On Sunday, May 23rd, I was standing around in the theater at Nathan Hale, minding my own business so to speak, catching my breath after doing a bit of running around as a helper, and watching last minute adjustments being made to the set-up of chairs and music stands on the stage.

“Can you move the curtain?”  I slowly became aware that the question had been directed at me. “No!”

What I meant was that I had never done it, and I didn’t know how.  A little more of my consciousness returned to me, and I realized that I was asked to help, to be the person who pulls on the rope…. aha!

My first thought was “I don’t want to not be able to see the performance!!”, my second “What if I mess up??”

Well, I am a bit of a pushover and I quickly agreed anyway.  Linda Povinelli (during the week she teaches Euryhtmy at the high school) acted as the stage manager for the concert, and she marked up a program for me with ‘curtain open’ and ‘curtain closed’, and we worked out a simple ‘thumbs up’ communications system which we planned use to make sure I would get it right.

Linda was positioned all the way across, on the other side of the stage, and also behind the curtain.  We waved and smiled at each other as we waited to for the first time I would have to pull the curtain.  Of course, Linda had a couple of other things on her mind, such as shepherding large groups of students to the right place at the right time very quickly, but MY whole world consisted of the the two fat ropes in front of me, one of which I would have to pull on, hard, in a moment.  Which one was it again?  No, not this one…., oops, yes, the first one, I just didn’t pull hard enough on the first go.  Pull pull pull, watching the curtain move across the stage is not what we are here for, pull faster…

It was enough to work up a sweat.  Gratefully, I sat down next to the rope, relieved I had done it, for a short rest.

Then, the most wonderful thing happened.

From my spot behind the curtain, I could not only see the students on stage (what a pleasant surprise!), I could also see Patricia Kim, as she faced the students to conduct them.

Patricia did, of course, use her hands to indicate tempo and dynamics etc. for our student musicians, but I quickly became mesmerized by Patricia’s eloquent face.  I watched Patricia speak, whisper, shout to the students with her facial expressions, encouraging them, urging them on, congratulating them. The sight and sound of music became my new world.

I had the best seat in the house.

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