a middle school musical

 

how brief the flare!

we love to be individuals:

unique, self-reliant, distinctive,

while at the same time,

we crave to be an important part of a larger whole,

validated by others, savored in the connection,

as I enjoyed today the CFS musical, Something Rotten,

I savored individual virtuosity

of character, of movement, of costume, of song,

of delineation of story and of humor,

but even more I savored pieces fitting together into a whole,

I particularly appreciated scene changes and group dances,

where the discipline of a specific role of action

allowed each to fit into the larger whole,

specificity of role allowed the freedom

to succeed as individual within group,

and then the sum of the parts

became far larger than seemed possible,

a play or a musical can come alive on stage,

the energy of the individual infuses the whole,

and the energy of the whole infuses the individual,

each of us aches to find how to be seen,

how to release our gifts and have them noticed, appreciated,

to have our sense of self grow larger

than the constriction that can be us as just individual,

often after the last performance

I would be the last to leave,

I would stand on the stage

and call up the living play or musical

that had blazed its light so well here,

and then it softly faded away,

like into dusk after a sunset,

the run of this middle school musical is just starting,

soon the cast will have an audience

to mirror and expand what they create,

and the life on stage, and within the cast and crew,

will blaze brightly.

by Henry H. Walker

February  7, ‘25