Jeanne McGuire - High School Musical

I think that this post would surprise people who knew me in high school and who knew Jeanne McGuire.  Jeanne was the high school choral director at Viewmont High School.  She was a no nonsense director that expected the best from her students and who often scared them into better performance.  There were a lot of choir students that could not stand her, many dropped out or never took choir because of what they heard about her.  But more often, her students had enormous respect for her.  She knew her music, she knew how to bring out the best from most of the students and they were better performers and singers from having her classes.

What may seem strange about this post to people who knew me in high school is that I never took choir.  I was not one of the hundreds of students that took 10^th grade choir and I was certainly not qualified to try out for the performance choirs.  I had many, many close friends who were in these choirs and who loved their experiences in them, but I was not a singer.  I had no experience as a singer and I had zero confidence in my voice, nor did I have much interest in singing.  I always envied those that could sing, and loved to listen to their performances, but it was never something that I wanted to do myself.

So why am I writing about Jeanne McGuire?  It comes down to two important events in my life that she had a large part in.  The first was in tenth grade when I was the new kid in town and didn’t know very many people.  My step-sister Stefanie, who was one of those choir kids who took at least one choir class every year, was one of the few people that I spent time with those days.  She decided that she was going to try out for the musical that year, Annie Get Your Gun.  It was natural for her.  She had an amazing voice and had performed for years.  Then she decided to drag me into her plans as an attempt to get me to be more social and meet more people.

As I said earlier, I was not a singer, I never had been and never thought that I would be.  I had had some experience with junior high acting classes and I liked the idea of performing as an actor, as long as I didn’t have to sing.  But Stefanie was convincing and I decided to try out.  She helped me pick a song and then accompanied me for my audition.  She realized while we were picking a song that I could not hear myself sing and I had a range of about twelve notes.  When we finally landed on a song from the Phantom of the Opera she had to adjust the key just to fit my voice into it.  We practiced and she encouraged me to sing out loud and to try and to give it my best shot.  It was a well-known fact that not a lot of tenth graders made the musical, it was a competitive environment and a lot of people tried out.  I didn’t have a lot of hope that I would make it, but I tried to practice hard anyway.

The day of the audition came and Stefanie did fantastic in hers, as was expected.  Then it was my turn.  I took the stage and gave my name and then things went south.  Stefanie began to play and I began to sing. I made it five words into the song, literally five words and completely forgot the words that I was supposed to be singing.  Stefanie continued to play, I stopped and looked at her.  She began to whisper the words from the piano, I tried to pick up the words once or twice and generally ended up just humming along as best I could.  It was dismal and completely embarrassing.

I left the audition thinking that I had no chance of making the musical.  Certainly I was a long shot to begin with but after that performance I was in no shape to even hope for a spot.  However, after Jeanne McGuire listened to all additions and considered what she needed she included me on the list of people who had made the generic cast.  I was shocked. I could not believe that I had made it as much as I could not believe that Stefanie had not.  She was so deserving and I was anything but deserving.

I will never be able to explain why I made the musical, certainly it was easier for guys to make the play as a matter of supply and demand, but others were cut when I was not.  So I was in Annie Get Your Gun.  When the rehearsals started I didn’t know more than two or three people in the cast of probably more than sixty people.  I still had no confidence to sing so I ended up mouthing the words most of the time, when I could remember them.  I learned to dance and move around the stage and overall I had a wonderful experience.  I met people during that production that would become close friends, some that continue to be some of my closest friends.  Because of that it was an important moment in my life.  It was a moment that I will not forget and that has left a lasting impact on me.

Two years later I auditioned for the musical again, this time it was Hello Dolly.  Again I made a mess of my audition and again I was given the chance to be in the play.  This time I sang most of the songs and had much more confidence in myself.  I was a senior and knew most of the people in the cast.  I got to help choreograph part of a scene which included me doing enormous assisted backflips in a tuxedo.  I had a great time and bonded with many close friends.  I was not the star by any means, I was probably never ever heard by the audience when I sang, but I had a great time and grew in confidence once again.

Through both of these experiences I really had very little interaction with Jeanne McGuire.  Certainly she directed us and choreographed everything, but we never interacted other than in large groups.  I never did join any of the choirs and she probably forgot all about me shortly after graduation.  I don’t know why she gave me the opportunities that she did, there were many people who could have done a better job and who certainly deserved the chance.  But the opportunity to perform in those two musicals became valuable experiences for me.  They shape my life.  So thank you Jeanne McGuire.