Backstage Calm During the Storm

Mr. Fitzpatrick and Mr. Tomizawa backstage at the
talent show with a few production crew members.

Another successful Edgewood talent show this month! One more round next month! Since 2010, we have offered three lunchtime shows each year, with each production repeated for a grade K-2 and 3-5 student audience, plus a dress rehearsal.  Our production crew is made up of about a dozen staff members and three dozen students to pull off a lunchtime show.

Our first talent show of the year is usually in February. The learning experience in this first show is pure madness, as crew members stumble through production routines and responsibilities and are oblivious to the flow of the show. We're often too busy or confused to eat.

Typically, we hit our stride by that third show in May, when the team is a purring V8 engine. That's when the adult supervisors in the balcony and backstage are able to sit and eat lunch, while the students manage the production. But this year, our crew gelled quickly. This year in our second talent show, I snapped a group selfie without worry of distracting the crew and then watched the team execute a flawless production -- while I ate my sandwich. Great show everyone!  -- Paul Tomizawa

Backstage Talent

Edgewood produces three lunchtime talent shows each year. Needless to say, the staff and students involved put a premium on production value. It's one thing for students to invest time and creative energy into their performances, as former student Caroline Cavalier once reported. Or to host the shows as our student emcees do with fearlessness, humor, and style. But behind each performance is a highly coordinated team of students and teachers working as Balcony and Backstage crew. They balance music and microphone sound levels. They accentuate moods with stage lighting and lighting effects. They photograph and videotape performances. They coach performers. They open and close curtains. They coordinate and distribute wireless handheld and body microphones. They make sure that performers are patiently waiting in the "on deck" position. They interview performers backstage. They assemble and break down production sets. And this is the short list of our job responsibilities.

If the audience only notices the performers, then for us in the Balcony and Backstage, our job has been well done. If the audience and the emcees aren't forced to wait uncomfortably as the backstage crew sets up the next act, then our job has been well done. Let's take a peak behind the curtains at our final February talent show this year, as the backstage crew (and performers) take about 40 seconds to set up for the next act. And notice how the adults, purposely step aside, so that students pursue and achieve a shared objective. Go team! -- Paul Tomizawa