cabaret

JoJo Barnard, Naomi Di-Capua, Gaby Esquivel, Shila Gill, Chloe Lewcock, Helen Martin, Callen Romell, Lanie Sepehri, Ingrid Smith, and Francie Wilhelm
December 6, 2023
LAST TIME FOR THE TRIO: Seniors and chamber choir members Cate Thomason, Georgiana Murray and Stella Pitts perform “Landslide” in the style of The Chicks during a performance of the annual choir cabaret. This year’s cabaret production, themed “This is the Moment… Be a Light,” featured songs about the choice humans face to build someone up or break them down. Thomason said after four years of performing together, the trio’s personalities blend as well as their voices. For the trio, this Cabaret was bittersweet. “We weren’t that nervous this year because we’ve been singing together for so long,” Thomason said.  “We were mainly just excited and sad that it was our last year singing together.” Former choir directors Malcolm Nelson and Cheryl Lindquist returned to Mac to put on Cabaret this year. Thomason said Nelson and Lindquist’s fun taste in music made the experience even better. “Cabaret is a lot of work but it’s a lot of fun music and an exciting experience,” Thomason said. “We are really fortunate to have Mr. Nelson and Dr. Lindquist coach and help us with everything. I think they’re really good at picking fun songs and putting so much together in such a short amount of time.” Photo by Francesca Dietz. Reporting by Ingrid Smith.

Cabaret 2022 succeeds in bringing the ‘Light’

JoJo Barnard, Francesca Dietz, Chloe Lewcock, Alice Scott, Ingrid Smith, Camilla Vandegrift, and Francie Wilhelm
December 7, 2022
English and women's studies teacher Nikki Northcutt says that its no secret that teachers are overworked. She said that she will not return to McCallum next school year to teach seven classes out of eight. “I love this job and I love McCallum High School,” she said. “I feel like I am in the best school in the district. I love my colleagues and my students. But I refuse to burn myself out. I am already working all weekend. I cannot give any more than I am already giving.”

[Photo] To solve deficit, district to add a class to each teacher’s workload so fewer teachers are needed

Alysa Spiro, co-editor in chief
February 5, 2022
Principal Griffith at the first Spectrum meeting of the year. Club leaders Caytie Brown and Ceder Herring invited Griffith to a meeting so she could share her story as an LGBTQ+ person. Having the support from Griffith has allowed Spectrum to facilitate more open discussions. "I feel like other schools would be weirded out, " Brown said. "Like, 'The principal's telling a story?' But I think Mac culture is pretty accepting."

[Photo] A safe space for all

Francie Wilhelm and Eliza Jensen
November 21, 2021
ONE DAY MORE: Seniors Jessie Lucas and Amethyst Mellberg-Smith make a final stand to save Bikini Bottom in the Act I finale, “Tomorrow Is.” Lucas, who played the titular role of SpongeBob, was touched by the song, which takes place with only one day left to save the town from an imminent volcano apocalypse. “It kind of reminded me of how I interacted with friends at the beginning of the pandemic,” Lucas said, “before we really knew what was going on. Having that experience myself really helps me play that scene as honestly as I can.” Caption by Lanie Sepehri.

MacTheatre dives deep into ‘The SpongeBob Musical’

Sophi Beardslee, Francesca Dietz, Evelyn Griffin, Eliza Jensen, Sophie Kessler, Sophie Leung-Lieu, Lucy Marco, Devin Neal, Madelynn Niles, Caroline Owen, Samantha Powers, Alice Scott, Lanie Sepehri, Ingrid Smith, Alysa Spiro, and Kennedy Weatherby
September 14, 2021
Hands down, the best photo essay we've published

Hands down, the best photo essay we’ve published

Jaella Brush, Amaya Collier, Francesca Dietz, ElizaBess Estrada, Meredith Grotevant, Reese Hudson, Eliza Jensen, Sophie Leung-Lieu, Julian Magee, Ariana Mendez, Will Myren, Hadlee Varela, Grace Vitale, Francie Wilhelm, Annabel Winter, and Ben Zacharias
May 25, 2021
LISTENING IN: Freshman Sophie Leung-Lieu and her shaggy dog, Sun Tzu lay on the floor with their headphones in. Moments after this photo was taken, Sun Tzu rolled over and was not in the mood to be posing. “It was difficult to get a good photo where he was sitting up straight,” Leung-Lieu said. “He looked grumpy in every other picture we took.” In the end, Sophie and her pet companion got the right shot.

A Tuesday Top 10 throwback to the first week of school

Frances Arellano, Peyton Casey, Amaya Collier, Francesca Dietz, Autry Guequierre, Sophie Leung-Lieu, Sully Madres, Lucy Marco, Helen Martin, Sarah Mbaya, Liliana Rodriguez, Lanie Sepehri, Fatima Trejo, Javier Vela, Grace Vitale, and Francie Wilhelm
September 29, 2020
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Francesca Dietz