The Greatest Accomplishments Are Made Together
It takes a lot of time and dedication and enduring harsh criticism sometimes to pull off even a high school musical production. But all of that work and time is worth it because of the sense of accomplishment that comes not just from us learning to sing and dance but also to be reminded that we are all human and as such our greatest accomplishments come when we work together.
I had the great opportunity to be a part of a couple of high school musicals and plays while going through school. High school musicals are very interesting performances to be a part of. I didn’t attend one of the biggest high schools in the state where I grew up by any means but it was big enough to put on some decent sized productions that included several dozen performers, a full orchestra, several set changes, and choreography tough enough for me to definitely struggle at least.
I called them interesting because they ask an awful lot out of often very young kids. But yet, they are also some of the most impactful and memorable experiences from my high school days. Why is that? I remember when I had my first musical experience I was a freshman. Just a kid really. We were putting on Anything Goes which is a large musical in just about every sense. The director was rather legendary in the high school, and so I was thrilled to be able to be even a chorus member in her production. But there were certainly plenty of moments where I questioned why in the world I agreed to be a part of such a crazy thing. I remember one particular afternoon where one small group was practicing choreography, at the same time there were two or three other groups practicing their entrances for the opening number while several of the leads were practicing there speaking and acting roles. Yes, musicals generally have a story line as well as great songs so there’s some acting and regular speech thrown in among all the singing and dancing. And all of that was going on at the same time that the stage crew was setting the lighting and working on the set. So we had hammers banging on wood scaffolding, lights were fading off and on, dozens of voices were either singing or speaking very loudly with their theatrical voices. So much coming and going and such a buzz of activity and if someone wasn’t aware that it was a musical practice I would think they would have to be quite alarmed.
And yet, despite all of that chaos, somehow or other all the pieces came together and I was very proud to be a part of the finished product which was, after the several months of practice, four or five performances. But that didn’t seem to matter for some reason. For nearly half of the year I was tied to this group of singing performers to put on a few performances. And though it was fun to perform for an audience, and it was nice to hear the kind things that family and friends said about the production, hands-down, the thing that made it all worthwhile was the sense of community that I felt that came as a result of being a part of the production—a part of something so much bigger and grander than just me.
Humans are very much social animals. I know that some of us are more extroverted than others, but all of us rely very much on our own circles of community to gain validation, to learn to be a successful citizen and member of our community, and to learn what it feels like to be loved and to love others. It’s remarkable to think of all the people that generally work behind the scenes in our lives that bring so much richness and meaning to our lives. I think back on the profound experiences that I had in college and in my faith community and helping out with city events, and serving, in my own small ways, in my local community. All of these experiences came about because I was a part of something larger than myself, but the intricacies of which I didn’t fully understand and still don’t fully understand.
If we think about a single Friday night activity like let’s say going to a movie. We drive on the roads that are maintained by other people to the movie theater that was built and managed by a company that we don’t work for or really know much at all about. We enter an air-conditioned building that’s maintained by janitors and HVAC specialists and electricians who we will never meet. If we get concessions before the show, we are served by someone whose name we probably won’t remember. And thats all before the movie even starts. And then once we start to be influenced at all by the contents of the movie, we have to throw in all of the actors and grips and camera operators and marketers and script writers and make-up artists and musicians and extras and on and on and on who made that movie. And yes, we paid our entrance fee to watch the movie, but it took that collective effort—effort that wasn’t mandated or forced—to bring those couple of hours of enjoyment.
It takes a lot of time and dedication and enduring harsh criticism sometimes to pull off even a high school musical production. But all of that work and time is worth it because of the sense of accomplishment that comes not just from us learning to sing and dance but also to be reminded that we are all human and as such our greatest accomplishments come when we work together.