Swan Song

The Final Curtain

When my oldest son Stephen was eighteen and a senior at Stroudsburg (PA) High School in 1984, he came home one day and told me his class needed someone to direct their class play. Would I do it?

I’d just been part of a community theater production which I’d directed, sort of, by default. Our organization had hired a young man from a nearby college to direct Babes in Toyland, and after about six weeks, family crises forced him to withdraw. My directing experience was limited but when the group asked if I’d take over, I took a deep breath and plunged in. I didn’t feel it was “my” show, but it turned out pretty well. So I told Steve sure, it sounded like fun. I like directing, and it seems I have a talent for it. I've learned a great deal over the years.

The principal, superintendent and activities director asked me to do a musical rather than a play, and since that’s my inclination, education and discipline I said "sure" again. So we presented Babes in Arms, a show I thoroughly enjoyed. The young man who played Valentine White is presently in his sixteenth season as a Metropolitan Opera Chorus member … and another cast member appeared for a time in Hairspray on Broadway some years later. So we had some talented kids on stage for that show, and it launched a revived musical program for the school.

A few years later, in 1991, I began directing at East Stroudsburg High School. The first show I directed there was Bye Bye Birdie; the second was Babes in Arms. (I like Babes in Arms.) I spent a lot of years at Eastburg. In 2000, the school was bursting at the seams. A new high school had been built and the district now had two high schools: North and South. Our last show as one school was Brigadoon. Our first show as ESHS South was Fiddler on the Roof. Over the years highlights for me were Brigadoon, Into the Woods, The Secret Garden, Les Mis Student Edition, Oklahoma!, Carousel (twice) and this year’s production, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. These are the productions I took the most pride in. Excellently written shows with good scores, and everything  about the productions worked.

So it is with a sense of real satisfaction that I am closing the curtain on my life as a high school musical theater director. Tom Sawyer was a first rate show: the kids performed really well, the production level was high. My lighting designer and I did some pretty nifty stuff. The musical director was exceptional. The costumer outdid herself. The set was beautiful. It was all good. I wish we’d had bigger audiences, but those that came loved what they saw.

Directing is a fascinating process, especially with high school students. Over the years I worked with some incredibly talented young men and women … some of whom made this their life. Two students from our 1997 production of Into the Woods are still performing professionally; one has been part of the Wicked family for I believe at least eight years. Another has performed continuously in regional and off-Broadway productions. A 2006 graduate from ESHS South attended University of the Arts and has worked continuously from the second semester of his senior year. Another, who also is a graduate of UArts, has performed, taught, coached, and had a life in musical theater since his graduation from ESHS in 2000 (he was Charlie Dalrymple in Brigadoon, and is an outstanding performer/teacher/coach).

And many, many students have commented over the years on their experiences as part of the school’s annual musical show. It’s a unique experience, being more than a team member, having for a time a true sense of family with their fellow cast members. It’s different from being on a sports team, or even being in choir or an instrumental group. Each show is a re-creation of a different time and place …and for the audience to accept the shift in reality, the cast has to experience it. Our best efforts produced our best performances, always.

I have many great memories of the places we visited in our collective imagination and the lives my casts shared on stage. Despite some offstage drama, the performances brought out the best in even the most difficult cast members, and I like to believe they learned and grew. I know I did. I thank all of them, and all of the caring, nurturing, dedicated adults who contributed so much to each and every production.

It was a good run.

It Just Won't Stop!

The Winter of Our Discontent

Well, it’s definitely wrenching the meaning of this quote from the Bard a bit, but it expresses pretty well the plight of more than just this high school musical director. I know I’ve addressed this in a recent blog: “spring musical” is a misnomer. And that was just reinforced for me when I opted to cancel our scheduled opening night performance for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer because of a looming snowstorm tomorrow … all weather sources point to an all-day event and temperatures falling below freezing, with a projected high of thirty-three. In “the elevations” around this part of the Poconos, that means many places will remain at freezing or just below. All of which points to messy roads and difficult travel.

I’ve been directing high school and community theater productions since 1984 and this is the first time I’ve ever been forced to cancel a performance. We had our final dress rehearsal last night and I warned the cast this could happen, so they were prepared when the announcement was made this Thursday morning. It seemed the better choice to try to get the word out to the public as early as possible. We re-scheduled our opening “night” for a Saturday matinee, and the two other performances should proceed as planned.

We had another first in our dress rehearsal last night. During the show we are using a chemical haze machine in three different scenes. Having fog onstage has really changed since my early days as a director, when a dry ice machine was used which had to be operated manually and the biggest problem was the supply of dry ice for final rehearsals and performances. Now, the lighting technician can operate the chemical machine from the tech booth.

Long story short, we had a substitute lighting tech last night who had way too much fun pumping haze onto the stage. Just as I suggested he had too much, the fire alarm went off. Fortunately, our school district stage manager was able to contact the local volunteer fire department and head them off, so we avoided having fire trucks and everything that implies roaring up to the school. And I was impressed with our cast, who easily went back to the beginning of the musical number which was interrupted and carried on in the best theatrical tradition. It proved to me these young men and women have this show well in hand. It’s become their show.

One of my cast members, a sophomore named Bryan Lara, posted a parody of the opening number on our group page (one of the best things about Facebook, by the way). I learned a new slang term: he explained to me “flee-est” means “bestest” or “perfect.”

Since we can’t do a thing about the weather other than accept what it brings and deal with it, Bryan’s response seemed perfect, or I should say flee-est, to me.

“Hey, Tom Sawyer, what happened to Friday?
Heeeyy, where are yah. We’ll be waiting in the cold
Wearing our costumes, flee-est cast you've ever seen.
It just ain't the same without Fridayyy!”

Confessions of a High School Musical Director

Remind Me Why I Do This

Beginning last night and continuing through this entire week, my universe consists of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as performed in the auditorium of East Stroudsburg (PA) High School South. Yes, folks, it’s “tech week” – or as most of us call it, “hell week.”

This is my thirtieth year enduring the final stages of putting together a high school production. With only three exceptions, I’ve been “the buck stops here” person. With a high school show, unless in some alternate universe this isn’t the case, the director also serves as producer of the school musical, so “little” things such as the printed program (ours is a booklet, with photos and ads), marketing, seeing that the bills are paid and that rented materials and equipment are returned in good shape are also in my job description.

My main job is, of course, educational. Take a group of teens, some of whom have never set foot on a stage, and turn them into an acting ensemble. Teach them as much as you can about what the job of an actor is: to create an alternate reality for the audience. Not an easy task, either for the teacher or the pupils, especially when there are many levels of competence and talent in the cast. And varying degrees of commitment and dedication. Sometimes we have to find ways to help them care about the quality of the production they’ll be appearing in.

As always, I start the rehearsal process with a show in my head that I then spend eight or nine weeks moving to the stage. Last night began the final stages of the realization of my vision: adding lighting to the production. Fortunately, I have worked for the past several years with a talented young man, an alumnus of the high school, who has done professional work and “gets” what I’m trying to do. It still isn’t an easy task. Tom Sawyer has a few scenes which offer wonderful opportunities – and challenges ─ for the lighting designer: a thunderstorm in a graveyard, a split scene which goes back and forth between a cave where two young people are lost (Tom and his girlfriend Becky Thatcher) and the hill above, where most of the townspeople are praying for the two lost “angels” in a well-constructed and highly effective musical number. My favorite moment in the show, and what a great opportunity for everyone to shine.

Tom Sawyer is an excellent adaptation of Twain’s great novel, and consequently has one of the best scripts in all of musical theater, in my opinion. Young actors with limited or no experience  tend to rush lines, not really thinking about what they are saying. It’s not easy to get a high school senior to really think of himself as Tom. And even more challenging to help a sophomore, appearing in her first stage production, to see herself as Aunt Polly.

We’re getting there. High school students – at least at South – have a way of taking a giant step on opening night. The final dress rehearsal always looks good; the cast knows all the mechanics of the show, they know their lines, they look nice in the beautiful costumes a caring woman has created for them. The kids at South sing exceptionally well, and a fine musical director has given them expert guidance. The musical numbers are great. We all think, well, it will be a good show.

Then on opening night, something magical often happens. They make me believe they are who the program says they are. They create a genuine reality. I forget their real names and accept that they are living in another time and another place. They make even me suspend my disbelief.

Yep, that’s the end result of a lengthy rehearsal period and a week of no sleep and agonizing over the final details. An experience for these youngsters that they will never forget. One more group of kids who have achieved something that seemed out of their reach – yet they will have made it happen.

Yes, that’s why I do this. I remember now.