When I was a kid, I remember sitting at the desk in the "new room" of my grandparent's house (never mind the fact that the room had been built about 23 years before then). Here, my grandfather kept all of his treasures--a computer that was somehow already outdated in 1995, shelves and shelves of Biblical commentaries, and yellowing comic strips carefully clipped from the newspaper and stuck to the filing cabinets with pieces of scotch tape. All of the expected crew was there--the kids of Family Circus, Garfield and Jon, Dennis the Menace, and of course, the Peanuts gang.
Their house was destroyed by a flood not long after I started teaching, and then just a few short years later, my grandpa passed away. There are a lot of things that remind me of him--the beautiful collection of literary classics he gave me, anything with Tom Selleck (he was obsessed with the Jesse Stone movies), the Anne of Green Gables movies he would sit and watch with me when I came over. Rare is the occassion, though, that I can look at the Sunday comics without remembering him and the collection of laughs he had accumulated around the "new room". I've thought of him often through the rehearsal process for this show. He would've absolutely loved it, and I can't help but smile to think of all the questions he would've asked me about it.
That's part of what I think is so wonderful about this musical-- every generation alive today has some connection to Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Sally, Schroeder, and--of course--Snoopy. Whether you grew up reading of their adventures in black & white or saw the computer-animated Peanuts movie, that round-headed kid and his friends have a special place in every heart.
As you watch, think of this musical as a collection of live comic strips carrying us through a day in the life of the Peanuts gang. If you are a fan of the animated movie "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown", you'll find all your favorites here--and discover a few new ones!
Thank you for going on this adventure with us--good grief, we appreciate it!
K'Lynn Childress
(by the way--Comic Sans is my least favorite font in the world, but it just feels appropriate here, doesn't it?)
