It escaped local media attention that I was trapped for two hours on a recent Tuesday night in a choir room with 30 middle school boys.
Imagine sharing a cage full of rabid squirrels with opposable thumbs—it was worse. Partially my fault for giving in to misguided guilt, I volunteered to chaperone during play rehearsals. On my tour of duty, I was asked to contain the hyperactive thespians and to basically keep boys from “being boys”—as if evolutionary psychology was based on a hunch. I removed contraband electronics, non-sanctioned snacks, a pencil-shiv, and even disarmed a method actor brandishing a repurposed tissue box-turned-machete. During the choir room stand-off, I could not begin to fathom how these maniacs were going to pull off the musical production of Alice in Wonderland Jr.
Well, miracles do happen.
On opening night, I sat up front and anxiously prayed for each mini-actor to become reincarnated as Liza Minnelli or Joel Grey. When the lights went up and the action unfolded, you could have scraped my jaw off the auditorium carpet. I was fully expecting the boys I had chaperoned to turn the show into a circus, but man (or should I say, boy) was I wrong.
I am a tough sell when it comes to sitting through musicals, and especially youth theater, but the Saxe students pulled together a flawless and energetic show. And unlike the time I tried to commando crawl out of a Broadway performance of The Phantom of the Opera, I was fully engaged and toe-tapped along to Saxe’s version of Alice in Wonderland.
The talented singers, dancers and actors made me thankful that not everyone in New Canaan has to be an athlete.
With so much hype surrounding youth sports, it is a comfort to know that there is another sub-community, alive and well, and also developing talent—even triple threats. Singers, dancers, actors took to the stage with poise and confidence that any athlete would need to nail a buzzer beater or to strike a game-winning penalty kick. These theater kids had ice in their veins and they came to play.
And good for them—our community is rich with talent, both on and off the athletic fields.
My son, who dabbles in sports and will likely never sign a letter of intent for a college team, decided to join the set-design crew and running crew for the show. After all the time he has spent on fields, courts and turf, I have never seen him more committed, enthused and fulfilled than by his role as crew member. It is refreshing that his participation behind the scenes was not about seeking the glory of the bright lights or the adrenaline rush from audience feedback. He felt a sense of pride and accomplishment from being a vital part of the production team. So vital, in fact, that during rehearsal, a huge set piece rolled over his toe, leaving it pretty mangled and bloody, but his “show-must-go-on” attitude kicked in and he powered through. No need to “rub some dirt on it,” we are the-a-ter people now. Break a leg and take a toe.
The team of directors, Saxe staff members, musicians and parent volunteers need to be commended. If they can take a crazy pack of off the wall 5th- and 6th-graders and channel their intense, frenetic energy into something meaningful, then anything is possible.
I Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Da-dare-you to find a better middle school theater program in Connecticut.
And while I’m at it, I challenge anyone to chaperone them during rehearsals—it’s an education.
Susie, glad to hear you escaped your harrowing experience with your humor obviously intact and that the show was a success. Also thought the underlying theme in your column was a good one, that the young actors, musicians, dancers and artists in our schools deserve recognition, too. Kudos to the Newcanaanite for featuring the high school students who made Western Regionals.
Susan – this is my favorite one yet, and I’ve loved them all! Such a great message – and I cannot stop laughing over “tour of duty.” Thank you for sharing your incredible talent with all of us!
Always such a pleasure to read Susan Gelvin! As soon as I finish one of these I pine for the next. Thank you, Susan, for your wisdom and humor.
Thank you for volunteering Susan. My NCHS senior daughter will be our second to graduate from the junior high and high school programs that have truly benefited both her and her older sister. Volunteer parents (and often their generous donations) make this wonderful program possible at both levels. My wife has sewn costumes for the high school for the past 9 years. The teamwork both behind and onstage are amazing. Congrats to the kids for another successful show! Thanks for the laugh too!
Hear, hear! Effort is the key and the example. Did they try? Were they prepared? The long road of arts versus athletics will never be fully understood despite the basic common denominator of effort and focus. We applaud both and we teach the applauding of both, for that advances society. Tomorrow the attention happens to be on the athletic field. Go Rams and thank you for this presentation. Always try….
Susan, A truly inspiring message, opening our minds to what speaks to each child. Your witty description of chaperoning had me in stitches! This was so well written and I look forward to reading the next!
Susan Gelvin you totally rock for writing this piece. So often our the-a-ter kids are overlooked. The schools in this town put on the best productions!!! We have awesome directors and Amazing volunteers. So lucky for us that we now have you in the trenches with us. BRING ON HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL ? and ANYTHING GOES ?
I just backstage chaperoned the 6 year old angels at the NCDA nutcracker performance at the high school tonight and fully relate to this. It is absolutely amazing what these kids can pull off on stage while backstage being complete nutballs ?. I only hope though that Emma continues this as it’s just awesome to be a part of the arts as well as sports in this community.
Loved that your Liam was involved in his school musical! I always feel so lucky to have the “ mini Broadway “ in our backyards!
Great article. When I was Board of Education Chairman some years ago our then Superintendent David Abbey used to say, “Nick, we want to be Athens, not Sparta.” And as a former athlete-musician, I fully agreed with him.
If you do it right (and I think we have as a town – just take one look at the new Saxe Auditorium and the accompanying arts and music facilities), you can have the best of both worlds.
Love this Susan! All of us moms of middle school boys can relate and I can’t stop laughing about the “maniacs” with tissue box machetes and pencil shivs! In the spring you have to write about 6th grade field day. So grateful for the teachers who herd these rabid squirrels every day.
Huzzah! A conversation has begun on Social Media about the KEY differences between exploring and integrating the Arts into our family life, and the ambitious pursuit of athletic competition (read: travel teams at age 6– hoping to play the sport our parents played at uni), and personal excellence. One is a process, an experience that is, emotionally, unique—no winners, no losers, and when good people chaperone, no BODY ever gets hurt. It’s fun. The other is developmentally questionable, resulting in physical injuries that, more often than not, cause chronic pain for the entire life of the injured body. I’ve spoken to 12 year old girls who’ve, already, twice dislocated their shoulders, and were looking forward to summer surgery when hockey season was over. We’re talking about exploring the human condition, like one can when they participate in a play, like, Alice in Wonderland, versus humans experiencing the condition of physical trauma.