"Star" this

On June 3, I caught the Eighth Annual "Stars of Tomorrow" awards ceremony at Rochester's Auditorium Theatre. (You can find the full article and the complete list of winners elsewhere on this new web site.) Those kids were pumped up from the cheers that echoed around the hall.
But truly, you have to love a show where some of the winners delivered tearful thanks, and several received that all-familiar musical cue that their time at the microphone had run out. They even had trophy presenters, four students dressed up in tuxes or evening gowns, to hand the glass prizes out and escort winners off the stage.
Personally, I love seeing the student-performers getting attention for succeeding at drama, music and dance, as much as student-athletes get for succeeding at sports. In fact, I might like it a little bit more. I was one of those not-all-that-great-at-sports-but-better-creatively students once myself, and I only wish SOT had been around when I was in high school.
But other unsung heroes get recognition through SOT too, and in particular, I wanted to send congratulations to the production crew of Cananaigua Academy's "The Music Man," which took home its lone SOT prize in that category this year.
Now, in recent years, CA has cleaned up in Division A, winning the marquee prize, for Outstanding Musical Production, four years in a row. Judges and other schools may have felt it was time for another district to be recognized. But I'm glad they gave CA the behind-the-scenes nod, because the job those students had this year was bigger than most.
To start with, the stage crew had to juggle something like 11 scene changes in the first act and seven in the second. The scenes were comprised of some 20 wheeled sets or backdrops, plus several adjoining backdrops or set pieces kids would "fly in" on rigging above the stage. But just before the show's two-week run started, President George W. Bush decided to visit CA and the White House advance team and Secret Service members descended en masse.
Technical director Gordon Estey supervises CA's stage crew and told me Secret Service men were literally walking across the stage examining walls and floors, etc. right as students held dress rehearsals.
Now the few student stage managers I have known from my own brief theatrical experience have been organized folks that live and die by checklists and can figure out in 10 seconds or less if a set piece or prop is not in its proper place. The ones I knew did the freaking out — and I mean that affectionately — so the actors wouldn't have to. I can only imagine how hard it is to bite one's tongue when you want to insist to a fully-armed man (or woman) "Please don't TOUCH that!"
Thankfully, the CA stage crew, Estey, and all the maintenance staff were spared from moving every prop and set piece out of the auditorium and back halls when the Bush team opted to hold the town hall meeting in the gym. But the federal back-and-forth must have required the patience of Job.
I learned this year the SOT judges specializing in behind-the-scenes analysis spend one act backstage watching student crews do their work in the near-dark. Now, whether any of those judges encountered members of the Secret Service milling about as the show went on, I don't know, and whether the judges may have taken such a logistical challenge into account, I don't know either. But it's hard to miss burly men in expensive suits with clear, curled cords running from behind their ear and disappearing into their collars.
(Note: I did hear the cast won props from the advance team and Secret Service for staging a show that apparently rivaled others they've seen in their nationwide travels.)
I'd like to imagine CA's crew won their SOT prize not only for succeeding at their task, but succeeding under circumstances a bit more trying than the typical high school show.
Hats off to them, and to all the other local winners, which in Messenger-territory includes Midlakes, Marcus Whitman and Red Jacket high schools.
And speaking of hats, maybe that's a good topic for the next installment.