Life Upon the Wicked Stage

Jeri wrote the other day asking if I could send her a copy of the photo printed on the right.   It's David as Tom of Warwick in a production of Camelot here in Davis in 1982.  I thought I had misplaced the album of our "show biz" years,but it turned out that I have only replaced one of the four books.
 

Needless to say, Walt and I have had a great time going through the book and looking at the memories of all those shows with which our family was involved, and who did what.

Camelot was one of the early productions that sparked maybe a decade or more of involvement by one or all of the kids, in both performing and technical areas of dozens of shows.

Also performing in this show was our then-foreign student, Pujol Monteiro from Brasil, who played Sir Sagramore and Henriet Bolman, another foreign student, Pujol's best friend, who lived with a different family, playing one of the ladies of the court.

So many other shows, other memories found in this book.  Several shows where 15 year old Jeri was the lighting designer, assisted by her now-husband Phil.   There was the famous production of The Music Man, where Paul first appeared as lisping little Winthrop Paroo (a role he recreated in Oakland, where he won an award as Child Star of the Year).  Jeri was Amarylis, the girl who takes piano lessons from Winthrop's sister, but she was also on the light crew with both Phil and Paul.  The big surprise in that show was finding that the rehearsal pianist and the guy who played piano for the show was Derrick Bang! (the exclamation point was part of the name), who went on to become Entertainment Editor for the Davis Enterprise and my boss for several years.  Also, on the costume crew was one Freddie Oakley, who is now the Yolo County Clerk/Recorder.

I always loved it when Jeri and Paul had scenes together, as the above from Music Man, but the one that got me every night was from Oliver! where Paul was Oliver and Jeri was Bet and they danced a little dance at one point.   I got all verklempt every time.

Tom and David danced together, too, in Alice in Wonderland, when they were cast as Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee.

Though I think they preferred being together in Frankenstein than dancing in Alice in Wonderland.

It is sad that Ned was in Brasil this year, living with our Brasilian son, Eduardo and his family, and so he missed out on all of these productions, though after he returned he got right into the thick of things too. But all that history is in a different scrapbook!

Whoda thunk back in 1982 that Jeri and Ned would still be in show biz in 2013 and that David and Paul would be gone.  Tom hasn't appeared on stage in years, but performed up through high school.  As for our foreign student, Pujol, who limped through Camelot and had a hard time not tripping over his own feet, he went on to study ballet and became quite a good dancer and choreographer.

Nice memories.

 

Paul, as Oliver, singing "Where Is Love?"

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Pandiona wrote another entry about Christmas letters, reiterating that if you can't be bothered to contact someone throughout the year, an annual update is just narcissistic.  She included a lot of supporting articles and blogs from people who agree with her and who also detest annual letters. I attempted to leave a comment, but I guess I'm shut out.  My comment was this, in case she checks this blog out again (which I doubt she will do; she was very clear that she was finished with me):

OK. Very last comment on this. Nothing snarky. Today I received a holiday letter from a woman with whom I worked in the 1970s, but have not seen since I attended her 50th wedding anniversary, a few months before her husband's death. We don't communicate with each other throughout the year because we live on opposite sides of the country, but we still care about each other. Our daughters, now grown women, went to school together and I am interested in reading about the daughter's winery and now-grown children, and my friend's travels following her husband's death. She just said how pleased she was to receive my letter so we could compare our travels this year and catch up on grandchildren. We communicate with each other yearly, as do many of my friends. Maybe it's because I'm in my 70s and any communication with long-time friends is important to me.

My bottom line is why this is such an incendiary topic when the solution for people who hate annual letters is JUST DON'T READ THEM, while those of who who like them can enjoy them.