Initiative

Last night I witnessed a remarkable achievement of a kind I’ve never seen before from my students.

I attended a full musical, performed, accompanied, directed, designed, and planned completely by students.

Ordinary Days by Adam Gwon is a chamber musical – four cast members, accompanied only by piano – so it was a perfect choice. On the other hand, it is basically sung/played through, so my students performing and at the piano had a lot of musical ground to cover.

I was blown away. I wept and wept at the penultimate song (this song – oh man, it gets me every. single. time.). I laughed at the moments they wanted me to, and genuinely cared about their characters.

In short, I had a beautiful theatrical experience, entirely created by students.

And there are a few things I know for sure about these students’ experience:

  • They carry so much more respect for the work a production team puts into a show.
  • They are deservedly proud of having gotten from idea to end result.

But most importantly:

  • They won’t diminish their dreams quite so quickly in the future.

They dreamed a musical and brought it to life. It wasn’t easy, but they did it. I hope they go home after closing night and ask themselves, “What other dreams am I capable of making real?

A massive congratulations to Mitchell, Baileigh, Bradley, Stacy, Harrison, Raquel, Josh, Greta, Sierra, Kasey.

Go dream bigger dreams.