As Kevin Slattery and his Hazelwood East High School classmates performed Saturday in the crowded lobby of the Gateway Arch, he hoped the program would be as meaningful for the audience as it had been for him.

Slattery, a senior, had just finished delivering an excerpt from "Trying to Find Chinatown," a play by David Henry Hwang.

It was part of a program in which he and about 150 other students performed skits, readings and music from different cultures."It was a really great experience to do works from other cultures, specifically Asian-American writers," Slattery said. "It's interesting to see the different takes they have on their identity and culture, which is a lot of what this is about."

Such programs have become even more important in this era of globalization, he said.

"We can see . . . how cultures are dying out, but the good thing about it is that we're getting together," Slattery said. "This was a good way to expose others to other cultures."

That's one of the lessons coming out of the two-hour "Playing Race: Globalization and the Arts" performance by the Hazelwood East students.

"We call it multiculturalism with an edge," said Eric Shieh, a music teacher at the school and the organizer of the event.

The performance was the second of its kind. Last year, the students presented a program at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.

The students and 16 staff members from a variety of subject areas - music, theater, dance, art, history, English and journalism - participated in the event.

The program included elements ranging from drama students delivering the American Indian narrative "Black Elk Speaks," to a scene from William Shakespeare's "The Tempest," to traditional South African music by the chamber choir, to a performance of "The Lion King" by the school's full orchestra and percussion ensemble, to hip-hop.

Guest artists performed with the school orchestra on classical guitar, sitar and pipa, a Chinese instrument many of the students had never heard played before rehearsals.

Teachers also had chosen essays and poems from students, who read them. Student artwork was on display nearby.

Shieh said he convinced the guest artists, many with ties to Washington University, to participate.

"I asked a lot of friends," he said.

Shieh said the idea was for students to examine the role of race and culture in an increasingly interconnected world. The program celebrated the flow of information and the possibilities of fusion of the arts, as well as pointing out the erosion of traditional cultures, he said.

"I think the kids enjoy it. They do their research, they get to see what other kids and what other cultures are like," said Vicki Luna, chairperson of the fine arts department at the school. "They get a little taste of what it's like not just within their own culture. They've really gotten into it."

Crystal Wilson, a junior, read an essay and played viola in the orchestra.

"We really like it because it's interesting and different," she said during the intermission, standing with her sister, Ashley, who plays bass.

"Yeah, it was a lot of practice," Crystal added. "I enjoy it because it's really different. It's not like a plain concert where we're playing Western music."

Meanwhile, Bettie Stroud, armed with a camcorder, and her husband, Jay, were in the front row throughout the performance.

"I thought it was great, I thought it was wonderful," she said after the performance.

Her daughter, Jayla, has been in the orchestra for four years.

"We always come to the concerts," Stroud said. "No matter where they go, my husband and I travel with the band."