THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 1, 1996 TAG: 9603010049
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 143 lines
THE THEATER TROUPE from First Colonial High School is trying to get to Scotland, but right now they're stuck in a Philadelphia.
Not Philadelphia the city. A Philadelphia. The metaphysical state in which nothing goes the way you want it to.
The kids are trying to raise $45,000, half of the $90,000 they need to get to the Edinburgh Fine Arts Festival, an internationally famous theater blowout, in August. The First Colonial troupe is one of only 12 high schools in the United States accepted to perform at the prestigious festival.
They're about $8,000 short on the second payment, which was due Feb. 15. But, hey, they still have about five months until the last payment is due and, being the troupers that they are, the fund-raising show is going on.
It's a familiar story at schools everywhere. This band gets invited to the Macy's parade, that club gets invited to Alaska, this team gets invited to England. So kids and boosters (read: parents) sell candy, wash cars, make crafts, bake brownies, do whatever it takes to drum up donations.
Cape Henry Collegiate School knows what it's like. The girls' soccer team has spent the better part of a year selling candy and Christmas wreaths, washing cars and holding yard sales to raise $8,400. The payoff comes today, when their plane takes off for a nine-day trip to England, where they will stay with host families and play soccer against local women's teams.
The First Colonial drama kids need a much bigger chunk of cash. But they have an edge in the money game: they're performers, and they can sell themselves. Be it McDonald's playground or Pogo's restaurant, the auditorium at First Colonial or the school cafeteria, as far as they're concerned, all the world's a stage, and everyone has some loose pocket change when the hat is passed.
The first payment - about $6,000 - was due in November. Drama teacher Nancy Curtis stroked the first check and wondered how on earth they would ever meet the second payment deadline of Feb. 15.
She had chosen the drama ``Mother Hicks'' for the Edinburgh Festival. It is the story of a deaf boy and a nameless, throwaway girl during the Depression, and the girl's search for identity.
It is an ambitious play for the high school kids, who are studying sign language as part of the preparation. The fund-raising schedule is just as tough.
Curtis is no stranger to fund raising. She once jumped out of an airplane to raise money for the theater troupe. She turned to more sedate venues this time - dinner-theater, yard sales, entertaining at a local McDonald's, selling Tupperware, a series of plays and appeals to local businesses and foundations - although, she says, she's willing to jump again if someone will pay her for it.
Parents have banded together for the first time to help the theater troupe, and some faculty members are donating time and talent as well, so the burden won't fall solely on the 30 kids.
``We're trying,'' said Jane Amelon, the theater's business director, ``to do anything and everything we can to raise this money.''
They began with a series of one-act comedies, including ``The Philadelphia.''
Rehearsals took place in the high school cafeteria, to give a feel for a dinner-theater setting, but that Philadelphia ambience kept creeping in.
The cast and crew were disorganized, children of the '80s trying to figure out what the script meant when it said ``jukebox music,'' trying to place the bananas in the right place, trying to roller-skate into position without overshooting the table. The sound man couldn't get his music up on time, one of the actors was missing and Curtis had forgotten to bring the Philly cheese-steak subs.
``I'm so out of it,'' moaned junior Chris Quade, as he folded cafeteria tables and pushed them aside to clear the ``stage.'' ``I'm doing like four other plays and `Mother Hicks,' too. I am so out of it.''
Curtis observed the mayhem for a few minutes, then called everyone to order: ``I really would like rehearsal to begin sometime this decade. Your lights should be hung, everything should be up by now.''
She glanced at her watch. Dan Blanchard, one of ``The Philadelphia'' actors, approached. ``I got makeup on my shirt. What do I do?'' he asked. ``I hate makeup. I'm so glad I'm not a girl.''
Wash it, Curtis said. Tomorrow.
``OK. Places! Quiet please,'' Curtis called. ``Even though crews are still working we're doing this as a clean run. And lights up.''
Only there were no lights. And no sound. And some of the props had been forgotten. And one actress was missing. So dress rehearsal was a little rough. The show must go on.
And it did, on Jan. 25.
The First Colonial troupe had never done dinner-theater before. Neither had Pogo's Seaside Grille, a restaurant on Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach, where the owner good-naturedly gave over the bar to milling cast and crew, while the wait staff dodged actors bouncing on big rubber balls, tossing bananas and roller-skating.
``Shhhh. Shhhhh,'' hissed stage manager Andrea Faulkner. ``People are eating here.''
``. . . mushrooms over angel hair,'' a waiter said to a couple browsing the menu. ``Flounder is $14.95 and the shrimp. . . ''
Again, an actor was missing. Junior Sam Giles found himself learning lines in haste.
``How's it going?'' someone asked.
``I came here knowing my lines and they just gave me more,'' Giles said. ``How do you think it's going? Instant understudy. Just add water.''
Among the diners, Giles' family beamed with pride.
Chris Quade, on the other hand, was feeling pretty good about his sound system and about life in general. ``Theater has shaped my life,'' he said. ``It's very emotional, spiritual, physical. You don't have to do drugs or hang out with the wrong crowd to have fun.''
``In reality,'' Blanchard was saying in the next room, ``we have these black holes, these Philadelphias we fall into.''
``Could be worse,'' intoned roller-skating actress Jackie Petersen. ``I've been in a Cleveland all week.''
``What's that?''
``Like death without the advantages.''
A dining couple in an outer room craned their necks to see. ``The kids are good,'' the man said to Amelon. ``I wish 'em nothing but well in their venture.''
On Feb. 15, Curtis counted money again. They were $8,000 short on the second payment for the Scotland trip, which needed $700 per student. But she remained optimistic that festival organizers would be understanding, and that the craft show at the high school Saturday would bring enough to finish that installment.
Two more payments to go, the last one due in July. Between then and now, productions of ``Damn Yankees,'' ``Mary, Mary,'' craft shows, car washes, yard sales. Eking their way out of Philadelphia toward Scotland.
``I'm just determined,'' Curtis said. ``We're going to raise that money.'' MEMO: A craft show will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at First
Colonial High School. To donate toward the Scotland trip, or for more
information, contact First Colonial High School at 496-6711.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by D. Kevin Elliott
Puppet Show
Working the Counter
Color photo by VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
Dinner Theater
Photo
Kim Friedman watches from ``backstage'' at Pogo's. First Colonial
students were performing one-act plays there.
by CNB