PAUL BUTLER
MS & US Drama Teacher and Performing Arts Department Chair
The Charles Wright Baroque Recorder Ensemble. A name dim in the history of CWA, yet as a member, I remember it well. We were a mixture of faculty and students, lead by faculty member Lotte Brawand; our ensemble consisted of base, tenor, alto, soprano and sopranino recorders, sometimes a flute, and always a harpsichord. We played all over Tacoma; Louis Borne, director of music, even wrote a piece for us which we played (and won 1st prize) for KING FM.

A good part of our encouragement came from Donn Laughlin who made us a part of two of his famous plays and other Charles Wright cultural events. We performed in the "old gym" for a couple of Christmas programs, once in a portable trailer that I remember as the cafeteria for the Upper and Middle Schools, and of course we performed in the Lower SChool Recreation Shed.

How far CWA has come to be about to contruct a facility dedicated to just such performing groups.

Of course as a former English and Spanish teacher (and Head of the Language Department), it is so exciting for me to contemplate  those two departments housed in their own space. I think particularly of the Language Lab., set up in various spaces over the years; now, whatever is today's equivalent of the Language Lab. will have its own home. Wright on!