One Week Back In High School

In the summer of 1983, my Auntie Apol recruited myself and my brother Raymond to be ushers for the musical "My Fair Lady" which was being staged at the theater at Castle High School. For three weekends in a row, my brother and I dressed up in powder blue monkey suits (Tuxedos) and handed out programs and helped old ladies to there seats. The bonus was, every night, I got to sit in the back of the theater and watch Mr Higgins transform Eliza Doolittle in to a proper young lady. My cousins were in the play, and most, if not all of the actors were from Castle High School.

I won't say watching that musical hooked me on the idea of getting into theater. I will say that the hormone driven 13 year old mind saw a great way to kiss girls and not have to go through the rigmarole of trying to get them to like you.

That was the driving motivation that got me to try out for "Flower Drum Song" my freshman year at Castle. There were three days of auditions. The first was scene reading, the second dancing, and the third was singing. I had no problem the first day, I got up and did a scene from the play opposite my cousin (I think). The second day of dancing, provided more embarrassment than a freshman could handle, and I didn't even show up for the singing on the third day.

Flash forward to my senior year, 1987. I had spent my junior year hanging out with a lot of people who were involved in the theater program and they encouraged me to try out again. I auditioned for the fall melodrama, "The Saga of Sagebrush Sal". I was awarded the role of the Loony Minister. Not exactly a role for kissing girls, but I was still happy perform. I guess you could consider this my first touring production, because we took the show to all the local elementary schools, and I helped load and unload the stake bed truck with the props and scenery.

That spring, I auditioned for the musical, "Gypsy". Like "Flower Drum Song," it was three days of auditions, but I had more confidence because I had gotten the role in "Sagebrush Sal" and the support of my friends. I danced (in the back row) and ended up singing unaccompanied because I picked a song that the pianist didn't have the music for (I didn't know any of the songs from "Gypsy" so I sang a song from the movie version of "South Pacific"). To my surprise, I was called back for a final reading for the lead role of Herbie along with my buddy, Kent (more on him later). I wasn't award the role, it was given to Kent, but in a strange sort of karmic turn, I was awarded the role of "Cigar" the gruff burlesque house owner. Again, not a role that I got to kiss girls... but I say "karmic" because the character opens one of the scenes in the second act by walking on stage looking at the lights and yelling at the master electrician to "Turn off one and give me two and three," or something of that nature. Guess I should have known then.

As part of being in the musical, you had to put in 10 or so hours helping out with the technical parts of the show. I think I put in more hours than most because I found it fun to work with tools, building flats and painting scenery. But what I found most fun, was working with Sandy the lighting designer learning about the lighting equipment and theories of lighting design.

Needless to say, "Gypsy" was my last acting role (until I went to Windward Community College where I was forced to perform) and from that point on, I remained involved with Castle theater, but only as an electrician, board op, and assistant to Sandy. I worked on many musicals they staged, from 1987's "The Pajama Game" to 1993's "Oklahoma!", I was always around, hanging lights or running the lighting console.

And I kissed more girls as a "techie" than an actor.

Flash forward 22 years to last week. I'm sitting in the Orange County Performing Arts Center, programming lights for a 4 hour show featuring show tunes from the musicals written my Rogers and Hammerstein, including a full "Reading" of the musical, "South Pacific". Although all the lead roles are played by accomplished Broadway actors, the chorus was The Young Americans. A troupe of, well, young Americans, who were learning about the world of live theater.

For me, it was like being in high school again. Except for all the moving lights and other high tech gadgetry, it was just a bunch of kids on stage singing and dancing their hearts out with incredible enthusiasm and joy. When they all came out for finale of "Oklahoma!" I got goosebumps. It sounded so much like the performance we did back in 1993, I could have closed my eyes and been back in the lighting booth at Castle.

And to top it all off, Thursday evening after the performance, I had dinner with the same Kent who got the lead in "Gypsy", I hadn't seen him in almost 20 years, it was a real pleasure to catch back up with him. Time has put a lot of pounds on our waist and wrinkles on our skin, but it hadn't faded the memories of those youthful days back at Castle.

It was nice to have a week back in high school. Every so often, someone will ask you, "If you were to do it all over again, would you?" I think my answer would have to be, "High school? Yes. Except I would have sucked it up and danced and sang for 'Flower Drum Song'."

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