playbill vip

Thank you all for coming and supporting the Company of Warriors.  This is our fourth season under that name and we continue to grow in numbers, modernize our tools and push the limits of a High School theatre department.  I am incredibly proud of each and every student and parent in this company.  You have been my strength and joy over the last three years.

It was wryly remarked by a student recently that I seem to pick rather heavy musicals. Guilty.  I ask my student directors the same things every time they propose a show.  Why this show?  Why now?  There were a lot of influences on my choice to do Les Miserables, some of them personal, some of them practical. I was trying to find a show that had something to say to about the Black Lives Matter movement and the imbalances in our judicial system.  The tale of Jean Valjean seemed so very apropos.  The homeless problem was rising to a crescendo in Portland, and I wondered whether we were seeing the humanity in these people on our streets, our own city of Miserables.  I have also been experiencing letting go of my older sons, launching them and trying to have faith that the world will look after them.

Little did I imagine, as this show progressed, that its resonance would hit so deep.  My big brother, an ex-marine, a strong man of faith, passed away a few weeks ago.  His example in life was something close to the Bishop in this play.  He also often played the part of my siblings' Enjolras, giving us all words of encouragment and leading us onto the barricades.  And then, this election.   It seems like our own country may be in the middle of a revolution once again.  As I watch young people marching downtown, struggling with each other and the future of this country, how can I not be Jean Valjean at the barricades, pleading to God:

Give him Peace

Give him Joy

He is young

He is only a boy

So this epic musical is a gift to you from the Company of Warriors.  We offer it up in the spirit in which it is written.  Life is a struggle, life often finds us in misery and tragedy.  In the end, we wish you Peace, we wish you Joy, and we offer our Love to you all.