Upper School Arts

The Tallulah Falls School performing and visual arts programs strive to provide opportunities for creative development and expression, events to showcase student work, recognition of excellence, and exploration of contemporary career pathways in the arts. This is achieved through various classes, competitions, and performances in theatre, music, culinary and visual arts.

Our upper school fine arts programs provide opportunities for creative development, expression, and exploration of contemporary career pathways in the arts for all our students. This is achieved through various theater, music, visual, and culinary classes.

From the one-act competition in the fall to the spring musical, students have plenty of opportunities to perform on stage. Students participate through live musical ensembles, singing, dancing, and acting. In addition, there are student-led productions, some smaller-scale scenes, and dramatic offerings performed throughout the year.

Our instrumental classes provide a dynamic environment where students flourish as musicians, performers, and collaborators, laying a strong musical foundation for their future endeavors.

Chorus is designed to enhance all students’ musical, creative, and expressive qualities. Our performance-based classes focus on singing through vocal production and technique.

From chili cook-offs to cupcake wars to meal planning, our culinary art students experience the joy of cooking.

In the art studio, students are invited to take risks, use their imagination, and think like inventors, engineers, designers, and artists. Projects span the universe of art as students explore photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, digital art, ceramics, and more. “Students build focus, critical thinking, work ethic, and an openness to new ideas,” said art teacher Stephanie Stuefer.

“The fine arts classroom experience is a laboratory for discovery and expression,” said Director of Performing Arts Jonathan Roberts. “This begins with the known and familiar, and guides students - through imitation, experimentation, and personal expression towards increased levels of understanding, involvement with, and appreciation for the collective world of the arts.”

Fine Arts Opportunities

Art

In the TFS art studio, students use their imagination to think like inventors, engineers, designers, and artists. Classes are designed to provide the necessary foundational technical and conceptual skills within various media. Projects span the universe of art in the two and three-dimensional realm as students explore photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, digital art, ceramics, and more. Students build focus, critical thinking, work ethic, and an openness to new approaches and ideas.

Chorus

Chorus is designed to enhance all students' musical, creative, and expressive qualities. Performance-based classes focus on singing through vocal production and technique. Students learn music reading skills, sight-singing skills, and performance skills. Students sing literature with and without accompaniment in up to six parts. Chorus offers opportunities for students to develop team building and leadership skills and experience the interrelated nature of music with other cultures and content areas. Students participate in concert performances throughout the year.

Culinary Arts

From chili cook-offs and cupcake wars to designing, building, and cooking a meal, students experience the joy of cooking in culinary arts. Classes first learn kitchen safety and how to properly measure ingredients before practicing recipe conversions, preserving, making dough, and creating and plating unique dishes. Students fall in love with the art of food preparation and learn independence, creativity, self-awareness, and ownership in the process.

Drama

Our students participate in various acting styles, from improving, to student-led productions to our yearly one-act play and the spring performance of a full-scale musical. We offer introductory and advanced classes for our students. Everyone learns theater history, traditions, stagecraft, and behind-the-scenes – the technical aspects of theater. As students explore characters different from themselves or outside their natural everyday experiences, they grow in maturity and confidence as they engage in the world around them.

Music

Our instrumental classes provide a dynamic environment where students flourish as musicians, performers, and collaborators, laying a strong foundation for their future endeavors in the world of music. In addition, students receive comprehensive music theory lessons. This holistic approach to music equips students with a well-rounded understanding of music theory and practice, nurturing their creativity and analytical skills. Students showcase their musical prowess through in-class performances, performing at various school events, and recitals.

Facilities & Competition

Facilities

Student performances are held on campus at the Gertrude Long Harris Theater. With seating for 285, the beautiful theater can host performances from a solo piano recital to a full-scale musical. Adjacent to our theater, a large classroom and multiple individual practice rooms provide generous space that invites our students into the exploration of acting, music, chorus, and other aspects of the performing arts. You can often find students in our tech booth providing technical support operating sound and light boards during a show.

Competition

Thespian students compete in the annual One-Act Play competition. Shows are selected by the director and have even included a student-written production. The upper-level theater arts class takes on the competition as a semester-long project. Right from the start, they begin preparing the production. Students perform the show in the school’s theater before taking it to competition. The TFS thespian troup recently took first place at the Georgia Independent School Association Region 1-AAAA One-Act Play competition in 2024-25. They took their performance to state competition where they placed third.

Performance

From the one-act competition in the fall to a spring musical, students have plenty of opportunities to perform on stage. Students participate through live musical ensembles, singing, dancing, and acting. Recent productions include Godspell, Tuck Everlasting, and Little Women. In addition, there are student-led productions, some smaller-scale scenes, and dramatic offerings performed throughout the year. Interest in the performing arts continues to grow, giving more exciting opportunities for TFS students to find their way onto the stage.