And Then It Was June

In April, bogged down by thoughts of Echo, I stared ahead at the very full month of May with a certain feeling of panic. Almost every weekend had something going on involving either travel or a lot of hours spent away from home or both. The weeks were full of my usual duties--lessons, choir rehearsals (and then extra choir rehearsals), lesson planning, my Fridays at Petite School...I was running around a lot and taking what rest time I could and hoarding it.

I haven't said much about it, but at Petite School this year, I took over for a teacher who had been there for 35 years. Let's do the math. I will be 35 in a couple of months, so basically, this woman had a legacy at this school that was as long as my life span. I knew, going in, that there would be challenges, especially because this year, they made music a required part of the school week for everyone in grade four and under. My after school class-time, from 1:30 to 3:30, was an optional class, for grades 5-8. I didn't get a lot of interest, mostly because the middle school kids were reluctant to try a new teacher. I don't take it personally.

I did, however, find I had a fantastic little crop of 5th graders willing to give me a chance, and they were the foundation for my musical cast. But I had to fill out a cast of 15, and six fifth graders won't do that in a play that has everyone on stage for pretty much the whole time. So I opened the musical up to younger grades--a bold move by Petite School historic standards--and bravely allowed the younger kids to show me what they could do.

Turns out they can do some pretty amazing things.

My youngest cast member, Miss Muffitt, is in first grade. She damn near stole the show Thursday night, with her perfect delivery of lines like, "I cannot sit without a tuffitt!" and an epic on-stage meltdown when she finds a spider on the witness stand.

But then, the second grade girl who played The Boy Who Cried Wolf (sometimes you just have to work with the cast you get, and she didn't mind playing a boy part!), also stole the show in her solo song and her interactions with the Big Bad Wolf, played by our first grade teacher. "It was him, that wolf right there!" "Oh stop!!" As I told her mother after the show, when she came to her first rehearsal, I thought I'd have to coach her through her song and lines, only to find she had already memorized them almost perfectly.

If my younger cast members brought the adorable (Pig One was a tiny 2nd grade girl who is missing most of her front teeth at present, which only added to her charm), then the older kids brought the polish and poise. Judge Wise Old Man was perfect in dispensing his confusing wisdom: "As I've always said, 'Curds and whey, your day's okay!'" The girls playing the Fairy Godmother (lawyer representing the plaintiffs suing the Big Bad Wolf) and Evil Stepmother (the wolf's reluctant pro-bono attorney) had a lot of lines to memorize, and they did it beautifully. These girls were at every rehearsal this semester, even the ones they weren't required to attend. They were so excited to be part of the musical.

The production wasn't, by any means, perfect. But this is elementary school. There were tiny pauses in dialogue. A piece of contact paper painted to look like trees fell. We had a couple of miscues with song starts. But none of this fazed my performers; they just kept going and charming the audience. The feedback I've received so far is overwhelmingly positive, and Dr. Principal rained down a lot of praise on me yesterday. The parents were delighted, and frankly, I think the parents of younger kids were really happy that these kids had a chance to participate.

Yesterday was my last teaching day of the school year. I took it easy, raining my own praises on all of my classes (the classes all sang songs in the first half of the evening) and letting them watch "Fantasia 2000," which they seemed to love. I'll probably head down there on Monday to watch the talent show, and maybe on Thursday for the last day of school picnic. I really do enjoy these kids.

My classes did me proud. The kinders sang "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" with a ton of confidence, and my first graders learned and aced the very wordy "Be Our Guest," which has a ton of tempo changes to navigate. Second grade sang "I'm A Believer" (the rock version from the Shrek movie) with some adorable choreography, and my third/fourth grade girls sang "Once Upon A Dream" while some kids who take ballroom dance did a waltz down the aisles. We ended that first half with the third/fourth grade boys singing "Hey There, Little Red Riding Hood." Some of the kids looked a little terrified in front of an audience, but they did a marvelous job.

What a crazy, hectic week it was! I had a lot of support, though. Dr. Principal was right there, and the art teacher made a fantastic set:

Before--I put the grass up on the front--leftover from a Shakespeare Day
the school did recently.

The judge's podium and witness stand.

One of our school security guys, Sean, and I dug out a fifteen-foot ladder and fixed that back curtain on Wednesday. He climbed up there to fix it while I fluttered around on the stage hoping he wouldn't fall, because I'm strong, but I'm not catching him!

Sean also volunteered to run the sound board for the whole evening. He's done a lot of mixing in studios before, and he wants to go back to school for sound engineering. When the guys I rented the equipment from delivered it on Wednesday, Sean was on hand, and he was like a kid in a toy store. He actually spent a couple of hours after school on Thursday playing every single track for the evening to adjust the levels on the board, writing the information down, and testing things out, so he could be ready for the performance that night. It was a huge weight off of me to not have to fiddle with the system myself--it's not an area of expertise for me--and I'm hugely grateful that he was willing to do it. His nephew is one of my kinders, so I guess he had other motivation besides loving sound boards.

And finally, my colleague who played the wolf...he was amazing. I couldn't find a kid who could play the role--the one kid in school who could have wasn't interested--and Stephen stepped in with the offer to play it. He did some theater in college, loves hamming it up with the kids, and he was fantastic. The kids on the cast loved having him there, loved being able to boo him and be "rude" to him in character (in reality, they love him and respect him). The kids in the rest of the school loved watching him in the role, if the giggles I heard behind me during our dress rehearsal performance are any indication.

I'm glad everything went well. For the next month, things are pretty light, then I'll do my summer teaching for EF in July and August. I still have my private students (I took this week off so I could survive the extra hours at Petite School), but some time off from choir, which is nice for now. I'll be itching to get back to it come August, but summer tends to be a bit lean, financially, and not having to drive all the way to Sacramento two times a week (for choir on Monday, work on Friday) will help a lot. I'll have more time to run, hit the gym, get back into swimming. I'll spend time with friends. Before long, I'll likely be dreaming up a new musical for Petite School...but for now, I rest.