Saratoga Stereopticon
Talent not recruited; it just seemed that way
It was the 'Greatest Show on Earth' ... or at least in Saratoga
By Willys Peck
Conventional wisdom has it that some colleges and universities "buy" athletic teams by offering special scholarships, job opportunities or other inducements to outstanding players who have been scouted at high school games. Competing under the banner of the college or university, they can then enhance the school's athletic reputation--and bring in spectator-attendance dollars.
I'll have to admit that this rather unworthy thought occurred to me recently as I watched the Saratoga High School production of the Broadway musical Barnum. Is it possible, I asked myself, that such a concentration of talent came to this school in the normal course of events? Or did someone go out to the elementary and middle schools in neighboring districts, pick out pupils with outstanding performance abilities and then work out the inter-district arrangements for them to come to Saratoga High?
Such speculation is absurd, of course. It just happens that, among the 1,250 or so students at Saratoga High, there are at this moment about 100--and probably many more--with the instrumental, vocal, histrionic and technical talents necessary to mount a major production. Barnum, which dates back to the late 1970s, is the story of the celebrated showman Phineas Taylor Barnum, who added a special dimension to the ancient spectacle of circus.
For the high school, it was an expensive show to produce. The usual venues for the school's major dramatic productions are the Little Theater on campus for the fall dramas and the Los Gatos High School Prentiss Brown Auditorium for the musicals. Barnum, being circus-centered, required a "big top" for effective staging, and a large tent was rented and set up at the corner of Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road and Herriman Avenue.
Then there was the lighting. Barnum was produced arena-style, with grandstand-type seating around the raised playing area. This required overhead lighting from four sides of a rectangle, and most of the lights had to be rented for this one production. Also, the cost of the required current could have come close to getting PG&E out of bankruptcy.
Having been involved with amateur dramatics over a good part of my life, I tend to be hypercritical when viewing productions such as this. One area particularly vulnerable to criticism is the matter of players remaining in character. Barnum had many scenes with dozens of players, such as dancers and clowns, on stage. There was not a single instance in which I could detect any one of them not playing his or her role to the hilt, minor as it was.
Kathleen W. Woods, the director, summed it up for me: "They know who they are and why they are there," she said. I would call Mrs. Woods, in her fourth year at Saratoga, a major asset not only to the school but to the community. In the field of musicals, she has produced Hello Dolly, Secret Garden and The Sound of Music. In the High School Honors Program, sponsored by the American Musical Theater of San Jose, Secret Garden won first place in 2000.
While extolling the merits of Barnum, I shouldn't overlook the leads. In fact, they're the ones who first made me think of outside recruitment. According to the thumbnail sketch in the program, Nick Patton, who played the title role, is a senior and this was his eighth show. The drama class will also be performing a script that he wrote. The role of Barnum runs the gamut in terms of memorization, gestures, mannerisms and diction. I give him an A-plus.
The same can be said of Claire Callaghan, who played Barnum's wife, Chairy (Charity). This girl has a voice that I fully expect may someday be heard in opera. In addition to the Barnum role, according to her biographical sketch, "she also juggles a cappella choir, drama, rally commission and having a life." More power to her, and I don't mean PG&E. They already did their bit.
In writing of this production, I can't resist returning to a theme sounded in previous columns, having to do with Saratoga's long tradition of fostering activity in drama. It goes back to Dorothea Johnston and plays she produced at the Foothill Club, including Olivia de Haviland as Alice in Wonderland; her Theater of the Glade (1934-41); John and Kay Breeden's Saratoga Players of the late 1930s and early 1940s; The Federated Drama Group, now the Saratoga Drama Group, starting in the early 1960s; and the Valley Institute of Theatre Arts (VITA) (1975-90).
Saratoga High School is running with the pack.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
