Notes From the Director --
WE'RE BACK. I could have said that last year, but things were still a bit precarious and we were trying to plan for audience members distanced apart and masked, along with all the other concerns we had to face while recovering from the pandemic.
BUT WE'RE BACK. It's been normal (knock on wood) and being able to just focus on this show and these students without the extra things we've needed to juggle the last few years has been incredible. You know that saying 'You never know how much you love someone until you lose them?' I didn't know how much I truly loved this program until I lost it. I cannot tell you what it was like here without students in this theater for two spring seasons -- there are no words that can make you feel it. I have always valued what we do here, but it's different now. This art, this time with these students, watching them sing, dance, and act, I have never loved nor valued my role here more than I do now.
It's easy to get caught up in little, stressful things. Forgetting to order programs until the last minute, never having enough working microphones, an endless list of to-dos that keep us (just me?) up at 2am scribbling notes down so they aren't forgotten by morning. Now? It will be fine. We survived a pandemic. We scraped by without art for over a year. I haven't gone that long without singing with people since I was 8 years old! Singing with these students again, seeing them light up when they nail a dance routine -- none of those stressful things matter. What matters are these moments, when they choose to come here and work on scenes together during activity period because this is where their joy is. What matters is the team they've created here, the support they show each other every minute of their time here. Helping each other learn dances, run lines, do costume changes, move scenery, make props, they are incredible.
What you see in this show today is the culmination of hundreds of hours of hard work. These students have sung, run lines, and danced at home on top of our many hours of rehearsal in order to perform for you today. It takes incredibly dedicated people to do this. We hope it brings you a smile and you leave afterwards feeling lighter!
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To my 8th graders -- I am so wordlessly proud of you. I am immutably, unshakeably, relentlessly your biggest fan and your strongest supporter. Thank you for bringing music back to me after this place was so quiet and empty during lockdown. You can't possibly know how grateful I am. You have worked so hard these last two years, and honestly to try and find words to explain would just cheapen the truth of what you've done here. I cannot fathom saying goodbye to you, so I won't. Don't be strangers, you have a home here forever. I can't wait to see what you do in high school and beyond.
Yours,
Mrs. van Thiel
