JOSEPH N. BELL
For the past four weekends, Drama Room 11 in one of the temporary
structures at Newport Harbor High School has been infested with young
men in snap brim felt hats and young women in garish dresses that
hide their knees, long stockings and sensible shoes. These
apparitions overflow frequently into the walkways outside, making the
area more closely resemble the back lot at Universal Studios than an
academic institution.
Inside, a man wearing a New York City police sweatshirt and a
patiently stressed look is directing traffic in and around a battery
of powerful lights and three cardboard flats that frame what appears
to be a night club bar. He is holding a camera. Periodically, he
assembles his cast in the night club and explains, cajoles,
improvises and applauds a performance that he films.
The setting is Chicago, the time, the Roaring 1920s, the director,
Newport Harbor history teacher Joe Robinson, the occasion his version
of the Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney invitation to "put on a show." He's
been putting this one on for nine years so his students could kick
off their shoes at the end of the academic year. But 2004 is
different. He's making a movie instead of putting his show on a
stage.
He promised me a felt hat and a part if I came to watch, but I
arrived late and hit the cutting room floor even before I had a
chance to tell him my best profile. It's OK because there probably
would have been an issue about my insistence on putting my name above
the title as befits a Mafia godfather. Instead, I just hung out,
watched the filming, talked to the actors and picked up snippets of
history from Joe Robinson and Kevin Weed, who is in charge of the
music. I've spent a lot of time on Hollywood sound stages, and I
promise you that this one was a lot more fun.
The show dates back to the introduction to Harbor High nine years
ago of educational programs designed to develop projects that
integrate science, math, history and English among small groups of
students who form a kind of academic family. Joe Robinson was
assigned to teach the history segment of the Da Vinci Academy
freshmen who had selected math and science as their special focus.
"It was a tough program," he recalls, "and as we approached the
end of the school year, I thought these kids should have some fun."
So he said, "Let's put on a show." And they have, every year
since. Until this year, it was performed on a stage outside the Fine
Arts Building at Harbor High. But this facility is now being torn
