Dress Rehearsal

My first encounter with Stone Academy’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof” was during the controlled chaos of the first dress rehearsal. I must admit having some doubts as cues were missed, lines were flubbed or forgotten, upper register notes were non-existent, and at one point the show had to be stopped as the school principal came in to lecture the kids about some long forgotten breach of protocol. In other words, it was a typical middle school experience. My favorite stage direction came during the second half of the play when an exasperated director yelled to the star of the show: “it’s your daughter, she’s leaving home, you’ll never see her again, you need to look sad!” There were also a handful of technical difficulties as the last picture in this group illustrates. But participating in the process reminded me of my several experiences documenting construction projects: a week before opening, never in your wildest dreams do you believe they’ll get the thing put together. But as if by magic, they always do.

About sixty students including cast and crew participated in the play. A grand total of three adults, all pictured in this sequence, also participated. Director Jamie Perry’s day job is Stone’s fifth through eighth grade Spanish teacher. Her co-director is Stone’s music teacher Caleb Falle. Rounding out the trio was costume designer Virginia Falkner whose many additional contributions to Stone are as parent, Treasurer, and past President of FOSA. We’ll hear from all three of them over the course of this week. In tomorrw's post I’ll share some thoughts from Ms. Perry whom it should be noted, has been an integral part of the theater program at Stone since its inception.