Thank you for being here! I was so excited when Matt Neylon called me just before the start of the semester to offer to have me direct the middle school show, and to allow me to pick the show I wanted to direct! Wonderful!
I’ve loved Annie since the first time I saw the original movie with Carol Burnett as Hannigan. I’ve since had the opportunity to play FDR in the Starlight Theater production, and watched one of my sons play Rooster in the junior version (that you’re seeing tonight) with CYT/Spotlight Youth Theater. It’s a show with great songs, memorable characters, and just right for the varying maturity levels in a middle school setting.
As I began looking at the script closer and really trying to determine what would be beneficial for all of us to see from this story, is not so much a “Cinderella” story, but more the way that both Annie and Daddy Warbucks are missing the one thing in their lives that means the most to them; the loving, supportive atmosphere we call family. Warbucks doesn’t realize he’s missing it until Annie comes into his life, and then she turns it upside down (c’mon, we all remember that point with our first child when we realized that life as we knew it was on its ear, and we kind of said, “Oh no! What have I gotten myself into?!” followed by a hug, smile, or sleeping child in our arms and we responded, “Bring it on!”). Their economic circumstances may be very different, but the need for family is the same.
And that’s the other thing that struck me as I looked closer at the story. Wealth and poverty are not that far from each other; just a few zero’s on a balance sheet away. But the needs we have as human beings are the same no matter what; a roof over our heads, food on the table – even if it’s only cold mush, and someone to say, “I’m here for you.”
Special thanks go out to Matt Neylon, and Allyson Paruzynski for their help and assistance, as this has been a very busy time of year for me. Also, to Lyn Bitner, who’s been my partner in crime on two shows this fall. Hope you’re not sick of me yet. A major thanks as well to my wife and family, for putting up without having me around for the past 10 weeks. But primary thanks to Jesus, who makes all things possible. Even as type, I sense a peace that I know can only be from Him and His grace.
Enjoy the show!
Jack Hill
