School plays.

Something you may not know about me: I love to sing. I love playing albums like Paul Simon's Graceland or Sarah Harmer's You Were Here or the Be Good Tanya's Blue Horse because I know almost every word on the album and I can keep up with the vocal range. Singing is fun and relaxing and it makes me feel good.


I was fortunate enough as a kid to go to an elementary school that employed a teacher named Scott Sayer. This man had music in his blood. Every year, Mr. Sayer chose a musical, wrote or re-wrote the script and songs, conducted auditions for two separate casts and pretty much did everything possible to make sure the play came to life. He had help, of course. Several parents and teachers helped with everything from costumes and sets to makeup and vocal coaching. And the play was a full-school affair: if you weren't in one of the two casts, you were most likely in the huge choir, and even if you were in a cast, you sang in the choir on the nights when your cast wasn't on stage. It was an ingenious way to get hundreds of children involved with acting and music at a very young age. 


I was an annual choir member starting around grade three and was thrilled to perform in two different musicals: HMS Pinafore and Peter Pan. Prior to acquiring a role, I sang in the choir for performances of Oliver!, Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. Mr. Sayer was a huge Gilbert and Sullivan fan and I'm positive that his enthusiasm spawned hundreds of young Gilbert and Sullivan fans. I am one of them and to this day, if I hear a tune from one of their operettas, I become almost giddy with glee and nostalgia. 


I had the non-speaking role of a sailor in HMS Pinafore and I played a Lost Boy named Slightly in Peter Pan. I had to sing a song with another Lost Boy named Toodles. We sang "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better" from the musical Annie Get Your Gun. As much as he loved Gilbert and Sullivan, Mr. Sayer's talents really came to light when adapting stories to the musical stage. He had incredible knack for searching out and re-writing known music to suit a story told by children. Mr. Sayer wasn't altogether comfortable with the Indians in the Peter Pan story, so he replaced them altogether with Hippies; an inspired and crowd-pleasing substitution, since it gave us the chance to sing "Mellow Yellow" and garnered many laughs from the sixties children in the audience. We also sang a rousing rendition of "Crocodile Rock" to close out the show.

There were months of preparation for all of our school plays. Practices before and/or after school, choir practices, costume fittings, dress rehearsals. It was a very involved process demanding a huge commitment. Mr. Sayer devoted countless hours to the task, conducting all of the choir practices, being involved with every rehearsal and playing the piano for every practice, rehearsal and live performance. And this was on top of being a teacher five days a week. Seriously, his family must have barely seen him for a few months a year.


As much as I love the memories of being onstage, I also fondly recall all the bustling and excitement of the backstage scene. Applying makeup, getting queued up for stage entrances, practising songs. Honestly, it was such a fantastic experience for a young kid and I'll always be grateful to Mr. Sayer for being so enthusiastic. I'll also always remember how he made it clear that being involved with the play, as fun as it was, was extra-curricular and if we didn't keep up our grades, we couldn't be involved with the production. Apparently I needed a little reminding of this fact and after he took me aside to explain that he didn't want to lose me in the production, I promised I wouldn't let him down. I kept my promise.


I often wonder if I would have such a love of singing if it hadn't been for Mr. Sayer. I also wonder if I would have an ear for music or a half-decent pitch if I hadn't had the opportunity to sing at such a young age. I've spoken with a couple of my elementary classmates and fellow choir members about it over the years and they tend to agree: very likely not.

Thanks, Mr. Sayer. Thank you so, so much.

Captain Hook and his pirates. My friend Heidi, who sent me these
photos is second from the left. Her pirate name was Garth.

Captain Hook and the pirates capture the Lost Boys and Wendy,
John and Michael. I am the Lost Boy with the hat on.

We're about to be saved by Peter Pan and the Hippies any minute now...