A Stage In Their Lives - Chapter II
Posted 7/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

STORY INDEX

Monday June 2, 1997

Chapter II: Dreams hang by a thread as the cast listis posted. ‘Who will I be?’ they wonder -- a timely question about lifeitself, not just a high school musical.

Angie Guido skips breakfast. She's too nervous. The list will be postedtoday.

First thing this morning, Angie will walk into North County High Schooland turn left at the main office, then right at the guidance center. Shewill come to the intersection of two shiny hallways and pause at a bulletinboard reserved for drama club news.

She will look for her name on the cast list for West Side Story, thespring musical. Only one role matters: Maria.

"If I don't get it, I'm coming home," she says.

"Call first," her mother replies as Angie heads out. "Break a leg."

Shortly before 7 a.m. on this February school day, Starr Lucas, a seniorand the drama club president, begins her trip to the bulletin board, grippinga folder as if it contains state secrets.

The cast list is inside.

Maneuvering through a maze of hallways and classrooms, Starr swivelsas she walks -- there's a problem with her legs -- but she must hurry.When that first bell rings, 40 cast members are going to make a franticdash to the bulletin board.

Brent McMullen, an apple-cheeked freshman, arrives first.

"I'm a Jet!" he shouts.

Angela Brown, a 16-year-old junior, is in the next wave, bursting withanticipation. She has been excited since the vocal audition when she sanga high C for the first time. This morning, she couldn't wait for schoolto start, gulping a strawberry Pop Tart and rushing out the door.

She looks.

"Ohmigosh," she whispers to herself. "Ohmigosh. Ohmigosh."

Maria.

Friends hug and congratulate her. She is stunned.

More students arrive, clumping around the list, searching for theirpart.

"Who the hell's Snowboy?" a freshman asks.

"I'm Action!" sophomore Rob Mackin announces. Then he pauses, perplexed,his voice a mumble. "Whoever that is."

"I'm old," says Lorraine Eakin, a junior who is cast as a teacher. "Theyalways make me old. They say it's because I look mature."

The students look down the hall. Here comes Angie Guido. Everyone knowshow much she wants the role of Maria.

One look.

Instantly she collapses into the arms of a girlfriend and begins tosob.

Students turn their heads, unsure how to react. Angela Brown slips downanother

hallway, out of sight. Friends touch her gently, mouthing "Congratulations."Thanks, she whispers awkwardly.

"I've got to call my Mom," she tells a friend.

Starr, the drama club president, approaches Angie Guido.

You have a great part -- Rosalia, Maria's friend -- and you will singin several songs. You're our vice president. We need you.

"I'm not doing this," Angie says.

When Angie's boyfriend, Mark Miller, arrives, she buries her head inhis coat. Her face is puffy, her green eyes now red-rimmed and full oftears. A senior, she has worked four years to play a role like Maria. Thisisn't fair. Mark eventually escorts her down the hall, away from the bulletinboard, and out the school doors.

Starr watches, feeling equal measures of empathy, concern and irritation.Wayne Shipley, the drama club sponsor, tells the students repeatedly thatevery role is crucial, from the stage crew sweeper to the leading lady.They are a team. Angie should know that.

Besides, she's not the only girl who lost her dream.

Four years ago, when she was a freshman, Starr Lucas announced to herfamily that her destiny was decided:

"You're going to see me on Broadway. I'm going to be a star. I don'teven have to change my name."

Starr was a born performer, taking dance lessons since she was 4 andacting in church skits. In high school, she heard Mr. Shipley explain themagic of the theater: The idea is to paint a picture so realistic thatthe audience experiences a willing suspension of disbelief. Do it wellenough, and you can make time stand still.

Starr was hooked. She appeared in 14 consecutive plays, one-acts andmusicals. She started calling herself the Drama Queen.

"She seeks the light," Mr. Shipley says.

But Starr rarely landed a starring role. She learned it's not enoughto have blond hair and ruby red lips and a movie-star smile.

"Mom," she said, "there's just not many parts for people who walk funny."

She'll talk about it. She doesn't mind.

"I have cerebral palsy," Starr explains.

She smiles, a radiant smile, almost angelic, as if this nervous systemdisorder is a gift from the heavens. She smiles, almost laughing, as sheexplains how her leg muscles tighten, causing the hitch in her walk. "Ihave no ooomph," she says. She smiles again, sanguine, as she says thecondition could stay the same or worsen. She could, in fact, need a wheelchairsomeday. This, too, merits a smile.

"I've always known there was a purpose for me," she says.

So the Drama Queen selected a new kingdom. Instead of seeing her namein lights, Starr now sees herself in the shadows, behind the curtains.She will direct. She plans to major in theater in college next year andhas applied to three schools. She's waiting to hear back.

When she tells Mr. Shipley her new dream, he proposes a deal -- shecan help direct, but that means she will not have an acting role.

How can a young woman who seeks the light willingly put herself in thedark?

"She tossed and she turned," says her mother, Phyllis Lucas. "Then shesaid, `If this is the direction my life is going to take, then I have todo this.' "

Starr sees it as logical.

"You can still direct in a wheelchair," she says, beaming.

Wearing a trench coat and his trademark fedora -- he owns a half dozen-- Eli Senter, a skinny 17-year-old junior, heads toward the cast list.Somebody jokes that he's not on it.

He whirls.

"There's too few guys," he says loudly, as he says most things. "Hecan't not cast me."

Eli figures he will be one of the gang members, a Jet or a Shark, arole in which he can act and not sing.

 "I've never sang before," he says. "If I had a choice, I wouldn't.For the audience's sake."

He looks at the cast list. His name is at the top.

"You're Riff," a boy tells Eli.

"Riff's cool," a girl says.

It's not until later that Eli realizes that Riff is the leader of theJets gang; that Riff sings the first song of the entire show; that Riffsings three songs.

When he learns this, Eli does something entirely out of character.

He becomes very still.

When the phone doesn't ring, Rosemary Guido assumes the news is good.Finally, daughter Angie has gotten a break.

Always, it seems, Angie is the second choice. When she was 3 years old,Angie wanted to be Mary in the Christmas pageant at nursery school. Anothergirl was selected; Angie wore a donkey suit. Come show time, she squeezedbetween Joseph and Mary and plopped in front of the manger, stealing thescene.

This is different. Rosemary never has seen her daughter want somethingso much. It's as if Angie will judge her high school years -- maybe herentire life -- based on what she finds out this morning.

Sonny, the family dog, barks.

Rosemary looks outside. Angie and Mark approach the house.

Oh, no.

Angie looks shocked, as if somebody died. Her mother hugs her. Theycry.

"That's it," Angie says. "I give up."

After she composes herself, Angie is adamant. She is not returning toschool today so people can stare at her. She might as well stamp DONKEYon her forehead.

And there is no way she is getting on that stage and watching anothergirl perform her role. They can do the musical without her. Boyfriend Mark,cast as a Jet, feels the same.

"Angie," her mother says, trying desperately to comfort her, "it justwasn't your time. It wasn't your time to shine."

Then Mrs. Guido calls the school.

Just before first period begins, Brian Forte ambles down the hall, towardthe drama club bulletin board, not a care in the world.

A senior, Brian has landed the lead role in the past two North CountyHigh musicals. He may, in fact, be the only boy in a school of 1,700 studentswho can sing the right note on command.

Brian presents the clean-cut good looks of a Boy Scout, the deep-throatedvoice of a baseball announcer and the devil-may-care soul of a beatnik.Friends say he's one of the most talented students but seldom pushes himself.He would rather sit in the Honey Bee Diner in Glen Burnie, drinking coffee,smoking cigarettes, reading Kurt Vonnegut.

Getting by.

"Hey," he jokes, hands turned up. "I'm a slacker."

Music is his passion. He told his father last year that he might moveto New York City after graduation and play his guitar in the subway forspare change. Now he doesn't know. Maybe he'll go to a community college,maybe not. Something will pop up.

As Brian chats, friends notice he hasn't even peeked at the cast list.He laughs, glances over and resumes talking. His expression remains purenonchalance. So he will be Tony in West Side Story. So he will be the leadingman for the third straight year. So . . . ho-hum.

Later, Mr. Shipley pulls Brian aside.

Brian, he says, this will be the hardest show you've ever done. Thiscan't be like the other years. You can't wait until the last week and thenlet your talent bail you out.

"You're going to have to get your ass in gear," he tells him.

The boyish grin. The what-me-worry slouch. The reassuring pat on thearm.

"OK, Mr. Shipley," Brian replies.

Whatever.

Mr. Shipley stays away from the bulletin board.

"He hides," Starr says.

He has plenty to do. While the students ponder their roles, Mr. Shipleywonders how they will be ready in time for the April 18-19 shows. He hasyet to cast Bernardo and the other Sharks. He will do that tomorrow night,at the first practice.

This isn't the way he prefers to operate, but if Mr. Shipley has learnedanything in 30 years of teaching, it's how to adjust.

"High school theater is more about high school than the theater," hesays.

This will be Mr. Shipley's last show. At 53, he's retiring at the endof the school year. "I'm tired," he says. He has other hobbies -- dragracing stock cars, raising horses, helping run Actors Company Theatre,which produces community shows. But for the next two months he will focusso much on West Side Story that his wife rarely will see him.

Mr. Shipley has taught at the school since Andover and Brooklyn Parkschools merged seven years ago (he taught in Andover before). He helpeddesign the 900-seat auditorium; he considers it one of the nicest theatersin Anne Arundel County.

He remains oblivious to the daily dramas of high school life. He doesnot know who just broke up, or who got invited to the junior prom, or whohad her heart set on playing Maria. His teaching philosophy is time-tested:This, too, shall pass.

So Mr. Shipley is surprised when he walks into the principal's officeand a secretary hands him a pink message slip:

"Call Angie Guido's mother. She says you'll know why."

Angie and Mark skip school all day, watching movies at her house. Thephone rings constantly.

Angie, are you all right?

Angie, we want you back.

Angie, we love you.

That night, while Angie works at Blockbuster Video, fellow seniors MicheleMiller and Anna Schoenfelder visit.

"You've got to be in it," Michele says.

Angie is confused.

"I don't know. I don't know."

Just the week before, Michele had cried when the drama club selectedWest Side Story as the spring musical over Anything Goes. How quickly shehas recovered from that disappointment.

"I'm fine," says Michele, who is cast as one of the Jet's girlfriends,a minor role. "I just wanted a part."

It's different for Angie. She has invested everything -- her hopes,her pride -- in this role. Couldn't they have lowered Maria's high notesto match her alto voice? Now Angie will finish high school without singinga solo. Don't they understand? This shall not pass quickly.

But it must. The word is out: If Angie skips the first practice tomorrownight, she will lose the part.

Mr. Shipley tries three times to return her mother's phone call. Henever hears back.

First thing after school, Angela Brown heads to the Marley Station Malland buys the West Side Story CD. All night long, over and over, she listensto it, savoring lyrics that seem written just for her:

Good night, good night,

Sleep well and when you dream,

Dream of me.

Tonight.

She had dreamed of playing Maria. Now she will.

What happens when your dream comes true?