Show Goes On Even When the Theater is Locked
Saturday’s performance was meant to be the culmination of a full week of workshops, rehearsals, and set preparation at Stagecoach Theater Camp. The costumes were ready, the kids knew their lines, songs were memorized, blocking locked down. Friends and relatives cleared their schedules for performance day. Everyone was ready to break a leg – until we got to the theater and saw a rusty old chain locked to the front gate. Due to a custodian error, the school – and the theater inside – was locked shut.
Now, this easily could have turned into a case of no theater, no performance, a bunch of disappointed kids and pissed-off parents. But it didn’t. The ever-resourceful, composed, and positive principal of the camp, Beth Kent, had somehow secured another performance space – that morning. I don’t really want to know what favors she had to cash in or strings she had to pull, but she directed the little performers and their parents to a nearby space in the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims.
As the parents arrived at the new location, I noticed something unusual. No one was angry or grumpy or tossing a fit (adults or kids). They took Principal Kent’s lead and stayed positive despite the unexpected change of plan. Chairs were hastily arranged in a gym space there and the show began – not without a few more little hitches. The CD player worked, but the outlet didn’t, then the outlet did, but the player didn’t. The four and five-year-olds opened the performance with the a capella accompanyment of their counselor, Cassi, who single-handedly sang and directed the entire opening number of Barnyard Moosical. Finally, the CD kicked in – saving Cassi from singing the entire soundtrack, though she gave a lovely and energetic performance.
The crowd of friends and parents who came to watch the 4-16 year olds were in for a treat as the numbers rolled forward – an energetic rendition of Fat Sam’s Grand Slam Speakeasy, a rousing dance – conga line and all – to Hot Hot Hot, and a gripping piece of comic book drama with Captain Nuclear – the story of a girl who happens to have superpowers but is really just trying to fit in – brought to you by WHEATIES!
I couldn’t help being totally inspired – by the counselors and the kids. It didn’t matter that their costumes and sets were locked away. It didn’t matter that the stage blocking they had rehearsed had to be rearranged in short order. Or that they were performing in a gym instead of a theater. It might as well have been Carnegie Hall given how each of the kid gave their best. You could tell that some of the shyer kids were breaking out of their shells. Some of the hams got their moment in the spotlight. And everyone gave it their all – all the way to the show-stopping big finish, their version of Glee’s version of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing. I never thought I could actually cry to a Journey song, but there you have it. At least I wasn’t the only camera-toting dad having to “wipe his lens”.
My kids learned a lot that week, but the biggest lesson of theater camp came on that unexpected Saturday lock out. In theater and in life, things don’t always go as planned. But its how you handle them that matters. In less cool and calm hands (Beth Kent for President!), the lock out could have been a disaster. Instead, it was a triumph. As the campers head to school this fall, they can tell their friends about “the big performance day lockout!” Then they can tell them how the show most definitely goes on – even when you are five and the theater is locked.
