I taught Drama
for a decade at Sacramento Country Day School and Barbara was Middle School Principal for all that time.
From my first day on, she was helpful and encouraging to me.
One spring the
Middle School Play was “The Madwoman of Chaillot.” It was a comedy/fantasy with
political overtones. Basically, the Paris street people spread reports of vast oil
deposits under the Madwoman’s house. This rumor lures all the greedy rich
people into a sort of hell-mouth in the basement, and they close a giant trap
door on them. The sun comes out, the birds sing, and the street people are
happy. A silly fairy tale, but a good
show for a big cast and more than the usual good female roles.
One afternoon we
were rehearsing the play and Mrs. Ore walked in calmly and asked to speak to
me.
“I have read the
play and I must tell you that I think we may have a problem” she said. “Doing a play about sending rich people to
hell may not go over well with the patrons of the school. I think we’ll get
calls from parents once they know what it’s about and we’ll have to cancel. So,
we probably should head off a painful last-minute cancellation and just cancel
the play now.”
I was completely flabbergasted. I hemmed and hawed, “But, we’ve
done things much more political than this and got no complaints…. I can’t
believe this. Do you really think we’ll have to cancel?”
Barbara just sighed and said, “I think we should ask the students
what they think.”
The kids had been sitting quiet as statues, looking down and
feeling, I thought, embarrassed for me and disappointed, since they liked the
play. I turned around to the entire class shouting, “April Fool.”
It was April the
1st and I was so busy with the play that I forgot. I fell to floor.
The cast had asked Mrs. Ore to participate in this scheme, although I think it
was mostly Tracy Minicucci. Barbara’s prank on me was the absolute best
performance that year, and the best trick anyone ever played on me. I
completely fell for it.
