Can you remember a time when we needed the arts more? As a high school theatre arts program, we strive each day to create art through the pandemic and fight harder for equity and equality.
Since this pandemic began, we can all attest to the importance of art in our lives. We listen to music, we read, we make chalk drawings with our kids. We play video games, we dance in our living rooms, and watch movies and TV. We practice the guitar, take Instagram photos, and we create works of art on lined notebook paper as well on canvases. The arts are working overtime in every community, household, and family, doing what they do best: connecting us, giving us needed moments of joy, and most of all creating hope.
I have had the extreme honor and joy of working with these kids to bring this production to life on this beautiful new stage. As their teacher, I have watched them learn to fight for the truth: both their own and their characters. I have smiled seeing their eyes light up with epiphanies and encourage one another to be exactly who each of them is.
As their director, I have seen them take on the daunting task of safely staging a production during a global pandemic, taking each moment in stride and with a resolute determination to 'light the lights' and 'raise the curtain' on their first show on this stage. I have been delighted to see them grow as humans and performers, both individually and collectively.
Lord Lenord Aster says in this production, "The thing you did, against impossible odds--it's what the two of you will always have..."
This is what these students have done, against impossible odds... and it’s something we will always have... to treasure.
That’s what this show is, a treasure. A treasure made up of a cast with more brilliance and beauty than a trunkload of diamonds and rubies... or even starstuff!
It is my privilege to watch them all shine so brightly!
'To have faith is to have wings.' Fly high, kids! Soar and catch the wind. You deserve it!
With all the faith, love, and pixie dust I can possibly muster, sincerely,
'Coach'
Cody Carlton
Director of Theatre
Sparkman High School
