Raising Thespians

My classmates and I never performed in plays in grade school. The first time I heard a play was going to be performed at our all-male high school, I was shocked. We didn’t have a Theater Arts Department or anything even closely akin to that. A Crack Drill Team, yes but female actors; never!

Yet somehow one of our male teachers convinced a female teacher at an all-girls high school that our military school should put on a performance with their talented other half. To be honest, I can’t remember the name of the play, what it was about or even remotely thinking of attending it myself.

What kind of guy would be in a play, pretending to be somebody he wasn’t? Besides, I convinced myself, the thought was acting out in front of other people, especially young women from one of those other schools was terrifying at best.

My first exposure to the theater was at a small (and I mean tiny) community theater in my neighborhood. It was called the Edith Bush Little Theater. I’m guessing it was probably the idea of my college girlfriend at the time. She certainly had more taste and sophistication in her little finger than I did in my entire body.

I do remember enjoying the performance (a romantic comedy) and thinking that I’d like to return to the theater again.

The second play I saw was ‘The Fantasticks’ in 1964 at a little theater on North Beach in San Francisco. A new member of our barracks invited me to accompany him to the play. He was a recent transplant from Germany and had been drafted almost before he and his family touched feet on American soil.

The play touched me in a number of ways. I had been drafted into the Army just six months earlier and been assigned to the Presidio of San Francisco. I was away from home for the first time. I was missing my girlfriend and envied her weekends with ‘friends’ on campus. Most of my buddies were still in college, completing their education while I had been derailed for two years before finishing my own. I was feeling very sorry for myself. The play only embellished and enhanced those feelings.

When the song ‘Try to Remember’ was performed, I thought I was going to burst into tears. God, that play was memorable! I realized then and there how the power of a good storyline, strong character performances and wonderful music could impact an audience. That first taste of creativity never left my mind or determination to find it on my own.

Since then, I’ve acted in a number of plays in Tennessee and Minnesota. I’ve stage-managed plays, directed some and have written 14 plays, of which four have been produced. Back in 2018, when we took both families to London and Paris, we made sure the grandkids went to see ‘School of Rock’ on the West End. The kids loved it.

So, it was only logical (at least in this family) that when our families gathered together for either Thanksgiving or Christmas, our grandchildren would be roped into performing in a play written by Papa. That process began three years ago.

The first play we did was entitled: ‘Kitten’s Bad Day.’ That was in Christmas of 2018. It was scripted reading and for an inaugural event the kids just read the script and added their own take on the words.

The second play we did was entitled: ‘Animal Clappers’. That was performed during Thanksgiving week of 2019. For this play we added puppets and Cash, the wonder dog, curtesy of the Colorado Kids.

Since we had a gap of almost two years because of the pandemic, I wanted to do something special for our next family gathering during Thanksgiving week of 2021. We agreed to do a musical this time around. Maya, our eldest granddaughter, had been singing in choirs and as a soloist since grade school. Her sister, Samantha, recently began practicing the ukulele.

So here is our new play simply entitled: A Thanksgiving Musical, 2021. Here it is.

Enjoy.

Kopper Meets the Fire-Breathing Dragon or Not

One of my treasured rituals with the Minnesota grandchildren is to make up bedtime stories for them. Out of ‘I don’t know where’ I came up with this character called Kopper the Hopper. Kopper is a not too bright kangaroo who keeps getting hit in the head by golf balls as he wanders out onto a golf course.

Of course, when the story is being told (and usually made up on the fly) Brennan and Charlotte are under the covers and getting binged on the head every time Kopper gets hit by an errant golf ball. The kids love it and beg for more. I’ve had to expand the storyline to now include a shark in Nana’s swimming pool, tickle bugs on the golf course, a huge bear in the mountains surrounding the golf course and so forth. 

Since Sharon and I have an entirely different nighttime routine with the Colorado kids, I decided last year to write a play for them when both families came to the desert for Christmas. So last year the grandkids performed the inaugural staged reading of our first family play entitled ‘Kitten’s Bad Day.’

It was a staged reading that featured all five of the grandkids and Cash, the wonder dog. Our audience included parents and visitors alike, all of whom loved the performance. Sure enough, the kids were hooked. We just performed our second family play this Thanksgiving.

Spencer wanted to see a return of his favorite fire-breathing dragon. Brennan was lobbying for Kopper the Hopper to make an appearance. Neither made the cut. Instead we had a menagerie of hand puppets, discussions about ‘owning their role’ and a return of Cash, the wonder dog.

The play was entitled: ‘Animal Clappers.’ The children were as animated as their hand-puppets and even Cash seemed to enjoy his star status. I fear perhaps I’ve created a stage monster here since there have already been plenty of hints about next years staged extravaganza and who gets to play which role.

All five of my grandchildren seem to have a knack for the fine arts in one form or another. They’ve all been to art classes in Apple Valley, Palm Springs, Colorado, London and Hawaii. Wherever Nana and the gang gather, there are sure to be art classes.

Maya has been performing in plays since she was very young. She came to Minnesota to see me perform in a play at the Steeple Center a couple of years ago. 

We took all the kids to see ‘School of Rock’ in London at the Gillian Lynne Theatre with a lot of museums added along the way.

When the kids were here for Thanksgiving, we took them to the see ‘A Christmas Story, the Musical’ at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert.

So when the kids asked about this year’s play earlier in the year, they had a lot of suggestions for me. Spencer loved the idea of a fire-breathing dragon which never made the cut in last year’s play. Brennan was anxious to see Kopper the Hopper come to life and Charlotte seemed overly concerned about star billing and the attendant compensation. Spoken like a pro, she’s only eight.

Fortunately for us grandparents, all five of the grandchildren have taken to the arts in one form or another.

Samantha is a prodigious writer, piano player and budding actress. She also excels on her traveling soccer team.

Maya is a singer and an actress. She paints and plays on a traveling Lacrosse team. 

Brennan and Spencer are both vociferous readers and artists in their own right. Both love chess, video games and assembling puzzles meant to warp adult minds. Spencer loves gymnastics and Brennan his hockey.

Charlotte is an award-winning artist as is her brother. She is a flash on her hockey team and seems to have an’instinct’ for the game.

An introduction to the arts at this stage in their young lives will hopefully set all the grandchildren up for a lifetime of exploration and experimentation.

Add to those sports, cooking classes, art classes, music lessons, the theater and travel and I’d say the kids are hopefully on the right track.