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JOSEPH—AND ALL THAT SPECTACLE

 

Both of the girls are currently appearing in their high school’s production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” Out of approximately 300 freshman only eight or so got into the cast and Day is among them.

 

 

She is a part of the Women’s Chorus (which in some productions is the Children’s Chorus.)  Half the fun, of course, is being in the Women’s Chorus with friends:

 

 

Kat is a wife, specifically Naphtali’s wife. They matched up husbands and wives by size. Kat is one of the taller wives so she got one of the taller husbands.

 

 

It was great fun to watch her try to keep up with him as they dashed around the runway. She looked just like I do when Mr. Philately gets cold and insists on dashing off.

 

 

Apparently, she's not a very good wife because she shows up in the next act as an Egyptian.

 

 

I don't remember reading that Naphtali's wife runs off and becomes an Egyptian but maybe the director knows something I never knew.

 

 

As plays go, “Joseph” is, well, spectacle. You don’t go to Joseph (or much of any Andrew Lloyd Webber) for the character development. And spectacle this play had. The high school’s real strength in theater is its tech department and, except for some microphone troubles when I attended on Friday, its tech department comes through. We have a gigantic camel puppet, handled by what I assume is two people. The camel comes around the walkway, dragging poor Joseph all the way to Egypt. It even stops and, to the delight of the little boy in almost all the men in the audience, “poops” in front of the orchestra director, leaving him to sweep up the mess. There are strobe lights and mylar. At the end, we even had balloons coming down from up in the cove for the spotlights.

 

Even the advertising the day before was spectacle. The girls (and the other girls from the cast, dressed up in their long-sleeved Joseph t-shirts, jean skirts, and fishnet hose. Both of my girls have very long legs (which they get from their father, not me) and so the skirts tend to look a little shorter than they actually are.

 

 

Kat commented at the end of the day that many boys could not look away, even the boys who disliked her. “Hormones,” she concluded, “are stronger than hate in teenage boys.” Day simply said it was an interesting experience turning boys' heads and that fishnet hose are not all that comfortable.

 

The best part, however, is having friends and family come to see you. Cousinly congratulations are always in order:

 

 

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