If things were usual, at my house this week, we would be experiencing the “post-production blues.” They don’t affect me so much as to the creative partner. Although, if you have been with someone for a long time, you will understand what I mean when I say that, since those down days substantially affect her, they also substantially affect me. (I am smiling as I write this, dear!)
However, this summer there is not much time for squandering emotions or contemplating what you “should” be doing. Before dawn earlier this week, a flight out of JAX took “the best drama teacher ever” (that is not my assessment – I am just quoting what a Schoolhouse Rock performer wrote in her memory book last week) and three Camden County high school drama students to Lincoln, Nebraska. Ah, you nod, so that is where the arts reside – at Cornhusker U! Well, sort of: for a week each summer, more than 2,000 high school students from around the world descend on Lincoln to attend the International Thespian Conference. Participants come from Japan, Hawaii, Finland, New Zealand, and from troupes across the United States. Students come for many reasons. Some come to see the dozens of shows (“Anatomy of Grey,” performed by students from Owensboro, KY will be a main stage production; it is directed by a former student Carolyn Greer). Others come to audition for college scholarships; others come to attend workshops on a variety of theatre related subjects. Whatever their reasons, these students and their sponsors come to live, breathe and love their craft for a week. And our students will be among them, taking in this remarkable scene, and eventually processing the meaning in what they see and learn there. Because their experience is bigger than they will comprehend, and, I guess, that is why I share this story.
In 1962, Bob Jolliffe, took a job as the Stage Manager of Emens Auditorium on the campus of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. When he started that job, his middle daughter, age 12, started going with him to work every chance she got. From that time, until she graduated from Ball State, she spent some of almost every day of her life in that magnificent building. Every summer she would soak up the experience that was the International Thespian Conference, which was held on the Ball State Campus for nearly 30 years. In time, that daughter grew up, married me and we had children. When Mary began her career as a drama teacher at Morrow High School, south of Atlanta, she organized a Thespian Troupe, #1577. As soon as she could, she took her first group of students to an International Thespian Conference at Ball State. After that, it became an annual event: the drive northward that resulted in a multitude of stories for hundreds of students and a shared love of theatre. During those years, she often took students from other high schools, whose sponsors could not attend that year, including a young man named Trent that attended a high school north of Atlanta. She also took our sons, Stephen and Jason, on more than one occasion.
Here is the nexus of my tale. As you read this, in Dallas two veterans of those International Conference trips will perform together in Les Misérables on the stage of the Music Hall at Fair Park. Trent Blanton, from Cartersville, GA, and Jason Kraack, joined together through a teacher that was a volunteer driver for one and mom to the other, have spent the better part of this past 10 months performing Les Mis for audiences across North America. At least once, they were on stage as Javert (Trent) and Jean Valjean (Jason), a unique coincidence of fate. And also as you read this, three Camden County students are sharing in the joyful reunion of teacher and student (Carolyn also attended International Conference when Mary was her teacher). Together, they will watch the kids she brought with her from Ownesboro perform their inspiring play, and afterward, they will become part of the same family that Trent, Carolyn and Jason joined years ago. Who knows if maybe a couple of these kids, from Kentucky and Georgia, will share a similar experience to Jason and Trent?
I cannot say what their future is, but I can say in appreciation, to the only real father I have ever known, to Bob, my wife’s Daddy: I sure am glad you took that job at Ball State in 1962.
Opportunities for this week and the future: all kids should see “Seussical the Musical,” it’s at Theatre Jacksonville (www.theatrejax.com) Fridays and Saturdays through 6.24 at 8 p.m.; kick off your summer in style with “Jazz in June” at the Jax Landings and other sites, through 6.24, 6 – 9 p.m.; “Stomp!” bangs and crashes into the TUC, 6.23-24, 8 p.m., 6.25, 2 and 7 p.m.
If you have ideas or events you want me to share with readers, send me a note at pkraack1@tds.net.
6.21.06
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