1976 - 1977 - Our selection for the musical for March, 1977, was unusual for a high school theatre group. KISS ME, KATE is seldom done by school groups because of its singing requirements. In musical theatre there are some roles which require legitimate voices, i.e. voices with a wide range and a “classical’ sound. Such voices are rare in young singers. The lead roles in KISS ME, KATE, Lilli Vanessi and Fred Graham, are roles which require legitimate voices, and we were blessed with several students with the required voices. For that reason, we decided to take a chance (not for the first or last time), and with Pamela Jones (a senior) and Buddy Meagley (a sophomore) cast in the aforementioned roles, we tackled KISS ME, KATE.

This was an adventuresome year for other reasons. Ted Vickery replaced Charlie Lassell as stage manager and also served as set designer. His designs required that we expand both our ability to fly scenery and our use of wagons to move sets. Five 4’X8’ wagons were built for this show, and I believe some of them are still in use. Under the guidance of Mike Cusick, we doubled our lighting capabilities by renting an auxiliary 12-dimmer lighting board and many additional instruments. This was the first of what was to be a lighting crew ritual for many years, the loading in of the lighting equipment - an event which always lasted much longer than planned and which often led to the disillusionment of some students when they discovered that teachers swear, too.

The side stages for KISS ME,KATE were each decorated with a drop on which was painted a Cupid. As I recall, these drops were done several times because the crew was not satisfied with the work. What started out looking like used bed sheets ended up looking quite elegant. If fact, in reading Brian Dechene’s stage crew journal, I discovered that many set pieces were redone due to the use of trial and error as a building technique. I do not mean that in a sarcastic manner, since trial and error have always been a part of the GP history.

My memory and the journal kept by student directors Sue Kamp and Liz Floyd lead me to believe that the rehearsal process for KISS ME, KATE was relatively uneventful. There were the usual weather problems, the usual combination of boredom and nervousness in February, and the occasional “no show” at rehearsals. As I recall one of the two gangsters, played by Bill Coulter and Al Poole, was frequently among the missing until it occurred to him that he was actually going to have to know what to do when he stepped in front of the curtain to sing the duet, “Brush Up Your Shakespeare”, a showstopper, when done well. I shouldn’t reveal which of the two was the culprit, so I’ll just say, “Al’s well that ends well.”

One scene between Lilli, as Kate, and Fred, as Petruchio, requires Kate to stick a number of linked sausages down the front of her dress. When Petruchio, who is trying to “tame” her by starving her, discovers what she has done, he pulls the sausages from her dress. To make the sausage removal easy, Pam was to leave one link protruding. We rehearsed it that way. On opening night, Pam, in a moment of exuberance, stuck all of the sausages down her bodice. Buddy, not seeing a link to pull, did not hesitate. He went in search of the sausages while Pam’s face took on a look that was a combination of surprise and panic. The audience, myself included, roared. The next night, the scene was performed as rehearsed. The audience laughed politely. In the final two shows, Pam and Buddy intentionally reverted to the sausage hunt a la opening night and got the roars of laughter the scene deserved. Great moments on stage often occur out of improvisation.

There were other moments of semi-improvisation during the performances of KISS ME, KATE. Sarah Williams, Lois/Bianca, performed excellently during rehearsals, and her rendition of “Always True to You” was destined to be a highlight of the show. Alas, when opening night arrived, Sarah had a horrible cold and could not sing. She was forced to talk the song both Thursday and Friday, returning to full voice on Saturday and Sunday. She felt, at the time, that she had let everyone down, but I have always thought that she displayed all the signs of being a real trouper. She let no one down.

It was during the eighth grade performance of KISS ME, KATE that I committed an act which goes on my Wish-I-Hadn’t-Done-That list. I was calling the show from the back of the house where we sat on a platform, unprotected from the audience. The audience was very restless, as only eighth graders can be. I began to hear music which was not part of the show. I scanned the audience and saw a young gentleman wearing a headset two rows in front of us listening to rock music (Dick Arnold swears it was “Smoke on the Water”) at a volume sufficiently high to carry over the “disturbance” caused by the musical in process. Not having the time to get up and go to him, I grabbed my trusty, super-size clipboard (I still have it, battered as it is.), reached over the railing, and bopped him on the head with it. He was very attentive thereafter, and I don’t think he ever discovered whether it was a teacher who hit him or whether it was divine retribution.

On my wall, as I write this, are two mementos of KISS ME, KATE. One is a melange of sorts of sayings and sketches pertaining to the show and executed by Demetra Pontisakos, one of the greatest Greeks of all time. The other memento contains two photographs of a long-haired, bearded director and two autographs, one by June Havoc (a Broadway musical star and sister of Gypsy Rose Lee) and Nipsey Russell (also a Broadway and TV performer). Nipsey Russell was noted for making up poems on the spot. On the autograph he wrote, “When it was written by the bard,/I’ll bet you never knew,/ Before the date of Kiss me, Kate,/‘Twas The Taming of the Shrew.” This was presented to me by two of my favorite gangsters of all time.

Michele DeLucia, a GP alumnae, returned to style the hair of our large cast, a job she was to perform for the GP for many years and which she still performs at The Family Silhouette.

The Sunday after show party was held at The Knights of St. John, and I believe that was the start of what has evolved into our present post-show celebration and farewell.

The cast for KISS ME, KATE totaled 61. The orchestra was 29 strong, six of whom were adults. I believe these were record numbers. All seats for KISS ME, KATE were $3.

KISS ME, KATE was Pamela Jones' last show as a GP. She went to Indiana University to study opera. She is currently an attorney and still sings occasionally, much to the enjoyment of those who hear her.

One of the letters received after the show by the high school principal was from the head of the Music Department of King College in Columbia, SC. He was in the area visitng friends and was not related to anyone in the cast. He wrote,”Seldom have we seen and listened to such a high level of perfection as we enjoyed opening night.... [The students] have been beautifully taught to cooperate, coordinate and be respectful of each other’s talents.” It appears that our risk taking paid off.

In the summer of 1977 we performed another Carol Korty play, THE SHAPE WE’RE IN. Aggie Armstrong wrote original music for the play, and it was performed with the accompaniment of six musicians. The characters in THE SHAPE WE’RE IN are geometric shapes (four barrels, three blocks, a rectangular solid and a cylinder) which, hypothetically, should have made costuming easy. The squared forms were easy, but the rounded forms provided many problems, and the barrels were completed in their final version just before performances started. The first barrels were made of papier-mache. They proved to be too heavy, awkward and fragile. As I recall, they fell apart. Several other processes were tried before coming up with the final versions. Professional actors know that performing in masks is very liberating for the actor and often permits more daring performances. We found the same to be true of body shapes which totally mask the bodies of the actors. The performers in THE SHAPE WE’RE IN had a great deal of fun with their “shells”, and the characters they developed were quite amusing. The simple but “bouncy” music which Aggie wrote added a great deal to the fun. THE SHAPE WE’RE IN was performed in the cafeteria in front of a large, tie-dyed backdrop. The kids loved the show, and it was remarkable for the amount of interaction between the audience and the cast. The show was so popular that we were asked to revive it in the Fall at an elementary school (Westmere, if memory serves). Another fine performance. In many ways, the producing of THE SHAPE WE’RE IN proved to be easier than the productionof any other show in which I have been involved. It was also a great success. Bigger is not always better.