Performances: The Lightning Thief

Even as empty nesters, Debra and I have moved our own children’s childhood books wherever we have gone. I occasionally raid those collections. The Lightning Thief, Texas native Rick Riordan’s first installment in his Percy Jackson stories, caught my attention on Christopher’s shelf last summer. It kept my attention as a great story, placed in current times, about the children whose parents were a Greek god and a mortal. I learned some Greek mythology, and I enjoyed a good adventure. 

Lo and behold, Siouxsie Easter, Upper School Theatre Director, had chosen a new show based on that book for our 2023 Upper School musical. The week before last, our students did an absolutely wonderful job with the show, and they did it having lost a week of precious rehearsal time due to the “ice-cation.” From the technical crew calling the show and running lights, sound and props, to the actors and adult teachers and supporters, all 45-plus members of the team shared not only their talent but also their joy for storytelling, music performance and community-gathering with our audience.

As with so many performances before, at FWCD we can brag about some amazingly talented actors who have been high-flyers on a theatre track from early on. I also want to make sure we celebrate kids who show up every year and those making their FWCD stage debut as seniors. The long-term and rookie performers together embody the 3A’s: These kids are all continuing with their academic work; they are meeting our athletic requirements; and they are all-in for the musical, an above-and-beyond, huge commitment.

As much as I enjoyed the February 16 premiere that Debra and I attended, my favorite performance was the brief teaser the students shared with their peers as a part of assembly that Thursday morning. To my knowledge, this was a first for our school: a preview of the FWCD musical shared with the entire Upper School. 

Peers are a hard audience. The stakes seem higher; self-consciousness is more present. Literally, at the last minute, the kids learned they not only were not going to have the usual live band accompanying them, but they were not even going to have the backup plan, a recorded soundtrack. They were going to have to sing both songs acappella. A lost week of rehearsal, no instrumental accompaniment, an audience of peers – it could have been a perfect storm. Rather, it was a serious ray of sunshine, a wonderful start of a new initiative: Our performers had their peers’ support and appreciation. While some of the circumstances for that peer preview were difficult, the audience would hardly have known it.  

We do the arts so well at FWCD as a result of our creative teachers, who are artists themselves. Through Supporting CAST, we bring experienced performers or photographers or painters or ceramicists alongside newcomers and dabblers. We challenge each level of creator to go to a higher level. And we provide all of our student artists with the opportunity to have viewers and audiences. You were lucky if you had the chance to see a rock-ified version of Riordan’s “Half-Bloods” going through the challenges presented by being tangled in the godly web while being grounded in the challenges of everyday teenage life in our culture. Much gratitude to The Lightning Thief’s directors, performers and technical team.