Two More Men

All I did was ask. I hoped, I worried, and then, I asked.

The first few years that I ran The Shakespeare Club, I was the lone adult in the enterprise. Then our auditorium advanced its technical potential by way of the generous donations of Dr. Ambrose.

I couldn't do this alone anymore and was blessed to have Rachel show up, and then Rob, and then:

Jim and Alan.

It had been a long-held dream of mine to somehow amplify the small voices of our small actors. The kids worked so hard on learning the words, the moves and the motivations, but even with vocal exercises they have small instruments that need assistance. What to do and how to do it?

These two gentlemen, like Rob, worked in the film industry and stepped forward with ideas and know-how. Some had suggested body microphones for the kids but I knew those would not work, in part because they're KIDS. They run around and go to the bathroom and fall on the floor, and that's when I'm looking. Expensive sound equipment attached to those bodies equaled nightmare.

The second problem was that those microphones would need a separate sound operator to increase or decrease the levels of speakers and non-speakers. Bigger nightmare.

Jim and Alan came up with a plan. They would plant three small microphones downstage center, left and right. Together these mics would pick up the actors' voices, sending them clearly through two large speakers we would rent.

Jim and Alan arrived on tech day and went to work taping cords, lifting speakers, hooking, testing, adjusting, readjusting...and a happy dream happened. For the first time in our five-year history, even the tiniest voices could be heard.

Neither Jim nor Alan have children at this school. They are two gentlemen citizens who cared enough to step forward, and all I did was ask.

Imagine a whole world where this could happen.

CHILDREN'S WRITES: A Journal Entry

What I would like to know about my future is will I be famous. And I will allso lit to know if I will get straite on Math in college. And will I have a good life will I be a doctor.

—Garth, 4th grade