Well let’s just say that when you earn the title of”#2 in the state” for your previous musical theatre show, the pressure is ON and the bar is set HIGH.
So what do I do? I think. For many long hours. I think about how to top black lights and personal telephone booths, 30 poodle skirts and an actual car being on stage. I lie awake at night pondering how to put more “butts in seats” as our administration clearly requested.
And then one day, sitting on my son’s bed talking to Bryan, it hits me. I actually say it out loud, so I can’t take it back. “What if instead of using furniture, we created a set and props out of electroluminescent wire for the entire show?” Bryan cocks his head to one side and says, “Well….it CAN be done.”
And so it begins. Another director’s concept that requires a cast that doesn’t mind being shocked on occasion (those light up costumes are touchy), a crew that finds innovative ways to light actors without washing out neon wiring (harder than you would think), and a parent team that follows my lead blindly, simply believing that the eventual outcome will be amazing merely based on the vision in my head.
So here we are. 10 weeks, 1,750 feet of EL Wire, 150 set pieces, two DeLoreans, one school-wide spirit event (Manic Monday), two pep assembly performances, one totally tubular puppet company pre-show, four photo shoots, a week of complete insanity in which our show was cancelled and then rescheduled, and countless hours of rehearsal and innovation later…and what do we have?
One freaking incredible, glow with the show, sell-out, crowd-pleasing, rockin’ 80’s musical of epic proportions.
And YOU are a part of it all. YOU get to glow with the show. YOU get to sing the words to your favorite 80’s songs. YOU get to see what two DeLoreans and a cast/crew of 70 kids looks like. All because I believed that we could top “#2 in the state”, even when others doubted us. All because even when we get knocked down, Kelllis Drama knows how to get back up and make things happen.
Well folks, we did it. All of us. You included.
I chose not to have our show adjudicated this year. Why? Because this year, it wasn’t about having a new title. Or the invisible trophy that administration asked us for. It’s because this year was about YOU. It was about gathering our community together so that they can see what Raymond S Kelllis’ Theatre Department can do. It was about having you become a part of something truly innovative and new, and prove that theatre is NOT a dying art form, no matter what anyone says. And it wasn't even until the very end that we realized just how much it was about our community rallying around us in support to help the show go on.
So please…don’t sit in your chair tonight and simply watch our show. Don’t be overly polite and clap at the end of each number. GET UP AND SING. GET UP AND DANCE. Get up and look at the crowd around you and know that YOU are a part of making Kellis history on Manic Monday by selling out our entire house. And know…that I am utterly grateful to YOU for being a part of my vision. I am utterly grateful for every single person who rallied around us in the past week to prove that anything is possible when you believe in something (whether it's tearing down and putting up a set each night of a performance, sewing a million strands of neon, or making dinner for 50 kids at the last minute so we can rehearse).
To my cast and crew-thank you for believing once again in my vision for what we do. Thank you for stepping up and taking the challenge to raise the bar higher than “#2 in the state” and spending every last bit of energy, passion, love and time you had to make our community, our school, and everyone who will listen aware that WE are KELLIS DRAMA. Thank you for not ever giving up hope that Mama would come back. Because I AM back. And I love you from the bottom of my heart.
Now get ready to go back in time to the 80’s….get out of your chair….and just like my kids have done….
DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’.
-Mama Grape (aka Ms. Marie)
