THE KING AND I
(1980)
“The King And I” was our choice as the show to inaugurate our occupancy of the ‘new’ High School theatre. The bigger stage and more advanced lighting system gave us more opportunity to create even better productions (although it would be difficult to better some done in the ‘old’ school). The smaller seating capacity gave us a new problem of how to cater for our audience numbers that had been steadily increasing....so,of course, the answer was to add more performances!
The production proved to be a good choice as it had those “magic moments” that make theatre such a wonderful experience. As one review stated: “...it had an enchantment in its songs, its actors and its stories which would entrap (now there's an appropriate term given the name of the main male character!) us all before the evening was through”. It certainly provided an excellent evening’s entertainment. Our show even drew a letter of congratulations from an N.B. Department of Education official (you can see the letter, program, photos and so on in the show’s memorabilia collection)
The stage in the new school theatre created some challenges...two things soon came to mind...somebody forgot to include a theatrically usable door to enter the orchestra pit and the second challenge was that the stage floor was painted a glossy olive green color that blinded viewers when the stage lights were first turned on and the light reflected off the glossy paint.
The pit entrance created a huge problem for getting a piano and other instruments into the pit because of the configuration of stage doors and pairs leading to the pit …. instruments had to be “lowered” from the stage into the pit (on one unfortunate occasion, a crew member had their hands jammed between the piano and the pit wall)...this orchestra pit problem was never resolved. The glossy stage floor problem was solved.....stage crew ‘accidentally” scratched the floor’s surface thus rendering the olive green glossy paint to be refinished.....this was done but, “unfortunately” (fortunately) , the olive green was replaced by a dull flat black!....so much for reflecting stage light.
