Road trip
On Sunday my family and I took a road trip to Eau Claire.
You are probably thinking, “Gee I wonder how Wilson is going to milk 650 words about driving to a city two counties over and what sappy life lesson he will exploit his children’s formative memories to hammer us with this time?”
Well, I guess you will just have to keep reading to find out, because as I am typing these words I haven’t figured that out yet.
Casual cynicism and an all-too-accurate critique of my writing style aside, the trip to Eau Claire was to take in the final performance of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at the Pablo Center at the Confluence.
The musical tells the story of a fictional middleschool level spelling bee and through it, the stories of the spelling bee finalists who are vying for a chance to compete at nationals. The musical highlights the insecurities and doubts we all experienced at that point in life. As a college friend of mine once said, “if you actually enjoyed middle school, you weren’t actually there.”
While I don’t go as far as my friend’s viewpoint, I have strong memories from my own junior high school years, which are part of the litany of Brian’s most embarrassing and cringeworthy moments that replay in my head when I have trouble sleeping.
For the record, there is no way to come back from describing a strong-featured, but very slim middle school girl looking skeletal and when you run into them at your 20th class reunion years later it is best to just pretend it never happened, rather than apologizing for being an unthinking idiot in eighth grade. Not that I have first-hand knowledge of this — I’m merely stating it for a friend, yeah, that’s the ticket, for a friend.
Getting back to the play, area residents might remember it as being put on by the Medford Area Community Theater in February 2015 and was directed by the late Doug Robertson. A notable member of the 2015-production was advertising representative Todd Lundy in the role of Leaf Coneybear a character Robertson described as being “hyperactive and disjointed and sort of all over the place.”
Admittedly the quality of the singing in this college production — with cast members who are actually going to school for that sort of thing — was on a different level compared to community theater, I found myself filling in the faces of folks like Bill Dallas, Russ Jablonsky and Pat Porten for the actors.
One of my reasons for traveling over to Eau Claire to see this production was because students with local ties were among the cast. Medford graduate Marissa Pope did a phenomenal job in the role as hostess and former spelling bee all-star Rona Lisa Peretti. It is always a pleasure to see and hear her perform.
In addition, Conrad Flink of Abbotsford who has stage experience with the Showcase Players in Colby made his college acting debut with the play. I am looking forward to making the trip to see future plays as he continues his career.
It is great to see area young people follow their dreams and take their passion to the next level. It was also great to get out of town for a while, even if we kept running into people from this area who were doing the same thing we were.
The field trip was also a good chance to reconnect with my own children who, in between running lines, for Alex’s role as Mr. Mushnick the Medford Area Senior High School production of “Little Shop of Horrors” serenaded us with with the duet “What Would I Do Without You” from the “Magic Tree House The Musical.” Both my children were fans of that book and for a long time had the entire play memorized. With them getting older and all of us seldom taking long trips together, it was good to have a chance to relive good memories and make new ones.
Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News.
