Done and begun

Well, I finally sat down and got the spring scenes put together. My original concept was most people doing 2-3 scenes. So many kids auditioned - specifically, so many girls auditioned - that the girls are generally in one scene and maybe a musical number or two.

But nobody wants to watch a four-hour show.

I wish I could do it the way I planned, but that would mean turning kids away, and frankly none of them was so bad that there wasn't something I could do with them. So, let's give them a chance to show their stuff, however briefly.

Maybe some of them will drop out and then I can start doubling things up.

Anyway, we have scenes from:
Much Ado About Nothing
Macbeth
Uncommen Women & Others (Wendy Wasserstein)
Inherit the Wind
Proposals (Neil Simon)
Crimes of the Heart
Brighton Beach Memoirs
An Ideal Husband (Wilde)
Fool for Love (Shepard)
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
Waiting for Godot
Romeo & Juliet
Glass Menagerie
Bald Soprano
Woman in Mind (Ayckbourn)
Communicating Doors (also Ayckbourn)
The Actor's Nightmare (Durang)
Sylvia

And musical numbers from
Annie, Lucky Stiff, A Chorus Line, Chicago, Sweeney Todd, Forum, Gypsy, Annie Get Your Gun, Cabaret and Sunday in the Park with George.

A nicely diverse show.

I met with the kids last night about shows for next year and it looks like "Pajama Game" for the musical and "Midsummer Night's Dream" for the play. Both strong choices, big casts, fun shows. "Cabaret" is also being considered for the musical, but I'm personally more inclined to "Pajama Game" because it's not done as often and it's a fun show.

Curioser and curioser

Last night at the school, I was also handed a letter that arrived for me.
It's handwritten, printed, unsigned:

* * * * *
Dear Windy,
I have seen "The Crucible." What you have done is not very good.

The kids are saying you play favorites. That's not fair and it is no quality any person in a teaching position should have. Shame on you.

Did you even try to teach these actors how to project their voices, enunciate, speak slower, so that the audience could hear? Perhaps the youngsters can hear, but believe me, those of us over 50 couldn't hear.

I have a grandchild in that play and very much wanted to see and hear all of it. But after struggling to hear and understand, and not being able, I fell asleep. Believe you me, I wasn't the only one in the audience, by far.

All the conversation is directed to the sides of the stage, too. The sets need to be canted out, toward the audience.

I am not identifying myself because I have gotten the clear impression you are the type of person who would take it out on my grandchild. I got this impression from the kids, who know you.

* * * * *

( Things to note: )

I'm not hurt by this letter - how can I be hurt when I know in my heart how much I love these kids? How can these sorts of barbs even touch me compared to that? And if you could read the notes and letters I get from the kids, I've touched them and taught them and showed them what they are capable of.
Mostly I am curious, in that sort of a crossword puzzle sort of way.