High school musical theater In Our Hands Now!
an original high school musical by
E. Sandy Powell  &  Mick Terry

ADAPTABILITY
(PART 3)

3 of 3

Cross Boundaries between School Cliques:

Towards the end of the show, the core group of "odd" kids puts on a benefit to help one of their own. During What You Put Into the World, the script calls for basketball players to join the show within a show. The casting/choreography for the main dance in that segment can be altered, if you prefer; dancers could create the entanglements and confusion with long satin streamers rather than basketballs.

But so many schools have the jocks over here, the geeks over there. The drama group is often an insular subset. This sequence allows for crossing boundaries between age-old school cliques. Zach has a line about how ball playing is like dancing. Dance and ball coaches know this, and could capitalize on their commonality, to the students' great benefit, if they would.


The Facility:

The stage
Volunteers had to build a permanent, yet movable, apron to be able to accommodate the scenes in front of the curtain at Gold Beach High. Now the nonexistent drama program has the capability to reassemble for future productions, with a full stage.

We would love to see choreographing some of the hallway scenes on a two-story high school staircase. That was beyond Gold Beach High. If you manage such an addition, please send us your video!

The theater
Gold Beach High did not have an auditorium. Their Old Gym stage is an exact replica of countless others across the country "including the one on which I performed in high school, forty-some years ago." (ESP, AKA Sparky)

In order to create a "theater" feel, stanchions and curtains were borrowed from the local fairgrounds, and set out along the sight rows, on the outer edge of the (folding chair) seating. With these theater curtains shielding the hoops, and playbills on velvet hangings in the entry, the Old Gym was transformed into a "theater."

The set-up crew also pulled out the netted batting cage that the baseball coaches had graciously pushed to the side of the gym. Extended partway, with a sign and imported vegetation (twinkly lights would have been a nice touch), the batting cage became a great "Grotto" out of which the local Natural Foods store offered healthy, upscale intermission refreshments.



When state budget cuts threatened school lockouts through the entire course of the Gold Beach High rehearsal schedule, contributing to tensions between the old time sports programs worried over getting the axe at any moment, and the new-on-the-block drama contingent, vying for coveted space, the kids heard loud and clear: "This show will go on, even if we have to perform it on the school's front lawn!" (ESP, AKA Sparky)

The students who were involved in the Gold Beach High production of
 In Our Hands Now!  will be able to draw on that experience, to remind them that their lives, and the world, is in their hands. The production taught them they can "make a difference," no matter what the challenges.

 In Our Hands Now!  avails itself to the inclusion of students normally left behind due to special behaviors or needs, of those with "less than popular" interests, of students of different ethnicities and backgrounds, and those whose talents have not yet blossomed.

This show can also help bring together groups within the school who might not normally interact with each other. The on-stage associations will attract a larger audience, as each group draws on their friends.

Depending on the director's casting choices, the show within the show could require cooperation among disparate groups, similar to what students will encounter as they step into the world to handle life's big problems, those Insane Changes spewed out with full force at the end of Act I. And isn't it often the drama within the drama (within the drama, in this case), through which the most growth takes place?



We can't wait to hear how you put on
 In Our Hands Now!  on a stage with all the bells and whistles, or in a local park or even a community building basement, with or without a full cast.
Let us know your stories!



(Note:   E. Sandy Powell produced  In Our Hands Now!  in Gold Beach, Oregon because she happens to live nearby, in an even smaller community, her ideal writer's workspot on the southern Oregon coast. Ms. Powell has a personal affinity to the school, as it is one in which she keeps an ear on our country's young people, and makes a lot of teenage friends, through substitute teaching.)

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[ Hands logo - Daemion Lee ]
[ Graphics enhancement - Jared Johnson ]

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Copyright © 2003   E. Sandy Powell   &   Mick Terry