This year's play..

OKay , thought I would tell you about this year play.

It never fails to amaze and thrill me:-)

As most know, my two boys are in a small private school for Gifted lder’s and or ADHD,etc. There are only 20 students,oops 21. The max. is 22. There is 1 more opening currently.

Anyway every year they perform a play. It is the school’s biggest fund raiser, in preparartion for their spring trip,but it always proves to provide an incredible amount of skill building that one would never be able to provide with so much intensity as this. They practice and rehearse for a full month,the last two weeks doing only this exclusively at the theatre they will be performing in. This is my boys third year,as they have been in this school that long. It is a mandatory participation. It is a right of passage,for all new students too. For the past three years I have taken a weeks vacation from work to help in rehearsals and wet my appetite for making stage props,painting stage sets,etc. I have since left every year amazed at the method of madness Dr. Stark,the schools director,has.

This years play was,” a Comdey of Errors”,by Shakespeare. Well… with a few changes. They did an outstanding job. Just incredible,much to the relief of the school’s newest parents. One of which is a friend. She agreed to take over the job of school parent person.( Can’t quite call it PTA president,heck president of what? 20 students?) Anyway she became increasingly anxious as the day of the play became closer,wondering when Dr. Stark would finally finnish saying,”oh I forgot,we need a donkey face and ears”,or a Ice cream cone,or help with this or that”. She would growl at me,”why doesn’t he tell you these things way before now?” I would look at her and smile,”he is an adder,that’s why”. I would always leave her with” the kids will pull it off,it will be great”.The newest kids are always the most amazing to watch. Again, as I have explained in previous years,these are the kids no one would have given the chance to do something like this. These are the kids who might say something and embarass a public school . These are the kids who wonderfully ad lib and would drive a proper,strictly by the book, drama teacher to drinking. Dr. Stark always,always allows the student his thoughts on how the role should go. One of the reasons we,parents,hear,”oh, we need an Ice cream cone,we need a seltzer bottle,we need a whistle,etc.” There was this one kid. …..

7th grade. Started at the school this school year on the McKay Scholarship.
ADHD,Anxiety Disorder,OCD. Found the school after being admitted into a hospital, a total breakdown occured as a result of being teased excessively in the public school. He was failing miserably and traumatized. He is very immature and socially delayed,probably due to his disability,or the isolation of being different. I watched this kid’s joy develop over the past week,the sense of wonderment and pure amazment.

On monday he was told he was part of a chorus of dancers. Him,my oldest son,and another kid. On cue they were suppose to stand up at the front of the stage and in unision perform dance steps along with hand claps to music. He was anxious and moody about it. All the boys were. The concentration of remembering left,right,clap,clap, left, right clap,point,etc. was too much for them to feel good about.
On Tuesday it was obvious he had been practicing ,he was offering the boy next to him advice. “look,say,one two three in your head”” like this” he had a smile. On Wednsday, he came in and saw what we had painted on the stage set. He ran back and forth looking at the set,from left to right clapping his hands,saying” this is gonna be great! It’s awsome! This is going to be the best play! His happiness hard to ignore.(Talk about positive feedback!)
Twinkiling eyes,and a huge smile started developing as his part came up and he did better and better at it. I personally had to stop and just watch him whenever he was up,the feeling made one just feel good.( fortunately for me, my kid was up with him, so I had an excuse:-)
Friday came,the night of the play,they were up,and not only did this kid do AWSOME,but he ad lib’s a duck walk that fit the fifties style music that was playing. Saturdays performance was even more polished. He was a smash,they all were. The smile? Well,I bet it is still there..