School play brings history back to life

     By Tina Allen
     View staff writer
      History came to life in a performance by Brinley Middle School pupils July 1 in a "Tribute to America."
      Under the guidance of the school's theater director, Blair Rich, the cast brought the audience through a musical tour from the early colonial times to the present.
      Minutemen prepared for war, western pioneers do-si-doed, President Abraham Lincoln declared an end to slavery and women marched for equal rights.
      "The idea was to make people understand as we are going into the 21st century that it's different," Rich said. "But as John Kennedy said, `We are all mortals, we all work together.' We have to work together, but it's a world of differences and it's a matter of being able to cope with our differences."
      The production at Cimarron-Memorial High School was the biggest presented by Rich since she came to Brinley and took over the theater department five years ago. More than 350 pupils from the performing arts department participated in all aspects of the play: performing, playing in the orchestra, singing in the choir and helping with the technical side of sound, lighting and set design.
      "I just think every kid deserves the chance to perform," said Rich, who is considering producing a murder mystery with audience participation next year. "They need a chance to get out there to see if they can handle it. And I think they become a lot more confident."
      The script was co-written by Rich and Brinley band director Richard Coomer beginning last September, and eighth-grader Sheena Orozco choreographed a majority of the dances. Her favorite play? "Grease."
      "My mom owns a dance school here and has danced all her life, so I've always followed in her footsteps," said Orozco, who has been dancing since the age of 2. "I want to be a dancer on Broadway. That's my dream.
      "This play has turned out really great and I had a lot of fun. It was way better than I thought. I thought it was going to be really stressful and really hard, and it was fun and easy."
      Lynnette Torres, 13, and her classmates shook up the audience, dancing to Elvis Presley's "Blue Suede Shoes."
      "It was really fun. I love going on stage," said Torres, a seventh-grader. "It really makes me feel like I can do whatever I want, and it makes me feel even better when people clap."
      Seventh-grader Christopher Blondel, who portrayed John F. Kennedy, said the play was a lesson in history for him.
      "It showed me how important America is," said Blondel, who has performed in a number of other plays at Brinley but admitted he gets a little stage fright early on.
      "But once I get going, it doesn't bother me," he said. "I want to be an actor on the big screen."
      And who knows?
      As Blondel said in his role as Kennedy: "As the leaders of tomorrow, we hold the future in our hands."