BACK IN THE DAY
The Big Kids and Me: Theatre at Friends in the Early ’80s SUZANNE COHEN ’89
I
’ll never forget the audition for my first show at Friends, The Sound of Music, in 1981. So many kids were trying out that they had to hold the auditions in the cafeteria, and those hoping to be Von Trapp children were relegated to the dark hallway outside, near the woodshop. That’s where Gene Davis was sitting with his clipboard at a card table, temporarily set up for auditioning purposes, and the line leading to his table was long. As a fifth grader, it was my first chance to be in the “all-school musical” and after getting a huge laugh for hamming it up as “the cute little red-headed girl” (with brown hair) in a Charlie Brown song for a lower school assembly, I was ready for more. All the girls were asked to read the same five words: “They’re asleep. They’re not scared,” which I believe was one of Gretel’s lines, referring to the reason the boys weren’t in Maria’s bed during the storm. Five words. I practiced those words 15 different ways in that long line, as I listened to dozens of other middle schoolers doing their own unique renditions. I tried not to listen, but everybody was just so good. When it was finally my turn, I delivered those lines so carefully, so earnestly, and with lots of feeling, even though I didn’t really know what the feelings were. All I knew was that my heart was beating out of my chest and that my life was at stake. And I guess my reading came across as very Von Trapp, because later that week when the cast list was posted, my name was listed next to the word “Louisa.” Elation doesn’t do it justice. I was one of the youngest kids selected in a show with seniors! This was the big time. Rehearsals began right away, and right away my life changed. I was now busy every day after school until six p.m., and I let my
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classmates know it. As I walked into the Meetinghouse that first afternoon, the cast was sitting around, flipping through their yellow scripts. The kids seemed really big. I was tall, but I was 10. There were 17 and 18-year-olds hanging around, laughing. Someone handed me my own script. I, like everyone else, proceeded to scour the book for my lines. Highlighters were passed around and the read-through began. Then I figured out who Maria was. Maria would be played by a senior named Sarah Halley ’82. Sarah had a halo of blond, curly hair, an ephemeral, carefree way about her, and was the most amazing big kid I had ever seen– definitely Maria material. She immediately introduced herself to all of us Von Trapp children, smiled the biggest smile you’ve ever seen, and took her place in all of our hearts as our new mother. I felt like I belonged in this world of show biz, of the big time. As the weeks passed I got to know a few more big kids. One of them, Chris Noble ’83, pulled me aside one day after a scene and said in a gentle voice, “It’s really important that when you’re on stage and not saying anything, that you’re listening to what’s going on. A lot of acting takes place when you actually don’t have any lines.” Well, I was simultaneously humiliated and flattered. He must have singled me out for a reason! Sure, I was being called out for not doing such great acting during the scene, but he noticed me! After that I was careful to listen, to react, and to realize that acting was about more than delivering your big line. One day after rehearsal, some of the seniors, including Sarah, were hanging around and singing in the common room. They did that sometimes. Someone had a guitar, and they were all singing a protest song they had written about the nuclear
arms race. I walked through the room casually, careful not to act like I cared too much, when someone stopped me and asked me to join the singing. They taught me their song, and I remember it word for word: “Oh I heard a swallow sing silver and purple and blue / said, ‘Come and sing with us, we’re growing, we know what to do’ / in the cool of the evening, in the warmth of the sun of the day / we’re building and growing a garden where children can play.” When they finished singing, they talked about plans to sing their song at a nuclear arms protest in Central Park. On that very day, the big kids actually invited me along. I was ecstatic. This was going to be the beginning of my life as a social activist. More important, this would mean I was included and accepted in the big kid crowd. When I ran home to tell my mom (kids walked home alone in those days), she of course said no. As a fifth grader I had no place at a nuclear arms protest in Central Park, she insisted. I guess she was right. But the point was, I was invited. Rehearsals continued, and we had many rigorous vocal sessions with Mr. Davis in the fourth floor music room. He was strict, serious, and held us to the highest standards. He taught us the harmony for “The Sound of Music” for that poignant scene where we Von Trapps reluctantly sing to Elsa on the insistence of our father, Captain Von Trapp. I still sing that alto part when I watch the movie, which, by the way, is inferior to the play. What happened to the song “An Ordinary Couple”? Anyway, that is the moment in the show that Maria decides to return to the family after a soul-searching moment at the abbey. I’ll never forget that scene, during the performance. We were all huddled together downstage right, on one of the sparse platforms hammered together for the show, when Maria burst in to return to us. “Maria! Maria’s back!” we all shouted as we ran to embrace her, and though I was acting, I felt as though I had just been reunited with the most wonderful, magical family. My heart burst with joy on that Meetinghouse stage, feeling something real and true. The adrenaline rush of being up there, of acting and reacting in the moment made me feel I was alive like never before. I was part of something important, I belonged. I was a little kid who felt big for the first time. Suzanne Cohen, ’89, lives with her wife and young son in the Village. She is a teacher and administrator at a NYC independent school. She acts when she can, and takes scene work and improv classes in the evenings. She plans to devote more time to acting when she is a senior citizen, if not before.