Admiral Von Schreiber

Please excuse the somewhat fuzzy photos. We were in a hurry as the little thespian was boiling hot in his uniform.

Apparently the hat almost didn’t make it on his head tonight – there was a frantic search of various classrooms to locate it and it was found with about 10 mins to spare. Thankfully his first scene is quite late in the play. I told him ahead of time where we would be sitting and he must have spotted us the first time he stood on stage even though he only had to stand silently almost back in the wings. A Very Somber Admiral you see! But he got us into a fit of giggles because his very last scene and last line is just after the singing competition and the Von Trap family has won and they are announcing it and waiting for them to return to claim their prize. Only they don’t of course, because the family has used the singing festival as a diversion to whisk themselves away from the German officers waiting to take the Captain to his new post as a Nazi officer. Once the Admiral realizes the Von Trapps are gone, he rushes back onstage yells frantically in the direction of the audience that they are gone and then he points to various ‘people’ and gives them orders to close gates, block roads, begin searches etc etc. Tonight, the frantic Admiral pointed and looked directly first  at his grandparents, then at his brother, then at me!! HE kept a straight face through his lines, but we busted out laughing so that I am quite sure the entire audience knew we were his family!! Some high school girls who were sitting behind me (former students who always return to watch the play), leaned over and declared him “utterly adorable with gorgeous blue eyes!” Indeed. Then when the whole cast comes out to sing and encore version of Do Re Mi before taking their bows, he ends up just in front of us and we start playing stare downs – and THEN we got him to laugh. It was a lot of fun. One more night tomorrow when he has a non speaking role only and then it is over. And I have to say, even with the manic schedule I’ve had to keep all week, I will be sad!!!

The 6th grade play is something you start to look towards in kindergarten. Sometimes the lower grades play a role. As 1st graders this class were the munchkins in the Wizard of Oz. In this play, there are 5th graders filling out the convent of nuns and THE most precious 2nd grader playing the role of Gretl. One of the Maria’s in this class was Gretl when she was in 2nd grade. As the principal said, some classes just OWN play and this class was meant to do Sound of Music. They have been doing the 6th grade play at this school for 33 years. The kids run it almost completely. Sound, set, lights, costumes…everything. The music director plays the piano as accompaniment, but that is it. The same staff member has directed the play every year. I cannot imagine this school without this tradition and I truly hope they can keep it going. It’s the perfect way to spend the final full week of school for the kids who are about to graduate.

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night.