Guys and Dolls Reprise

BFS Commencement 2014
Our "Nathan Detroit" of 1980, Fisher Stevens '81
[Head of School Larry Weiss and Fisher Stevens '81]

This week's Middle and Upper School musical production of Guys and Dolls reminds your friendly historian that this great classic musical has been mounted at BFS on at least two other occasions (the school is interested in memories of other Guys and Dolls at BFS, come forward please!)

The first known BFS production of Guys and Dolls was in May, 1980. Its performances were dedicated to a great moment in BFS history that same month: celebrating the burning of the Pearl Street mortgage. Read more about the 1980 performance of Guys and Dolls in The Life, May 1980, page 3. Of note, Fisher Stevens '81 played Nathan Detroit; the recipient of the BFS George Fox Distinguished Alumnus Award last year at Commencement, Fisher Stevens' shared memories and words of wisdom for the Class of 2014.

The second known production of Guys and Dolls was in November, 2006. Both casts were terrific - saw it twice! No reviews of the 2006 production seem to survive, but a great article previewing the show and wonderful photos do!

2006: Luck, Be a Lady

2006: Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat

2006: Marry the Man Today

2006: Guys and Dolls - Finale/Reprise

30 Years of BFS's Eeriest Tradition

In the distance... 

It can only be the Lower School Halloween Dance! In 1984, Marna Herrity was our dance teacher and she conceived of the Halloween Dance for the entirety of the Lower School's oldest grade. It immediately became a BFS tradition, a rite of passage of Lower School learning. The Halloween Dance has been directed by Margaret Bary for the last ten years. Margaret reports that this year will be our largest Halloween Dance, with a record number of 55 4th grade student performers.

Many aspects of the Halloween Dance are unchanged, most importantly that students still choreograph the work each year, guided by their director. It is an important early opportunity for BFS students to learn general aspects of theater such as listening and waiting for their cues, entrances and exits. Our students continue to design their own fabulous skeletal costumes using fluorescent tape on black clothing. The music, of course, remains selections from the "scary" album first excerpted in 1984, though those selections vary with the years. 

the sound of bones...

There have been few changes. The performance space has gone from the Lower Gym to the Meeting House Theater and then back to the Lower Gym, where it remains today so that all performers may appear on stage simultaneously. When the Halloween Dance was directed by Dori Dietz, our LS dance teacher for many years, 9th grade "buddies" helped 4th graders create their individual papier mâché masks, while today our 4th graders's smiling faces are covered in make-up also of their own design, applied by parent volunteers. The largest change is that the Halloween Dance was first performed by the 5th grade, yet it's been a 4th grade tradition since the Fall of 1986, when the 5th grade joined the Middle School. And one change is also a first: lighting will be used this year in the Gym! 

As photos from recent years show, the Halloween Dance is an exciting learning experience treasured by BFS students. 

skeletons rising... 

slowly from their graves...

night falls...

the forest holds its breath...

everything is still...

suddenly, the wind blows.

BFS history, the video

"This Is Our Quiet Time"

BFS ordinarily shares brief clips in its Video Archives, but we make an exception this week with the full version of the original BFS musical, Forward to the Past. Written and performed by the BFS community in 1989, Forward to the Past: the Historical Hysterical Follies of Brooklyn Friends School, relates our school's history as uncovered by an extra-terrestrial cultural anthropologist visiting the Planet Earth in his search for "friendly peoples." And he just happened to land at BFS. Of course, there are many familiar faces among the cast of teachers, parents, students, and friends, including Cheryl Foote, Don Knies, Jack Ramey, Martin Norregaard, Lawrence Gibson and many others. A clip of just the hip-hop finale was posted almost a year ago, yet today the beautiful solo, "This Is Our Quiet Time," beginning at 49:30, merits a listen.

A truly phenomenal woman

A Truly Phenomenal Woman
BFS Dance Concert 1989

With Maya Angelou's passing last week, let's go back 25 years to 1989, the year which saw the creation and first performance of "A Truly Phenomenal Woman" at the BFS Dance Concert. This short dance was set to Maya Angelou's poem "Phenomenal Woman." Choreographed by Monique N. Brown '89 and first performed by Ming Lou Rosado '90, "A Truly Phenomenal Woman" has since been performed by other BFS students at later BFS Dance Concerts over the years as it became an important dance for the BFS Dance Concert repertoire. Maya Angelou's words continue to positively impact our world, and this dance has also positively impacted generations at BFS. Maya Angelou remains in our grateful thoughts for many reasons, and one is the empowerment her words gave our students which inspired them to create and perform this dance.

A Truly Phenomenal Woman - 1989 from Brooklyn Friends School on Vimeo.

Mysteries from the Video Archives

Dance Concert Rehearsal, probably 1998

Digitizing much of the BFS dance department's video collection for the BFS Archives video collection yielded unidentified rehearsal videos and one music concert video. Most of these videos seem to have been created after 2000. One dance concert rehearsal video seems to be from 1992 or 1998: that video was dated "Monday, March 2" and the only years with that day and date, which also add up for this video, are 1992 and 1998, but I'm pretty sure it's 1998 since I know some of the dancers in the clip personally. This archivist would greatly appreciate your assistance in identifying the years in which these five videos were created. Please lend a hand and comment below.

A shy princess from BFS's Once Upon A Mattress, 1988

1988 Once Upon A Mattress - Shy

From the 1988 BFS musical production of Once Upon A Mattress comes the song "Shy" in which Princess Winnifred the Woebegone expresses her true nature as she tries to find Prince Dauntless the Drab for the very first time. And this after she swam the moat to get to the castle, much to everyone's dismay. I think Carol Burnett would be proud.

Feeling your Blue Pride? Make that Indigo

It's a throwback this fine Thursday to the "Mood Indigo" scene from the 1989 BFS original musical A Small Cabaret. A Small Cabaret was a departure from the traditional BFS musical: this ensemble production featured standards like Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," yet it also included more contemporary songs like "Miss Celie's Blues" from the film The Color Purple.

A bolt from the blue, it's true, it's you...

1987 Dames At Sea

Take two minutes to enjoy a charming duet in the BFS Middle School's 1987 production of Dames at Sea, capturing the moment when our romantic leads Dick and Ruby first meet, she swoons into his arms and they both know it's true love.

Stretching ourselves once upon the Natchez Trace

1987's The Robber Bridegroom, Upper School Musical

Scanning a 1920s scrapbook by hand can be monotonous, so I've been multi-tasking by going to my family's collection of BFS videos once again since I know video did not always survive in the school's collections over the years. My own home was the source of last week's Forward to the Past clip. Today we share a short scene from 1987's Upper School musical, The Robber Bridegroom which is followed by some quick insights from director Phil Bratnober at the cast party. Phil's words about "stretching ourselves to the limit" are worth hearing no matter when BFS was a part of your life. In case you did not notice, the band for this production is in the hayloft above the stage and the whole set is a carpentry feat that just goes to show "where there's a will, there's a way."

Now, what BFS gems do you have lying around your homes?

Video archives return with Forward to the Past, 1989

Forward to the Past - Finale - 1989

Do you remember Forward to the Past: Historical Hysterical Follies of Brooklyn Friends School? That was the 1989 musical about BFS - written and produced by BFS community members who also starred in the production. Forward to the Past was about an alien named T.E. from the far-distant future. T.E. was a budding cultural anthropologist visiting the planet Earth in the great search for "friendly" peoples. The actual site of T.E.'s visit just happened to be 375 Pearl Street in Brooklyn where he stumbled upon a trunk of memorabilia and shared its contents with his superiors in outer space. They learned a bit of Brooklyn Friends School's history and learned it has always been a friendly place. This rainy Thursday, let's look at the finale of Forward to the Past which features our first principal Mary Haviland leading the cast in song.

Archival Updates and Theatrical Enigmas

The Pajama Game, 1970s

The photos in BFS Sampler 2 photo album have finally been corrected and re-uploaded, meaning better quality images for visitors. The class photos originally in that album have now been moved to the appropriate class photos albums. Many of the photos in BFS Sampler 2 can now also be viewed in person in the Upper School hallways of BFS. Our students and faculty really enjoy them and it's so nice to have our school's history more present in the daily life of BFS once again. I'm so happy to have been part of such a fun project with our terrific PAT parent volunteers.

Video killed the archivist's mind...

Interesting issues emerge with video in the BFS Archives, particularly that VHS quality sure does not stand the test of time. I've now learned that 25 years is a pretty accurate VHS lifespan. Transferring Dance Concert VHS has been the major focus in the archives recently. There are often multiple copies of each Dance Concert, so listening to the same songs over and over can drive one to the brink.

That Show Took My Breath Away...

Always fun to find playbills from BFS theatrical performances, so we are making some available as they emerge from the school's archives and from personal collections. While more playbills are in the archives, we have scanned only a few programs