I’ve recently found myself acting totally out of character. The key word is “acting.” Unable to resist John Holsinger’s plea for more bodies in the Beauty and the Beast chorus, I assented when he said all I would have to do was wave a few beer steins in the tavern scene. John is a gifted musician and teacher. But never believe a music director under deadline pressure! It’s turned into a bit more than a few passes of beer mugs. But I’ve also been surprised to discover how refreshing it is to step outside my box, try something new and meet so many talented people I’d never have met otherwise.
Not since my high school days in Maryland have I performed in a play and not since I was a sailor in South Pacific have I dared perform in a musical. It was, I think, in the summer of 1968, as friends fought in the tropics of Vietnam, that we re-created the World War Two tropics of Rogers and Hammerstein’s famous musical under a tent outside the local parochial school--a fun community production, not unlike those here at the Marion Palace. The last time I did any theater, telephones had dials and real bells. Television came through the air with three channels if you were lucky—much of it black and white. Fast forward thirty-plus years through college, careers, wives, kids, births and deaths and--here I am full circle, back on a stage trying to remember lyrics and dance steps.
If you know the story, you know Beauty and the Beast is Disney’s allegory on not quite fitting in, stepping outside the bounds of “this provincial little town” and discovering love and redemption in unlikely places. It’s about bucking the trends of conventional wisdom and the hazards of mob psychology. As it has been personally, it occurs to me that Disney’s classic is the right story for our “provincial town” at this point in time.
We’re at a point in our history here where the way it’s always been can’t be any longer. Our survival as a community depends on our ability to adapt and change—to welcome new people, new experiences and new investment into this place. Status quo is not an option. Pulling up the drawbridge doesn’t protect us from harm. In fact, it brings the real threat of stagnation and decline. Welcoming new ideas and new investment is how our community will grow and thrive, providing a better quality of life for those of us who call this place home.
Since I started this column about the Palace, let’s return there. Marion has been blessed with much colorful history—and has been wise over the years to protect and preserve it. The Palace is a unique part of that history that, having been saved and restored, continues to pay dividends. As it has with Beauty and the Beast, the Palace is drawing talent from outside the immediate area. With a director from Columbus and actors from Ohio Weslyan, Delaware Hayes, Mt. Gilead as well as the Marion area, the Palace is part of that welcoming process. New faces and new ideas come to Marion because the Palace is here. Plans are underway to expand and update this important part of Marion’s infrastructure. As we make decisions about how to spend limited resources, let’s invest in those things, like the Palace, that help attract and keep the best and brightest in Marion and Marion County.
