By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

My friends, Abigail and her brother Caleb are in their high school’s fall musical, “The Pajama Game”. They work very hard about six days a week leading up to the shows and their energy seems boundless.

practice...practice...practice

The show will be fun, and the performances an event for sure, but the process of putting on a show is such a rich collaboration of people and art.

So much of life converges in the theatre with many arts and even sciences there in the texture of the play. Even with this production, there is a bit of history and social commentary. It’s a story about labor grievances…and love, too. Students, teachers, and parents converge as well...all over the Metro area to create theater like this one in Kearney, Missouri.

Knowing these two young gifted performers makes me realize that the arts are alive and very well, because they are artists. These artists will tell you that amidst the fun, this is serious stuff. Individuals bringing their individual talents into a collective setting is not an easy simple proposition. They’ll tell you of the attention to detail required, the innuendo of movement, expression, tone, and patience needed to bring it all together.

There are great teachers behind these scenes, shaping these productions. Parents and friends work to coordinate everything from meals to donated carpentry work, props and costumes, too. Producing the production can become the story of the production, but the producers will tell you that you need to produce something…the show.

Theater could be an amazing constant classroom. There are schools that do this. But think of it…a classroom on-stage. Let’s learn about the science of light today. How do muscles enable us to jump and dance. What makes our voices move from here to there? Who was this author and why did she write this play? Let’s understand the tempo of this number from a mathematical point of view…Theater is life.

After I see Abigail and Caleb perform next week, I’ll write about their art, their show, for as they’ve taught me, the play’s the thing.

"THE PAJAMA GAME"
- When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10; Thursday and Friday, Nov. 12 and 13; and Monday, Nov. 16. There will be a Saturday, Nov. 14, show if the football team loses its Monday, Nov. 9, game.

- Where: Kearney High School

- Cost: $8 in advance for adults, $6 for students; $9 at the door for adults, $7 for students. Tickets are available at the Kearney High School office.

- More information: 628-4585

Read more here

…and if you have a show soon, use the reply space below and tell us more!

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