The Aerie
Sherman, prepare the Wayback machine! We're taking a trip back into
the ancient past! Back! Back to the year... Nineteen Seventy Seven!
Yes, that's right, my friend Tim and I returned to where it all began
-- the theater at St. Francis High School. Our first performance
together was 'The Sound of Music' in 1977, when he was a senior and I
was a freshman. As you can see from the photos, that was back before
the invention of color. (Actually, the very pretty girl on the far
left in that photo, Marie, was my date to junior prom two years later.
I seem to recall she was in color by then.)
[som1977-1.jpg] So when Tim learned that the local theater group up
there was putting 'The Sound of Music' on again, we had to go visit.
Way back then, our theater director was [1]Wayne Torke, a senior
student, and under his, um, guidance (I wasn't going to type
'dictatorship', really!) we put on not one, not two, but three
theatrical performances in one year: The Sound of Muisc, Pygmalion,
and Treasure Island. The sets were elaborate beyond description -- the
ship for Treasure Island was a full-fledged ship fergoodness sakes. He
could have gotten away with a railing, a pole, and a ship's wheel, but
no, this behemoth had a hull and rigging weighed a ton if it weighed
an ounce.
[som1977-2.jpg] The set for 'The Sound of Music' was equally
impressive -- a circular structure on tiny casters, partitioned into
three sections, and intended to be rotated into position for each
scene. Of course what ended up happening was that the casters couldn't
take the strain, stopped rotating, and became high-traction rubber
feet, and those of us on Stage Crew had the pleasure of simply shoving
the beast into position.
Altogether, the 1977 theater season in St. Francis was an amazing
accomplishment, a testament not only to Torke's drive and abilities,
but also to the fact that the educational system was so screwed up at
that school that by the time you were a senior you pretty much could
do whatever you pleased. Wayne ran a theater company, I spent my days
writing computer programs. Classes? Oh, those.
[2][oldaud1.jpg] But that was then. Now the St. Francis High School
has a whole new theater building -- the "Carlson-Foley" Fine Arts
auditorium. Having had a chance to visit it once already, I prepared
Tim for the experience by first bringing him to the old theater.
The room has shrunk, and half of the back of the auditorium has been
raised and levelled, with the old lunchroom tables and chairs
distributed on the new floor. A few rows of seats remain, apparently
for those occasions when the old stage is used for choir practice.
[3][oldaud3.jpg] The stage floor itself is a shambles, warped and
cracked, and hardly good for walking across much less actual
performances. I can easily imagine a day when the interior of the
auditorium is excavated and turned into more classroom or office
space, because nobody seems to be interested in maintaining it as a
theater space.
[4][newaud1.jpg] After visiting the old theater, I led the way to the
new auditorium. It was... impressive. Very impressive. Tim stared,
utterly dumbfounded. Then again, that's not an unusual look for Tim.
It's a gigantic space, the size of a moderately large cineplex
theater. The ceiling is high overhead, and the stage is fronted by an
orchestra pit. An orchestra pit for Chrissakes!
[5][newaud2.jpg] D'you know what we would have given for an orchestra
pit? Oy!
Of course, this wasn't the after-school drama club putting on this
performance, this was Playhouse 15, a local amateur theatrical group
that began shortly after I graduated. Actually my mother was in a
couple of their performances, and I even did a minor bit of stage
crewing for them at once point when I was living at home after my
abortive first attempt to move out. [6][newaud3.jpg] So these guys had
a few more resources then we'd had. And their production was rather
better, I think, particularly in terms of the singing and the acting.
And the set. And the orchestral music.
Still, I think we did a creditable job for a high school drama club in
1977, back before the invention of color.
[7][carrie2.jpg] 'The Sound of Music' is a very long play, and due to
our prior involvement Tim and I already knew how it ended, so we left
at intermission to make the long drive back to the Twin Cities. Before
we did, however, we snooped around the school some. The walls of the
school, just inside the entrance, contain large signs bearing the
names and accomplishments of award winners going back to when the
school was opened in about 1974 or 1975. The earliest signs bore names
[debate.jpg] that Tim and I recognized, and they even listed
accomplishments in such esoteric pursuits as "Debate" (my friends
Steve and Andy were the national champions in 1983, under the coaching
of Randy Keillor, Garrison's cousin). It would have been nice if
they'd spelled Andy's last name correctly though.
[8][carrie3.jpg] While peeking at the sports trophy case -- neither of
us were expecting to find our own names in there, mind you -- I
spotted a very interesting plaque, one of the oldest trophies in the
case. It was a picture of the Girls' Tennis Team from 1978, and there
among all the white-clad gals was my old friend Carrie, now going by
the more sophistimicated grown-up name, Carolyn. I hadn't heard from
Carolyn for over twenty years until we reconnected at Steve's funeral.
[9][carolyn-smallie17.5-big.jpg] She was still as pretty as she had
been in high school, and it was great seeing her again, despite the
circumstances. She had always been funny and creative, and that had
continued... although I'd never have guessed that she would be
expressing her creativity by [10]tying fishing lures!
They are magnificent lures, however: attractive and colorful. After
[11][carrie4.jpg] Steve died Carolyn was inspired to create a set in
his honor, "Moldy Monster Bait," and she sent a set to me and to
Steve's widow. They're magnificent, but, I'm afraid to fish with them.
Not only would I be dunking a beautiful work of art into a river (and
heaven knows I've gotten into enough trouble doing that already), but
they're bloody HUGE! (That's a regular 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper I've
got them on.) I'm terrified at the idea of a fish big enough to
swallow one!
Hopefully we'll be able to visit Carolyn sometime and she can take us
fishing so we can try out the lures. I'll let the kids fish, anchored
to a nearby tree with steel cable. I'll stand ready with a shotgun,
and we'll see what kind of beasts these babies catch.
[12]Last
Posted by Albatross at October 28, 2003 12:00 AM