I'd moved around a lot by the time I reached eighth grade and that year, once again a new person in a school about to graduate clans of kids who'd known each other forever, I tried out for the school play, The Sound of Music. I won the role of Elsa based on my alto rendition of "No Way to Stop It" and the fact that my brother, sister, and I had grown up singing that soundtrack along with countless others (Windjammer, The Music Man, Peter Pan). I thus stood in line to kiss the guy who many (it seemed) considered highly kissable.
There was one small problem: I was ice skating at the time, competitively. There weren't enough hours in the day. "You'll have to choose," my mother told me, and I went with skating, but sometimes now I wonder what sort of first YA novel I'd have written if I had gone with the school musical instead.
I've loved school productions ever since—the stunning enthusiasm of the performers, the risks they take, the unfolding and uprising set designs, the costumes, that final moment when the entire cast swaggers out onto the stage for a last, congregating bow. One of my favorite final memories of my mother is of the night I took her and my father to the high school's rendition of The Music Man—of watching the look on her face as those 76 trombones swept down the aisle. The songs brought it all back—the house in Delaware, the room with the wall-length mural, the couch upon which my brother stood to conduct my sister and me. That night my mother, so often in pain, was happy.
This past week I took my father to the middle school production of Peter Pan (the same school where I might have been Elsa, only the building is new), where my friend's daughter was starring as the boy who won't grow up (and oh, can Alison Mosier-Mills sing), while Captain Hook was a perfectly roused-up menace, and Wendy was soulful and sweet, and Tinker Bell was a dazzling zipper of green light. Then yesterday we took our friends to the high school's Kiss Me, Kate, where Michael Browne, a snappily fantastic kid with whom my husband and I had traveled to Juarez, took on the starring role of Fred Graham. Michael might have been a gymnast but he fell in love with theater. He wanted to act, so he learned to sing. And does he ever entertain us.
I am left today in awe of young people who can imbibe those roles and stand up there fearless and give us everything they've got.
Don't stop.
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By: Beth Kephart ,
on 3/1/2009
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: Beth Kephart ,
on 3/1/2009
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Peter Pan, Alison Mosier-Mills, The Sound of Music, The Music Man, musical theater, Michael Browne, Kiss Me Kate, Add a tag
14 Comments on High School Musicals, last added: 3/2/2009
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A wistful post this,and enjoyable because of it.
Awww, I have fond memories of High School Musicals too. Though I never performed I often worked on the crew painting etc. And after I graduated from college and my little sister was in one, I actually got hired as their graphic designer/set painter/sound person. That was a fun few months :)
I can say, looking back, that those of us in the pit orchestra (in my case, wearing black tuxes with orange ruffled shirts - shudder) were just as wowed as those in the audience by the wonders up on stage.
Isn't it amazing what young students can do?
So glad you had a blast at the shows...
XO
Anna
Hear, hear! And bravo to those talented youngsters who have the whole world waiting to hear their song.
My high school didn't do musicals, which was very disappointing to me :(
We did more classical things like Jane Austen, Shakespeare, but it wasn't so bad. So long as I have good memories of them, I don't really mind which plays we did :)
The school I went to always put on a Christmas cabaret, and at the age of 14 I took part for some ridiculous reason - watching the video back almost 20 years later is priceless. For all the wrong reasons!
Oh, joy. This post is just in time for me...I've got an audition on Saturday and it inspired me, so thank you. :)
Because Erin dared us, (and also because we wanted to make her smile,) my son and I auditioned for our first musical theatre show a couple of years ago. When all three of us were asked to be in the production, Beauty and the Beast, there was no way she was letting us out of it. :) Sweet memories. *Maybe* I'll do it again someday. But for now, my favorite place is sitting upfront,alongside other proud moms, watching.
Thanks for sharing a bit of the fun performances you saw this weekend.
Made me smile.
A deep thanks for your walks down theater's memory lane..
I've worked with high school singers for 15 years, and been involved with just as many musical producetions. Their courage and talent always brings me to my knees, and each year when I think it can't possibly get any better, it does.
This was lovely to read (especially as I'm in the midst of musical season yet again :)
Oh my, Becca. I see you doing that.
And Anna, I see you in orange ruffles.
And Erin, I see you getting your part.
And Emily Ruth, Juliet perhaps?
And Sherry: Were you the teacup?
I got to be Cinderella's wicked stepmother my senior year of high school. It was mostly a fantastic experience, and I was very sorry I'd chosen not to be involved in my freshmen and sophomore years, as well. (My junior year they also did The Sound of Music; I was part of the chorus. And the lady who wouldn't stop bowing at the show.)
But the best high school musical I've seen was my alma mater's production of Guys & Dolls, a few years after I graduated. I liked the high school production better than the movie, and let me tell you, that's saying something. The talent of those kids thrilled me all the way to my toenails--and I got to go back the next night to see it again.
Theater always amazes me. And musicals especially. As someone who always sings out of tune, I marvel at the people that can sing in front of hundreds of people and get every note right. Miss Erin is one of those theater people and I'm in awe of her.