Jr. High School Drama Reunion at “The Music Man”

I thought the Cascade Jr. High School Drama Reunion at “The Music Man” was very fun! Bonnie Bensen found about a dozen of us on Facebook. She also found the director of Cascade Junior High’s drama club from our years there—Mrs. Semen. When she learned that Mrs. Semen’s next school show was coming up she put together a group to go see it. Both Mandy and I went.
We all met at Round Table Pizza. There was a whole table in the party area full when Mandy and I arrived. We were a tad…well more than a tad late to the dinner due to my last online class I had to teach.
There were five or so children running about, but other than that, it seemed like everyone was just the same. It didn’t take long until we were once again making each other laugh. Amy and Scott were there with their three children, a girl and two boys. Anna brought her two daughters who were both uniquely named. Monika brought her fiancé to meet us. Rachel, Kat, Bonnie, John and Heidi were also there but they were alone. So that’s a pretty nice crowd huh?
When we got to the high school, the parking lot was packed full. We were pretty impressed until we marched into the school and found out we were at the basket ball game. Alas. The theater was on the other side of the school and the parking lot was a little bit more what you’d expect for closing night of a musical in high school.
It didn’t take long until we were all greeted by Mrs. Semen. She was very happy to see us. Teachers don’t usually supply much of an audience…directors even less. We weren’t able to do much more than say hello and give her a hug because the show was about to begin. We sat in the back of the very small theater on Audience Left. They weren’t bad seats.
The highlight of the performance for us all seemed to be the Wells Fargo Wagon. It was quite a nice prop and it marched in right in front of us.
The weakest part of the performance was the band. They were extremely weak…especially the brass section which is the most important part of The Musicman’s key song “76 Trombones”. I don’t blame Mrs. Semen. There are two possible reasons why this happened I would guess. In my senior year, we fired the band of “Guys and Dolls” for zero commitment to the show and, in general, playing awfully. You see the director of the musical that year was a community volunteer and she didn’t have work ramifications of such an action. Our band director consistently put the high school musical on the lowest priority bracket beneath his own performances, competitions and football game pep band performances. If that was the case here…who could blame Mrs. Semen? The other possibility is the WASL. My sister says that if a kid doesn’t do well in the WASL then they aren’t allowed to take any electives and must take remedial courses. This has severely depleted several bands in high schools…because how well do you think a kid with musical or kinesthetic intelligence is going to do in a test like that?
If that was the case then the kids were trying their best but weren’t capable of pulling it off. I do have one suggestion for Mrs. Semen though in either case. As a member of an ensemble…there is nothing that makes us play our best more than when we are recorded. Since you can’t see the band anyway—pre-record them. Trust me…they’ll play it over and over again to make sure they don’t miss a note.
After the show, we were reluctant to part from one another. But we had to bid adieu to the parents with children in the crowd. The remaining eight of us went out for deserts and drinks at a local restaurant. As a completely unplanned bonus, Mrs. Semen showed up there with a small crowd of her own and told us once again how pleased she was to see us all. Before we parted ways for the night, we pledged to get together once again. I hope we do. The reasons were all still there why we all became friends in the first place, even after all these years and a great deal of maturity was added to us all. We are still birds of a feather.