This is my Dad.
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Mina is my daughter and my brother, her Uncle, took her out one evening for a special treat. My dad has been the paino-player for the local highschool he works at as well as the local collage theater department for years. I myself, have been to many a rehersals as well at the actual performaces. And let me just say that he is AWSOME. LOL! And so when my daughter Mina got to go to the 'Willy Wonka' show, I knew she would have a great time.
My dad emailed about a week ago with the result of Minas evening out with her Uncle Jeff.
This is what he said.
"Mina came to the show Monday night and I had Jeff bring her to me at the intermission to give her something special. Charlie unwraps a Wonka bar in the first act that doesn't have the Golden Ticket and I sing to him Cheer Up, Charlie. I took Mina the candy bar he unwrapped, which no one else gets. Quite a souvenir. She ate it. Oh well, the kids was hungry I guess, and she did keep the wrapper.
This show is the world premiere of the musical that was written in 1970 but never performed. They made the movie instead but because Gene Wilder, a non-singer, was cast as Willy, they never used most of the music. Dave has been writing to the Dahls for five years trying to get permission to do it and finally Tim McDonald wrote the script for a little two-act traveling show with about eight performers in multiple rolls which he sent us and we rewrote for a cast of 85.
The Willy Wonka show has taken on a life of its own. Dave, the director here, has always done great shows. He is the one I worked with at the Grove Theatre who brought me to Chaffey HS thirteen years ago. You saw all his shows there, remember? He has occasionally had me work as music director for his shows here at Chaffey and I prepared the cast and chorus on the music this time as well. He asked me to do West Side Story six years ago in the part of Doc, which was interesting for me since I don't usually do stage rolls. Last summer he told me not to cut my hair until Christmas, which was his way of asking me to play Grandpa Joe in Wonka. It is long enough now that I could have a pony tail and I will cut it when the who closes. He has always done great shows here and his cast is always the top talent in the area and far from a typical high school production.
USA Today magazine chose Chaffey as the best high school musical in the country for 2007 and that brought more attention to us.
Well, this show has just had a phenomenal response. We perform in the Gardiner W. Spring Auditorium, which seats 2200 people. Most high school won't have a total audience of more than a thousand people in two weeks of performing. We actually sold out our last show on Monday and turned away a couple of hundred people. We are extending it another week and expect a total audience of over 15,000. Not bad for high school. Roald Dahl's widow (the author) is flying from London to see the show Saturday and Sunday and Leslie Bricuss, who wrote the music with Anthony Newley (who is now dead) is also coming in this weekend. We have heard rumors of other celebrities coming in, including our Governator Arnold, who visited us two years ago because of our incredible performance academically in raising our API scores. I got to meet with him in a small session of a dozen selected teachers and was the only one who actually talked with him. Do you know I am actually a half inch taller than Arnold? Surprising. Any, all these famous people are now rumored to attend the next weekend's shows but I will let you know if any of them actually show up.
We have had film crews from the local KTLA Ch 5 and CNN filming us and last night did a special show with no audience just for a video crew for the DVD. The CNN feature will air later and the KTLA one was a few weeks ago.
I'll send you some pics when I have them. I get to fly on a wire for the first time and that has been interesting. I am still waiting for the surgery on my shoulder so Dave won't let me do the somersaults Charlie does and I use a double-wire crotch harness instead of a single-wire back harness which would put more pressure on my shoulder. I have actually used three different harnesses so far. The funniest night was when the crew had trouble getting the harness on before my cue and I nearly went up in the air with pants around my ankles. I have to drop my trousers for the guys to get at the harness, which is under my pants. That would have been interesting. We actually flew me one night behind a scrim with my pants down just to see if I could do it in case it actually happened again. Yes, I can fly with my butt flapping in the breeze, but it's not a pretty sight."
This show is the world premiere of the musical that was written in 1970 but never performed. They made the movie instead but because Gene Wilder, a non-singer, was cast as Willy, they never used most of the music. Dave has been writing to the Dahls for five years trying to get permission to do it and finally Tim McDonald wrote the script for a little two-act traveling show with about eight performers in multiple rolls which he sent us and we rewrote for a cast of 85.
The Willy Wonka show has taken on a life of its own. Dave, the director here, has always done great shows. He is the one I worked with at the Grove Theatre who brought me to Chaffey HS thirteen years ago. You saw all his shows there, remember? He has occasionally had me work as music director for his shows here at Chaffey and I prepared the cast and chorus on the music this time as well. He asked me to do West Side Story six years ago in the part of Doc, which was interesting for me since I don't usually do stage rolls. Last summer he told me not to cut my hair until Christmas, which was his way of asking me to play Grandpa Joe in Wonka. It is long enough now that I could have a pony tail and I will cut it when the who closes. He has always done great shows here and his cast is always the top talent in the area and far from a typical high school production.
USA Today magazine chose Chaffey as the best high school musical in the country for 2007 and that brought more attention to us.
Well, this show has just had a phenomenal response. We perform in the Gardiner W. Spring Auditorium, which seats 2200 people. Most high school won't have a total audience of more than a thousand people in two weeks of performing. We actually sold out our last show on Monday and turned away a couple of hundred people. We are extending it another week and expect a total audience of over 15,000. Not bad for high school. Roald Dahl's widow (the author) is flying from London to see the show Saturday and Sunday and Leslie Bricuss, who wrote the music with Anthony Newley (who is now dead) is also coming in this weekend. We have heard rumors of other celebrities coming in, including our Governator Arnold, who visited us two years ago because of our incredible performance academically in raising our API scores. I got to meet with him in a small session of a dozen selected teachers and was the only one who actually talked with him. Do you know I am actually a half inch taller than Arnold? Surprising. Any, all these famous people are now rumored to attend the next weekend's shows but I will let you know if any of them actually show up.
We have had film crews from the local KTLA Ch 5 and CNN filming us and last night did a special show with no audience just for a video crew for the DVD. The CNN feature will air later and the KTLA one was a few weeks ago.
I'll send you some pics when I have them. I get to fly on a wire for the first time and that has been interesting. I am still waiting for the surgery on my shoulder so Dave won't let me do the somersaults Charlie does and I use a double-wire crotch harness instead of a single-wire back harness which would put more pressure on my shoulder. I have actually used three different harnesses so far. The funniest night was when the crew had trouble getting the harness on before my cue and I nearly went up in the air with pants around my ankles. I have to drop my trousers for the guys to get at the harness, which is under my pants. That would have been interesting. We actually flew me one night behind a scrim with my pants down just to see if I could do it in case it actually happened again. Yes, I can fly with my butt flapping in the breeze, but it's not a pretty sight."
I just wanted to share with the rest of the world a small part of what my Dad does with his local highschool and collage and to let him know how proud I am of his accomplishments. I loved to watch him perform and now that time has actually caught up with him, I know that it wouldnt be too much longer before he wont be able to do what he so very much loves doing. And when ever that day comes, I will draw on the memories of all the performences he has ever done. Encluding back when he was pianist for my highschool choir not only all four years of highschool, but a few years before I went into highschool.
I'm proud of you Dad and, I hope you dont mind, but.....
LONG LIVE BRUCE JONES!!!!
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