playbill vip

Like most children born after the year 1964, I remember watching Mary Poppins growing up. As a child I remember watching a fantastical story about a young and engaging woman who comes to play with two children. This was a story about being taken to far off places to do impossible things. All children to some degree wished for this kind of magical nanny. She entertains. She cleans. She cares for them, gives them medicine, and puts them to sleep. I hadn’t watched Mary Poppins in years, and now I have two children of my own. As I sat down to watch it with them, I realized this movie was never about the children - it was about guiding Mr. Banks back to his family and focusing on the truly important things. In this spirit, we ask that you consider donating to our selected charities this year: The Pembroke PTA and the Imagination Library. All of the funds stay here in the Pembroke Community to help support our own children through parental involvement and reading.

The theme of Mary Poppins depends on what story you’re interpreting - the book by P. L. Travers or the movie by Walt Disney. The movie Saving Mr. Banks gave great insight to the give and take of both storytellers. When deciding to create the Broadway version of Mary Poppins the visionaries sought to balance the stories that were from the book as well as the movie. Things that you may be expecting to see won’t be on stage today. Mrs. Banks is not a “Sister Suffragette”, Uncle Albert does not “Love to Laugh”, and Mary doesn’t sing them to sleep by telling them to “Stay Awake.” However, you will meet some characters from the books that did not make it into the movie, such as; Robertson Aye - the house butler, Mrs. Corry - whose talking shop spells Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, and Miss Andrew - Mr. Banks’s unforgiving nanny from when he was a boy. If you are a purist to the movie you may want to familiarize yourself with the synopsis. 

This production today was two years in the making. From the time that I knew it was going to become available I stalled, distracted and mislead my cast. I’ll admit I had a bit of fun with that. When it finally was released to high schools for production we were one of the first in New York State to obtain the rights. The big benefit of this is setting the bar for expectations. The challenge is not having readily available resources. Our talented cast and crew have really outdone themselves this time. 

To my wonderful administration and Board of Education, thank you for your consistent support of the Theatre Arts program. To the Pembroke Music Boosters, thank you for facilitating everything from ticket sales to t-shirt orders. To the stage parents, thank you for keeping our cast fed this week. To my crew & pit band - thank you for your professionalism and patience! To my cast - thank you for bringing the Disney magic back to our auditorium and raising our bar to the highest heights. To my house manager, Samantha Salim, you did a fantastic job keeping everything with the show organized.  To my fellow directors, Mrs. Smith, Mr. Schuler, Mr. Dylag and Mrs. Reisdorf - thank you for sharing the vision and helping us bring it to life. To my understanding family - I love you and I’ll be home soon!

Lastly, to my graduating seniors. Some of you have been with me for seven consecutive productions - from adorable Munchkins to beautiful adults. While some of you are newer to the stage, I love you all the same. I am honored and humbled to have been a part your lives and I’m going to miss you terribly. You have each taught me so much... so I leave you with this...

“With every job when it’s complete, there is a sense of bitter-sweet, that moment when you know the task is done. Though in your heart you’d like to stay to help things on their way, you’ve always known they must do it alone. There, practically perfect and I hope it remains so.”