Life With Ferris: Impressed By The West Side Story Production

As a general rule, I don’t jump at the chance to attend a high school play. I’m not a huge fan of plays to begin with, and even nodded off during “Sunday in the Park with George” on Broadway. But I noticed that Chattanooga Christian School’s Theatre Department plans to present “The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood” in early December, and I did a double take, jotting down the dates of that first weekend.

I’d heard that the stage productions at CCS were impressive, but I was not prepared for my first play there, “West Side Story.” My mother and I slipped into our seats in the nick of time, just as the theatre darkened and the stage was illuminated. There, right in front of us, was an ethnic, blue-collar neighborhood, down to the last detail of the industrial exhaust fan, water tower and clothesline crisscrossing the alley. We both gasped.

“Did you have any idea?” she whispered. We were blown away that first second, before we saw a single actor or heard a single voice.

We assumed the music was recorded when the Jets broke into song and dance. It was not recorded. Right in front of us was a 20-piece orchestra that included violins, bassoons and trombones, and it was comprised of Covenant College students, as well as CCS students.

The choreography was mindboggling, with dozens of actors and actresses moving every muscle with perfect timing and absolute synchronization. The first fight scene was so realistic I thought there’d been an accident, surely that boy was hurt. He wasn’t.

Scene after scene was executed at the perfect pace, with creative choreography that was completely absorbing. The hours of rehearsal that must have been required was mindboggling. And there were scores of actors in this production, all under the age of 18, presumably.

“How do you get teenagers to do this?” my mother whispered to me. I was wondering the same thing. 

Everyone on the stage was impressive. Every. Single. One. The leads were incredible, but I watched to see how consistent the acting was and it was strong. Leads Jack Roden, Anita Nash and Lauren Boozer were astonishing, both with their voices and with their stage presence. My neighbor Will Daniel was amazing in the play, as was every person on that stage. Whether they were joyous or broken, perturbed or livid, I believed them!

“West Side Story” is not an easy play. It deals with mature themes, including racism, violence, revenge and near-rape. Adapted from “Romeo and Juliet,” this play is as timely now in 2020 as it was in 1957 when it was first performed.

Director Mary Catherine Schimpf said of the musical, ‘“West Side Story’ is possibly the best musical theatre collaboration of all time; the combination of Leonard Bernstein’s truly American music with added Latin flavor and Jerome Robbins’s beautiful choreography makes this a stunning show. Based on Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ‘West Side Story’ explores enduring themes of loyalty, friendship, sacrifice, and love in a story that is just as relevant today as it was in 1950s New York City and 16th century Italy. As an art department and as a school, we believe it is important for our students - and for our audience - to grapple with the gritty realities this show reveals about our world and, perhaps, our own hearts and minds. Ultimately, we can learn through the examples presented in this story how we choose to live our own lives and the pitfalls we want to avoid, and hopefully to find truth through it all. The redemption in this show is finding home - a place where you are understood by who you are, rather than how you appear.”

I know that “The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood” will be remarkable, and hopefully, despite that all that this year has brought, the show will go on safely!

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Ferris Robinson is the author of three children's books, "The Queen Who Banished Bugs,” "The Queen Who Accidentally Banished Birds," and “Call Me Arthropod” in her pollinator series. "Making Arrangements" is her first novel. "Dogs and Love - Stories of Fidelity" is a collection of true tales about man's best friend. Her website is ferrisrobinson.com and you can download a free pollinator poster there. She is the editor of The Lookout Mountain Mirror and The Signal Mountain Mirror.