May 24, 2010
-
The Daily News1 Busy, busy, busy.
2 One of my favorite titles for a musical is this: Stop the World, I Want to Get Off. It's a Show by the Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. When I got my very first directing gig years ago at Mills High School in Millbrae, California, the director for whom I was "subbing" had done a blockbuster job with that Show the year before I had arrived.
3 His name was Allen Knight, and to this minute remains one of my theatrical heroes. When I first emerged as a fledgling teacher, it was a similar situation to what new teachers face today.
4 Everywhere there were cutbacks, the very second I had received my credential. I applied for jobs here and there, but it was really sparse; jobs were extremely difficult to come by.
5 AnywayZ...
6 Allen had directed Stop the World... which I saw as an immediate challenge to my first Show. It was evidently one of the greatest Shows ever to hit the Mills' stage.
7 Mills was technically in my hometown of Millbrae, and was the rival high school to my own, Capuchino High School, more in San Bruno than in Millbrae, and thus, a tougher exterior and image. You WANTED to be from Bruno, baby. You had streets.
8 I had actually enjoyed several of Allen's productions a few years earlier, including perhaps my favorite high school production EVER, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, yet another GREAT title for a musical. My friend John and I saw opening night, were dazzled, and attended every single performance thereafter. We became Knight groupies.
9 I even wrote an article about the production in OUR school paper. We had just finished an awesome version of Arsenic and Old Lace, but had abysmal attendance. I admonished our school for not supporting the arts, contrasting the sold-out run of Mills' How to Succeed in order for the school to see the difference in a production that was supported. Two great Shows, but only one had the attendance. Such a difference, I thought.
10 Anyway, I remember my earliest days directing having to measure up to Stop the World.
11 I especially loved the title. At the time, it mirrored my early days of trying to become a teacher, and of trying to become a play director as well. I worked for practically nothing except the experience, something to put on a resume, and something that had already been a passion since my Mom first pulled me into a Theatre at around age nine. Later on, I would go to all the high school plays as a kid, loving all of it. Another Bricusse/Newley title comes to mind when I think about those days: The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd. Greasepaint was this amazing makeup that required a tube of greasy skin tone one would put all over the face, followed by powder. You needed cold cream to get it off. It literally felt like a mask when you were acting. I never liked the stuff, which probably explains why I toned down makeup in my own Shows later on.
12 Someday I'll do a special edition of the DN in which I roll out my personal recollections of Shows. I never really have because I don't consider myself very important, or at least important enough to leave some sort of "memoirs". Who'd care?
13 On the other hand, I imagine that it might be of some interest to the students who went through so many of the productions. I also fear that inevitably, I would leave a major player out. I have vivid memories of most of the Shows, perhaps more than a lot of people who flew through them.
14 Moving on, Part the First: Interestingly, I ran into my selfsame friend John at the Giants/A's' game on Saturday. We chatted for a bit, and then he told me about mutual acquaintances who have gone nuts. I thought it was a dark topic, since he mentioned three different people. It was sort of disturbing, in a very odd way.
15 Hey, that's just John. He always had a bit of a dark sense of humor. I used to be a vendor at all the huge sporting events, rock shows, baseball games, football games, you name it. I stopped just a few years ago, the last time the Giants played the Yankees, in fact. Two of the people who John claimed were going crazy were vendors still working the circuit. The other was a friend of his family's.
16 Naturally, I saw visions of myself going mad someday. Easy to perceive, given the fact that I pretty much know exactly what is going on in the world. I just choose to look to the young for spirit and hope. This old world needs a LOT of love, and the only place I'm seeing that remotely happening is in the eyes of the extremely elderly, and in the eyes of the young. Everyone in between is pretty tainted, to be honest.
17 Thank goodness for everyone who isn't generationally consistent with me, and I put twenty years on each side of that, lol! <-----lauging out loud, or lots of love, depending on your passion.
18 Ah, yeesh.
19 I never have felt that I would ever go "crazy", even though I'm in a profession that could proffer such a fate. I used to rant a lot about people not paying attention to how our government lies, and how it continues to lie, but that would be about as deep as I would go. Anyone with that vision and study is made to look like a raving lunatic. That's why you won't hear me go with it too often anymore.
20 When I was younger, it drove me crazy that people couldn't or wouldn't bother reading about any of it. I read mountains of books, cross-referencing all sides of issues, making absolutely sure that I could measure everything fairly. It led me into a labyrinthian maze of lies, half-truths, and lots of whole truths, the likes of which are pretty scary. I also liked reading and knowing lots more than a lot of other people. I liked knowing how spies work, and was always fascinated with how they operated.
21 But that's just me.
22 When I talked with John, it made me think of what would happen if I ever did go loony.
23 Sorry, that's a pretty insensitive word.
24 I don't fear it any time soon, because I'm loving life a lot right now. The people John pointed out to me always had a loose rattle of bolts to begin with, so it didn't surprise me. Still, if any profession could cause something like that, certainly teaching could. It takes a lot of steel to survive in the profession. Those of us who came out with a love of the game managed to ride it, and those of us who came out still loving it after all these years are truly blessed.
25 So yes, the world has been spinning pretty frantically lately, what with Caitlin's engagement, Nicole's emergence as a teacher, my Dad's various ailments, and the end of the school year coming up sooner than I actually want.
26 I still have tons to do, and miles to go before I sleep.
27 And miles to go before I sleep.
28 Yeesh.
29 Mondays are always good. I'm probably one of the rare people who knows how to get through most Mondays.
30 You just stop the world for a day, and get off.
31 Fly high, and stay mellow.
32 Peace.
Recent Comments