Missing Parts

Watching Rachel, Enoch and Esther were great in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Bravo!

I've had two friends reach out to me about productions I was in years ago, and I'm thankful they did, as I have something to show!

The first musical I remember being in was called something like "The Missing Parts of Speech". I remember being on a little stage adjoining the gym/cafeteria of New Plymouth Elementary School. I believe I was a 6th grader. I had a main part: I was a clueless detective or an absent-minded professor or something. It was fun. I don't know if I have any photos of that. But, be assured that I was a Big Star (even though I'm sure my performance was about what you'd expect from a sixth-grader).

A year or two later, I was recruited to be in a musical for the Emmett Idaho Stake. I couldn't remember the name of it, but Leisa Brown contacted me: she had found the script and some pictures! (Her father, Moyle Brown, was the director.) The musical was called All in Favor. I played a boy named Stuart, who dies from a brain tumor. 

I had a duet with Leisa, who, if I remember correctly, played my little sister. I was a little younger and much shorter than Leisa. Here are some pictures of that, thanks to Leisa!

Maria Aagard also contacted me this year. She found a copy of North Sanpete High School's Fiddler on the Roof, from 1983 or 1984. (I think it was before Christmas, so it would have been 1983. Maria played Golde.) She had it digitized from a VHS tape. Wow. For your enjoyment (?) I have attached two clips. Watching them, it reminded me of Joshua performing. (Sorry, Josh!)

The first is of the bottle dance Kirt Beck and I did. It doesn't look terribly impressive, but I would like to emphasize that there is no trickery involved in the botte dance: those are real glass bottles on top of real hats with no Velcro or magnets or stick'um or spirit gum or anything to hold them in place. We practiced for hours, running up and down the high school hallways and stairways with the bottles on our hats to get the feel for how to balance them.

The next one is the "dream scene" where Tevye makes up a dream to convince Golde that they need to renig on their arranged marriage between Tzeitel and Lazar Wolf. I am the guy crashing the cymbals. I just like the way we did the scene.

If you are a masochist and want to see the entire show in its four-hour glory, you can view it here: https://youtu.be/xtL19qGkFyY.

Some notes:

• This was my first year at NSHS, and when the musical was announced I was thrilled to be in the orchestra. After the first week of orchestra rehearsals, the director, Roy Ellefsen, gently scolded me for not trying out, as he needed men who could sing. It never occurred to me to try out: I was in the band and not in drama, and I thought you had to be part of the drama class to have a part in the show. He gave me a quick audition and added me to the cast. I ended with lots of little speaking parts: "Fish Salesman", "Bagel Salesman", "Man #2", "Soldier #3", etc.
• The auditorium in the old high school was on the 2nd floor, and the video is taken from the balcony, which was accessed on the 3rd floor.
• The next year, when we did Man of La Mancha, the auditorium was condemned and a pillar was put in the middle of the seats to hold up the ceiling. 
• On each side of the stage, there was a small dressing room up on the balcony level, accessible from the stage. For Man of La Mancha, because it was the last year the school building would be used, a doorway was cut in the dressing room (stage right), and stairs were built at the doorway on a hinge that could be lowered by pulleys. Some things were removed (including seats, I think) near the stage, and a another stage was built out a few feet from the main stage, and it was 15 or 18 inches lower than the main stage. As the show started, the steps were lowered to this lower stage -- the dungeon! I thought it was very cool.
• That stage was so very small!
• I am often amazed at how folks like Roy Ellefsen get the most out of students at these small schools. Watching, you can tell that most performers have trouble singing and dancing ... and sometimes even talking. And yet, the musicals end up entertaining!