Dawes 4. (We’re skipping 3. Going right to the revenge.)
Posted by Brennan on April 19, 2012
It’s (not) important (at all) to note that, in order to help me start this blog entry, I just watched the “Jaws 4” trailer. Dudes. This time, it’s personal.
(Is it personal because that’s the one with like a baby shark or something at the end? PS—Spoiler alert. Except probably not, because I get them all confused. In one there’s this shark family thing, and in one there’s like this robot shark. Also, close that beach.)
I’m stalling a bit, because I’m a little embarrassed to be writing this a few days late. But not SO embarrassed that I won’t write it at all! Hurray for getting over ourselves!
This past Monday morning, the Dawes School Show cast marched into Dawes Elementary, (under our arms: piles of cardboard boats, tutus, George Washington wigs made of toilet paper rolls, and giant tv-box-sized Red Lobster tables complete with pop-up buckets of crab, lemon butter sauce, and ice cream…you know, the uusch), and as has been widely declared and agreed-upon, a grand time was had by all. What a wonderful morning….
To start, Dawes Elementary, I’ll tell ya what—what a great school to visit on a Monday morning. We walked in like some absurd cardboard clown car had just parked in the Principal’s spot out front, and nobody at Dawes missed a beat. The students at this school were polite, welcoming, full of good laughs, and very respectful of the “grown-ups” jumping around on stage in front of them. Dawes students, thank you for your warm welcome, and keep up the awesomeness.
The Monkeys in the show, meanwhile, matched that awesomeness as best we could. It’s no secret that Brandon Cloyd is a ridiculously creative and hard-working master ninja of making props, whose home is probably filled with a whole pile of beauties that he’s made over the years, but he may have topped himself yet again. For Aiden G.‘s delightful tale about a young girl meeting a platypus in the Amazon, Brandon’s auditorium-sized (no joke) mural of the jungle brought about audible gasps and “whooooaaa"s from the students. Brandon, nice one on surprising the most imaginative brains in the entire world.
Also, if you need somebody to hold massive numbers of young people in rapt attention, hire Carly Ciarrocchi, aka Uncle Carl. (Spoiler alert #2—you’re too late.) Not only did Carly write, play guitar, and sing a beautiful solo song for Mateo P.‘s story, “Cielo Amarillo,” she also, basically on the fly, entertained the entire audience all by herself while we hung up a curtain in the middle of the show. That room could have watched Carly by herself for another hour, easily.
Carly also teamed up with music-master and Gaga PhD. holder Philip Sparkle Markle for some glorious story-telling-through-ballet in Casey R’s “Snowflake.” PS #2—If you need anybody to read a story out loud, ever, hire Lindsay Falls. He can also provide, should you need it, much spirited gospel-choir-like exclamations, as he did in “Sweet Tooth.” Story by Kayla M., music by none other than Mr. Markle himself, amazing singing by 100-threat, (and really, unfairly good at all of them), Emjoy Gavino.
Ack. 
These paragraphs are too long. I can’t give everybody their proper heaps and mounds of praise. I could go down the list of Dawes student-authors and be impressed with the creativity in each and every story they wrote. Same with every cast member. (Emilio Williams! First show, nailed it!) But for now, that’s enough out of me, so everybody just look in the mirror and tell yourself that you’re awesome, and I’ll wrap this up:
It’s always a great time to sit in the first rehearsal for a school show and read the students’ stories out loud. Laugh-filled, touching, surprising. Every time. The stories we received from the students at Dawes were no exception, and in fact, they were a little bit mind-blowing. The laughs were even shoving some tears out of those dusty old grown-up eyes in the room. I’m obviously not the first to feel a little bit floored by the creativity and bravery of these students, but one of the good side-effects of being in the Monkeys, and working with students like those at Dawes all of the time, is that you can’t help but think: All of us silly grown-ups should at least TRY to see the world with the same mixture of optimistic imagination and, simultaneously, attention to detail. It’s really quite the combination for a brain to balance, and these students manage it, again and again, day after day. It’s something else.
And I get it. We have bills to pay, and our couch doesn’t fit in the door of the new apartment, and we know how to drive. I get it. Adults are doing a lot, too. I’m just saying, it’s easy to forget. To forget how tricky, and sometimes scary, it is to be in, say, 3rd or 4th grade. You’re judged and graded ALL of the time, and you have to watch out for the mean kids, and to be careful to not be mean yourself, and still your teacher scolds you in front of the whole class for something you didn’t do, and all the while you have control over literally zero percent of your life, and goodness knows the grown-ups in charge are just making up random, often conflicting rules as they go along. Still, however, these students at Dawes, and all around the city, they manage it. Manage all of that, and still express themselves with some of the funniest and most creative stories you’ll ever read. So. Come on grown-ups. Do work. Put a little pep in your step, huh?
(Cardboard Top) Hats off to you, Dawes Elementary, and to all of these jokers, seen at Steak ‘n Shake before 7:00am on Monday morning. (Photoshop Joe Schupbach (snapping the shot) in there, too, if you want the real complete set.)
