Principal puts kibosh on CDDHS school play
Their move has been harshly criticized by those who both disagree with their assessment and are bewildered by the timing of the decision, which was delivered on Friday.
Principal Deidre Wilson would not grant an interview Tuesday and referred questions to the communications office of the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB), a move the board says is in accordance with its policies.
The board’s communications officer, Maggie McFazden, said Ms. Wilson and vice-principal Pat Hamilton felt the play was not suitable for “the wide variety of kids who would be coming to see it.”
Meanwhile, a parent of a cast member has written Ms. Wilson, criticizing her “current autocratic leadership style.”
Patricia Clark, who distributed copies of the correspondence to UGDSB officials and the local media, suggested that the principal “single-handedly alienated hundreds of students and many staff and most likely regaining their support is probably near to impossible.”
Ms. McFazden said Ms. Wilson consulted “other people in the education community” before rendering her decision, including administrators and principals from other schools.
The timing of her announcement, she maintained, was due to her not receiving a copy of the script until a week before she decided to cancel the production.
Ms. Clark’s son, Patrick – who was to play one of the lead roles – said, in an interview, that he and others had copies in November, when work on the musical began in earnest, and added that the idea of doing this particular play began in the summer.
These copies, he said, contained the scripts and the song lyrics. The actual music didn’t arrive until after the Christmas break. Ms. Wilson, through Ms. McFazden, said the entire scripts were not available until this month.
He labelled Ms. Wilson’s actions “inexcusable, because of the amount of effort people put into (the production), but I’m not inflicting my moral opinions on 1,100 students like she is.
“We didn’t go into her office and rip up two months of her work.”
When he first heard of the cancellation, Patrick said he
couldn’t believe it, but I tried to be level-headed.” He said he approached Ms. Wilson on the matter and came away less than satisfied with her response that Patrick said was:
We feel it’s inappropriate and we cannot support it.”
UGDSB chair Bob Borden was also not sure why the decision was made at the time it was. Nevertheless, he said he
completely supports the school administration” on this matter and that Ms. Wilson was within her rights to make what was almost a unilateral decision.
“It’s one of the roles of a principal. Sometimes you have to be at the front of the parade and making the tough decisions.”
Based on a movie starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is about two con men who conspire to defraud a young woman of $50,000. The woman eventually turns the tables on the two by stealing the same amount from one and the clothes from the other.
Patrick said the play, which the school purchased for
5,000 which came out of the school’s own budget, contained a preamble containing instructions where script changes should be made to make it more suitable for a high school production.
The instructions, said Patrick, were being followed.
A CDDHS staff member involved in the production said creation of a high school musical involves well over 100 people, including staff, students and community members.
The process of putting together a production of this size, from choosing a show to putting together a production team, attaining rights, planning, casting and rehearsing a musical for is, she said, almost a year-long process.
According to Wikipedia, the Broadway musical, with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and a book by Jeffrey Lane premiered in San Diego on September 22, 2004, before moving to Broadway in January 2005 and officially opening in March at the Imperial Theatre. The show closed on Broadway on September 3, 2006 with total of 666 performances. The original Broadway cast recording CD was recorded on March 14, 2005 at Right Track Studio in New York City and released on May 10, 2005 by Ghostlight Records (an imprint of Sh-K-Boom Records).
A North American national Equity tour wrapped up on August 19, 2007. The 25-city non- Equity tour of the show debuted September 25, 2007 in Dayton, Ohio, with its final performance on March 23, 2008, in Memphis, Tennessee. A collegiate version of the musical was produced by the University of Arkansas in April 2009.
A Vancouver Playhouse Theatre production of the musical ran from Nov. 21 to Dec. 27, 2009. International productions have opened in Tokyo, Mexico City, Madrid, Stuttgart, Seoul, Oslo, Stockholm, Tampere and productions are planned for Copenhagen, Reykjavik, and London.
The CDDHS production had been scheduled to open in late April.
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