Why was yesterday afternoon’s matineé performance of “Darn Yankees” by the Middle School a breathtakingly welcome departure from typical public performances by students of their age?
Gone was the stigma of losing or, horrors, not playing well enough.
On this stage, everybody was equal. At the start and at the finish.
Using athletic contests as my main point of reference, the hundreds of friends and family members who streamed into the Robert Frost Auditorium could, for a change, freely cheer for their favorite student. They did not have to worry about the social stigma of whether he or she was on the winning or the losing side, whether your child outplayed my child.
This was the quintessential level field.
From our seats in the second row, Diane and I alternately nudged each other when a player performed extraordinarily.
The temptation here is to herald the splendid acting skills of 7 to 10 of the girls and boys who showed powerful promise and undeniable theatrical gifts.
Very wrong venue.
Director Diane Feldman from the Children’s Civic Light Opera, a world-class expert at coaxing, taming and refining the acting skills of children of middle school age, established the tone with her crystallized message to the audience before the non-existent curtain was raised.
Happily, this was not Pop Warner football or Little League baseball or whatever tightly controlled, panickly watched, almost professionally organized games the athletes in their classrooms play.
That was the beauty of this exquisite entertainment.
Ms. Feldman announced to the crowd that this was not Tryout City, not a talent contest.
Rather, she said, it was an opportunity for the students to explore three separate channels of their acting interest.
Some would make discoveries, she said.
Some would investigate whether or how much performing appealed.
Others, beyond that stage, would use “Darn Yankees” as a playground for enriching their confidence in their acting ability.
And now here is the cast, not, of course, in a particular order:
Jenny Soto, Zoe-Manon Le Cheminant, Mia Windman and Dylan Blaisdell.
Gabriel Galdamez, Kori Ridenour, Karolina Garcia and Bianca Huang.
Cianna Robinson, Jenea Singh, Cricket Cary-Green and Kate Perry.
Courtney Lundy, Vanessa Jimenez, Claire Skelley and Lauren (Alexandria) Ussery.
Elizabeth Rao, Amber Wacker, Avishai Melamed and Ethan Courey.
Isabel Ferreiros-Rist, Cameron DeFaria, Oliver Berliner and Flora Namala.
Sophia Brown, Lizzy Ferreira, Arielle Singer and Cole Chardiet.
Kelsi Parsons, Sofia Frohna, Alexis Andrew and Paxton Amor.
Anna Sophia Vizarra-Barton, Sade Adewunmi and Alison Dove.
Kyra Jackson, Reno Behnken and Joshua Zucker.
