As I talked about last week, this year is my son’s senior year and is full of “lasts.” One of these lasts is coming up. Starting with the spring show of his freshman year, my son has been part of his school’s theater program. This will be his seventh and final show – it could have been the eighth, but he wasn’t able to participate in the fall show. He’s been on stage for some amount of time in at least three of those shows so far. The other four, including the one coming up later this week, he has kept himself hidden in a backstage role.
I love that he’s been part of the program. I enjoyed my high school theater experience and it is full of memories I will never forget. I firmly believe that belonging in the theater program for him meant belonging overall. When we moved from Arizona, he didn’t have any friends. Even his cousin lives a little over an hour away. It was up to my son to make friends on his own. Without a base of friends from his old school, things started out a little rocky. By the end of the year he had made two very good friends. One departed for another school, while the other is still a good friend after all this time.
My son worked his way ‘up the ladder’ if you want to call it that. Or rather, up the stairs. The shows where he had worked backstage up until this year he’s been part of the stage crew that sets and resets props and scenery. This year, he’s been promoted up the stairs (of the theater seating area) to the sound booth above. He’s responsible for sound and music cues, as well as turning the overhead and body mics on at the right moment. When he told us about this promotion at the end of last year, I had only considered it in relation to the two theater productions in fall and in spring. But it extends far beyond that, to running sound for choir and band or orchestra concerts, too.
When we went to the visit day at his chosen college a couple weeks ago, although he’ll be studying architecture, the theater school would love to have him, too. He can work in an on-stage or off-stage capacity, and I hope he takes advantage of it when he can.
This week, tomorrow actually, starts his last show of high school, but hopefully not his last.
Were you a part of your school’s theater program? Were you an athlete? Part of another club or organization? Let’s talk high school memories on Facebook!