Farragut High School drama’s production of Cyrano closed with a great performance and a supportive audience on Sunday and a party for the cast and crew to celebrate on Sunday night.
For a dad who spent a lot of time coaching youth baseball and didn’t know much about drama, I find I’m learning more and more about the world of theatre as we go along thanks to young Paul Gary and friends.
As a volunteer, I was more involved with this show than any other and as my son gets deeper and deeper into his high school years – now a first semester junior – I suspect I will continue to volunteer more and more as I wrote about a couple weeks ago. That’s what active and engaged parents do to help their kids – it’s a way to give something back.
It was great to see all those Cyrano parents come together to support their teens and to support this wonderful high school community.
And when I think of it that way, there’s not much difference between volunteering in a youth baseball league or for a school program. Volunteerism’s the same the world over…it’s just the terms that change. In fact, as I think about it again, there are definitely some recurring themes.
As for my introduction to the world of theatre, I’ve figured out where up stage and down stage are located. I now know that when my son has a ‘call,’ it doesn’t mean a ring of the telephone from one of his castmates. His call is the time he is due to arrive to prepare for a performance. I’ve learned that a batten is a metal rod mounted in the ceiling above the stage from which items are hung (such as screens or curtains).
These are not terms they covered in that Theatre 101 course I had during my undergraduate days.
In a similar fashion, I learned new terms when I became a baseball coach and then commissioner. We used material called Turface (a drying agent to help dirt become playable after a rain), we built L-Screens (structures, shaped like an L, from which baseball coaches could throw batting practice) and we used zip ties to hang banners on the outfield fences. A wise coach once told me that ‘pigmented’ zip ties last a lot longer than the ‘non-pigmented’ variety. And he was right.
They don’t teach you that ANYWHERE in ANY 101 course.
I compare both of these enterprises to my 11 years of volunteering to help with logistics for the annual Fantasy of Trees holiday show - a benefit for East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. Putting together such a show carries its own unique terminology.
I learned intricate details about pallets – those rough, wooden structures on which goods can be stored or transported. I also learned there are machines called ‘pallet jacks’ to help lift them. I had no idea.
Once, when we were assembling a self-contained display for Children’s Hospital, I learned the structure was called a ‘monolith.’ That sounds, to me, like terminology from a futuristic science fiction film. It doesn’t sound, at all, like a large kiosk for displaying brochures, logo items and a television with a continuous video loop.
Oh…and that stuff all over the ground that resembles fake snow? Cotton batting.
Are you beginning to see a continuous theme here? Fun, camaraderie and the sense of accomplishment? Yes. A way to give something back and leave your community a little better than you found it? Most assuredly.
Then, there is the less obvious answer: Battens, Batting and batting.
Who knew?
JG
Originally posted 10/24/2011
No comments:
Post a Comment