Coop Goes to High School Part 5 – Behind the Lights
October 2nd, 2013 at 15:46
The story picks up in November 1970 almost halfway through three years of high school, still recovering from having jilted my first girlfriend (and being too shy to even face her after that), and Smokey Robinson part of my current Greek chorus on the AM radio with his “Tears of a Clown”…Now if there’s a smile on my face
It’s only there trying to fool the public
But when it comes down to fooling you
Now honey that’s quite a different subject
But don’t let my glad expression
Give you the wrong impression
It reminded me that the persona I was putting out in the world was still mostly smoke and mirrors as well. That admitted, my Junior Light Opera youth theater group was opening up a new world of possibilities for me to define myself as a talented technician rather than just a lovelorn loser.
Michael asked me if I would design lights for JLO’s December show, The Innocents, a theatrical adaptation of Henry James’ classic gothic novel The Turn of the Screw, about a young boy haunted by ghosts of a troubled past. I of course agreed, and was doubly excited because the show was being staged in the Little Theater (rather than the big auditorium) which as a much smaller stage allowed for more flexibility and possibility for the dramatic lighting effects that such a gothic ghost story really demanded. Michael was directing this