Oliver!

This was my second show at Clinton High School. They were only doing one show a year, so my introduction to mangled musical Dickens happened during my sophomore year. Having been bitten hard by the bug, I had to audition.


I do not remember the audition process for this show, which is odd because there must have been one. Or maybe not - Mr. Crouch remembered me from the previous year and he might have just cast the show from memories of previous performances. But then, that doesn't really explain how I got a part at all.

I was cast as Dr. Grimwig, the pompous ass quack who cautions that Oliver not be allowed to get too cold or too warm, and he should be fed...if he's hungry. I played it far too straight - this is one part that should be hammed up. My only excuse is that I was still none too sure of my own abilities (not that I even had any at this point).

In my opinion, practically every other cast member was about a thousand times better than me. Our Fagin was so good that he had his own groupies.

I was, however, more believable than one actor. We had the only fat Oliver in the history of the show.

More? There ain't no more, you done et it all!

He and I were the only ones without an English accent of one variety or another, but he was the only one who couldn't learn to pronounce "wash" without an R. It about drove poor Wedge nuts.

I had a warsh yesterday!

Even so, he had a good voice, and he could move, and he could remember lines, which puts him quite a bit higher up the scale than some people I've worked with.

The stage in our school was not large enough to support two levels, but the director wanted two levels. Ambitiously, we built a two-level set in the school gymnasium. The only reason we got away with this was that the coaches were promised a new gym floor would be built over the summer. That puppy got scratched up something awful - not so much from building the set, but from having to take it apart every school night so that the sports people could do sports things in there.

Or so I imagined

Surprisingly, our set was very sturdy. Not so surprisingly, one night the stairs nearly fell down because the top end hadn't been anchored properly during reassembly. There was real fear in Nancy's eyes as she realized she had to choose between in-character death from Sikes or real-life injury from a fall. Safety concerns won out - pursuee and pursuer both carefully backed down the stairs and resumed their chase elsewhere in the gym.

In addition to Grimwig, I was in the chorus for the tavern scene. This happens a lot with musical theatre - the chorus isn't usually big enough to make a respectable crowd. I just took off my hat, grabbed a mug, and spent the scene snuggling with Vicki, my then (sort-of) girlfriend, who was a generic tavern wench. And one of the stagehands -- I never learned who -- kept reaching in from behind the back curtain and pinching my butt!

I am flattered...

...and disturbed

Do I have to tell you that trying to get actors to break character is not acceptable during a live show?

There was no cast party that year. Or, if there was, I wasn't invited. There was, however, a quite extensive strike. This remains my least favorite part of theatre.

This was the last year Mr. Crouch taught at CHS. We gave him another award and pantomimed his name again. Good times, good times.