Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Winners Stand on Many Different Stages

This column was published in the Tribune & Georgian newspaper on November 16, 2005.

It is wonderful thing to live in a community of winners. Flush from a victory propelling our Wildcats into the next round of football playoffs, winning seems contagious. Look at some other winners on a different stage that are a part of our school and community.

Two weeks ago, at the Region One Act Play Festival, held at the Camden County High School Auditorium, the Wildcat’s Drama Department also propelled themselves and their production of Sing Down the Moon into the state competition, winning a third Region Championship in recent years. By the time you read this, this cast of almost 30 performers, along with its directors and a contingent of parents, will know its fate in the state One Act Play competition. They will have left last Friday, driven all day, eating pizza and sharing laughter all the way to Rabun County, GA, as far north in Georgia as we are south. This trip will be possible because local businesses and individuals were kind enough and smart enough to know winners when they see them. These generous folks made donations and contributions to rent a bus, pay for meals, and hotel rooms. The performers will know this and be grateful, but they will be very focused on another agenda. Because, on Saturday, they will have gotten up early, watched other shows perform, and performed their show by noon. The competition will end Saturday at 7 p.m., and no matter how they place, they will start their long trek home by bus. Tired and still laughing, they will arrive back home at around 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning. No matter how they did in the competition, these talented performers will be changed. Their passion and their education will have been infused with the electricity of this experience and with lessons that will never be forgotten. These winners will be stronger, smarter and more involved students and, eventually, adults. We are lucky they are part of our school and community.

Watching these students grow and learn, I was reminded of some other winners that I knew, talented youngsters that had similar experiences. There was Jamie Moore, with the most energy in a performer that I have ever seen. You’ve seen him, too. He’s the Dad-guy in all those zany Wild Adventure commercials. I also thought of Holly, a graduate of Rockdale County High School. That’s Holly Hunter, famous star of the silver screen. She just recorded a public service announcement for the new Atlanta tourism public relations campaign, giving back to her home city. Carolyn Cork Greer’s name came to mind. She was so fond of her high school drama teacher that she went to college, became a drama teacher too and is now the driving force for the dramatic arts training for youth in Owensboro, KY. I also recalled Trent Blanton, whose high school theatre experience so charged him up that he was willing to go to an International theatre conference four states away with a drama teacher and drama students from another high school that he didn’t know. Six weeks ago, more than 15 years after he graduated high school, I stood in Toronto outside the stage door of the Princess of Wales Theatre after his performance of the national tour of Les Misérables and watched as he hugged that teacher, thrilled to see her again after all those years.

All of these winners have a common thread in their lives. Their early lives and experiences were informed and expanded because of the artistic training they received as students. To a person, they credit their teachers and their school experiences for creating a space in which they could grow artistically and as people. Ask them, they will confess: for them, the arts were the stage on which they learned how to win.

Best bets for this week and next weekend: Annie, at the Times-Union Center, 11.15-20 (musical); Nickel Creek, at the Florida Theatre, 11.20 (progressive bluegrass); Blind Boys of Alabama, at the Fine Arts Center, UNF, 11.17 (gospel/blues); Chiara Civello, Church of the Good Shepherd, 11.17 (jazz quintet)

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