Sing

I’ll like you all to take a walk down memory lane with me. I grew up in Brooklyn, NY. I went to an all girl Catholic high school, called St. Brendan’s for three years. Why three years do you ask? My beloved school closed its doors in my junior year because it ran out of money and tuition would have been too expensive. I had the option to graduate early if I went to summer school for English. Then I would I receive my diploma by mail. I didn’t want to get cheated out of the cap and gown thing and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to college at the time. So I decided to go to another high school for my senior year, but that is another blog post.

Back to St. Brendan’s. Those of you out in blogland who grew up in Brooklyn might have heard of Sing. It’s a student run musical production. In our school each year (freshman, sophomore, junior and senior) competed against each other.

The students wrote the script (usually based on an already existing play, movie or book) – the character names were changed to protect the innocent. Music was added (which were usually songs of the times with the words changed to fit the story) – as well dance numbers. Students designed the sets, made the costumes, played in the band, acted, directed, and sang. Sounds like fun, right?

Everyone in your year was required to participate. There was something for everyone to do. For the first two years, I just sang in the chorus. The chorus was the place they stuck you if you didn’t have talent for anything else.

I mentioned that my junior year was going to be my last. I wanted to go out with a bang and did things that were unexpected of me. You remember high school? Everyone fell into a category - there was the jock, the cheerleader, the rocker, the brain, etc. I somehow fell in the brain category. No one expected “brains” to do anything except study. We use to do things and would never get blamed for it, because no one suspected us – sweet. I auditioned for an acting part. Our theme was Star Wars and I played Darth Vader or better known as Bart Radar. That’s right, that’s how the “writers” changed the name. Anyway, it was lots of fun. Our class didn’t win that year – the seniors did, I think. Who can remember that far back? The point is I was brilliant and I got to do two fight scenes with plastic light sabers.

Anyone have any high school memories that were unique to their area?

© Nadine Zawacki 2009