Thespians

Growing up, I was an ugly duckling, the kid taking piano lessons, the kid with braces and white socks with rings around the ankles. My parents would not allow me to play sports because of my braces and a knee injury that I had sustained playing football in seventh grade. By 1969, I had outgrown white socks, the braces came off, I switched to playing the trumpet, and grew more than six inches over the summer; but my real transformation was yet to come.

Through hard work and perseverance, I was named first-trumpet-first-chair in the marching band. For the layman, that meant that I was the trumpet player who was given the hardest charts and solos. The director of the band, the brass professor at a renowned music school, named me the student director of the student-run jazz band. And lastly, I was named lead trumpet for the pit orchestra in the high school play. It was the spring musical and we were performing How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Hours were spent copying our parts from the master score to individual charts for each instrument. The orchestra practiced their parts for weeks before joining the aspiring young actors and actresses for practice in our auditorium. The auditorium was a fine place for live performances. The whole school was made of brick and designed in a gothic style. Each corner of the school had a round turret. One of the turrets jutted from the right side of the stage and contained a door with an arched top. The door led to the stage area. Wooden steps led down from the door to the auditorium floor. Next to the steps was a real orchestra pit, right in front of the stage.

The school I attended was a Catholic all-boys school. Unlike my Freshman year, when all the parts were played by the boys from the school, the female parts in the play were being performed by girls from the local all-girls Catholic schools. One of these actresses was a girl from my neighborhood, named Kathy, who I knew pretty well in grade school, but had lost touch with once we started high school. She was the only female in the musical that I knew.

During the regular practices, I enjoyed watching the performers. I had never seen the play or the movie before, and other than laughing at the comedic parts, nothing exceptional grabbed my attention.

The first dress rehearsal was held on the Wednesday before the Opening Friday. It was the first time that we got to see the cast in costume. In one of the scenes, a girl emerges from a pirate’s chest. My view from the pit was an exceptionally good one. The chest opened and out popped two long fishnet-clad legs.