Lyman High School’s Lymlight Production of Dr. Jekyll an and Mr. Hyde was excellent. It was nice being on my old campus. I was anxious to see the adaptation because I had taught the classic novella only a few weeks earlier at The Ampersand School.
The interpretation of the diaries, the epistolary effects of disjointing, and mixing monologue with flashback was great and came through clearly. The device of the magician’s presto-chango door was kitschy yet clean and effective.
Using the Victorian period’s phenomena of bodysnatching, and burgeoning science butting heads with spiritual ethics as a story arc showed understanding. The brothel asides were distractingly hideous.
I have a few very specific complaints. The stage work, acting, lighting, music, direction and passion are not among them. The inappropriate female dress across the board and the adaptation’s use of highly sexualized characterization are. If this were in any other theater, I’d be fine. In a high school, not so much. When the Man Servant, Poole, is reimagined as a female, it doesn’t follow that a distinguished Dr’s. head mistress would be dressed as a can-can extra for the Moulin Rouge.
It didn’t escape me that the highly stylized production was closer to rock opera than Victorian classic stageplay. The only thing missing was a Meatloaf solo. It came off a little closer to Rocky Horror Picture Show then Robert Louis Stevenson
I suppose my gripe is with the author of the adaptation: Jeffrey Hatcher. The Hyde character’s emotional enmeshment with Elizabeth and his resulting concern of the safety of this hooker, fails big time. Hyde has no conscience. To have him scare away a woman for her own protection is squarely in contrast to the alter-ego’s purpose. It only serves to invite shallow melodrama into the wannabe rock opera.
Again, having a high school cast lose the books meaning, in favor of a reality show plot, is not why I applauded. The great acting certainly was.
I can’t be the only one who knows it’s inappropriate to shove a teenager into a bustier and heels and claim it’s okay because it’s a performance…can I?
I sent an email quite a few times regarding this field trip. I explained that it would be a day long event. I told them (parents) their students need to be on campus by 8 AM because that’s when we were leaving. Still the day before I got slack and grief for making them show up an hour early for school. This is typically an hour later than most public high school students had to show up. The Ampersand School is a private school in Longwood, Florida. We believe in the individuality of education, we believe in the quality and importance of each student as an individual. To this end I am trying to make my history class as experiential as possible.
The second part of our trip is a short back track over Tampa Bay to the Tampa Bay history Center on Old Waters Street. That section of town is historical by itself. But the Tampa Bay History Center has an excellent showcase of that region’s past. Also, there is a special display about Patrick Smith’s A Land Remembered. It’s historical fiction and incredibly accurate and respectful novel about how old Florida was settled, and it’s incredibly significant history in both United States and the world. We’re looking especially forward to that display.
The last part of the trip is a walking tour of Ybor City. Ybor city is such a significant place. I am using the word significant entirely too much. God forbid it be overused in an educational setting. Typically you just here “state this” and “Standard that…”I always knew it (Ybor) as the party district when I was at the University of South Florida. It is so much richer than that. Ybor city was a hub of crime and one of the early petri dishes from which The primordial Cosa Nostra oozed. It all started as a way to make money rolling cigars.
It didn’t exactly go down as planned. But then nothing ever does. In fact I’ve learned not to plan outcomes. First of all, one student’s mother wouldn’t let her go because she felt the distance equaled a lack of safety. She asked if there was anything that her daughter could do to make it up. I’m afraid that the lesson was purely experiential. Nothing you can do to make that up. There’s no substitute for experience is exactly what I told her. I didn’t read her reply, perhaps wrongly, but I assumed it was going to be argumentative. Another young man didn’t make that 8 AM cut off. In fact, he didn’t make the 8:15 extension either. Let me go back just a minute. I had to pick up a rental van at 7 AM at an airport satellite parking lot. At 7 AM that lot is unattended and the rental office is closed. I was able to find the lot where the vans were parked. There were about 25 vans. There was no way of telling which one was mine exactly. There is, as it turns out, a way of telling exactly which van is yours. I didn’t discover that at a convenient time.
There’s a handful of white vans, a handful of black vans. I searched all the black vans first. I checked on top of all the tires and inside the covers of the gas tanks. I finally came upon a beautiful shiny black van with the key readily available in the gas tank cover. I opened the door and looked inside. All the seats were leather and it was very spacious and comfy. I knew that couldn’t be it. A Gentleman pulled up in a similar van and informed me that those were limousine style pick up vans for the airport. I asked him where my van company was and he pointed to the lot of white vans. I want over and started a similar inspection. I started checking the tires and gas caps.
I found two vans right off the bat whose keys were also available in the gas can. One was a dirty little van so I assumed that wasn’t mine. The other van with the key available was similarly sized, but newer and cleaner. I just I decided that was my van. I drove it out and headed back toward school. As I kept looking in the rearview mirror and trying to figure out just how I was going to fit 15 people in the van. I kept doing the math in my head, counting seatbelts and possible ass-space. Like preceding situations, nothing was adding up. When I looked down at the key ring one more time, I noticed the number 12 followed by the word “pass.” It dawned on me that I had taken the wrong van, a 12 passenger one, not the 15 passenger one I reserved. I was already well into my timetable and still on time for the field trip. So I just decided I was somehow going to try to make that work. It dawned on me soon after that,
no matter how hard I tried it wasn’t going to work.
I reached out and asked a parent if she would like to come because we had one more open spot. She said yes. I said, Â “Great! You can drive too. That’ll really help, some of the big kids don’t want to get squished into the van.” She was agreeable and my plan was rolling.
Now it occurs to me at this moment how easy it is to steal a van near the airport in Orlando. (MCO) Nobody checked my papers, nobody asked for my ID. I’m sure I’m on camera. But I basically told the attendant at their gate that I wasn’t there to park and then get shuttled to the airport, I was there to pick up the van from the rental agency  who used their back lot. He let me right in. I left with the van. Considering I took the wrong van, I’m going to go ahead and tell you that it was just that easy to steal a van. I just happened to bring it back, and pay.
It’s not even this hard…
So now we are on the timetable, only about 15 minutes late. I decided that it was still going to work if we followed my schedule. About one hour into the trip, somewhere around Auburndale, maybe a little further towards Tampa, my phone rang and I answered it. It was a nice lady at the van rental agency. She had gotten the emails that I had sent her regarding taking the wrong van, hoping it wouldn’t cost too much trouble etc. She politely asked me if I was going to return the van that I had wrongly taken. I politely informed her that it was too late for that. We were practically in Tampa already. We were not practically in Tampa already. But we were closer to Tampa than we were to the rental lot. I told her that The van I left was much bigger than the van I took. That still leaves the client who needed that van with extra room, not less. She agreed that the person who supposed to have the van I w
as driving would be getting a better deal. Furthermore, it would be at my expense since I’m actually paying 15 person van fee and driving a 12. She agreed, or maybe just conceded. And we kept on our way. We arrived at Philippe Park in Safety Harbor exactly at 10:30 as I had planned. We went over a few expectations regarding written activities and log keeping for the day, and began our nature hike facilitated by Mr. Clay on the way to the indigenous midden, or Shell
mound left behind by the Tampa Bay Tocobaga Indians. The whole experience was exceptional.
I am attending a rebranding project for a small private school trying to things differently. They do quite a bit differently. Here is a survey they would like parents and students to complete. It would be helpful. It may also lend a little insight into your own beliefs. Should education be concerned with proper customer service as well?
The following email was sent home to students after a “heads-up” email was sent to parents.
Kids,
The staff at LCPS hopes you had a great Spring Break. It’s over now. We want you to get back into the frame of mind which has served you so well this year. namely that if you do exactly as instructed, all will be well. Please read this email in it’s entirety before beginning your project. yes, a project is due the day you get back. On Wednesday morning you will be presenting an oral report, with accompanying essay and creative project about one or more of the following subjects:
-The Battle of Antietam
-Mary Curie’s first three failed attempts
-Why the cotton gin escalated slavery and racism
-How cooperative education is responsible for global climate change
-The egg
-The scientific proof that God doesn’t exist vs The lack of proof that god does exist and how that shapes international banking
-An invention which hindered the progress of antibacterial medicines
-The Gulf War and why it is really about the Gulf Coast states
-Why straight marriage is a threat to the Space Program
-The Florida Film Festival’s involvement in eugenics
-American military interventionism in the National Parks System
-Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel mural is a forgery of an earlier monks unsold painting.
These topics will be considered outside work and can count as 1/3 of both your previous and upcoming 9 weeks grades. Furthermore, each student will be responsible to make sure that no other student has covered the same topic.
Each student will be responsible for remembering the information shared by fellow students, as there will be a test on the information -IN ITS ENTIRETY- on Thursday.
Mr K,
Prep English Language Arts
Lawton Chiles Prep
407-327-5300
chilesprep.com
dropbox@05920611.klaboratory.highrisehq.com
Twitter:
@ConHippy
@Chilesprep
#MrKRoom3
#ChilesPrep
#April Fools!
Service is The Product 