Great Expectations

By Bob Gariano

Two weeks ago a good friend of mine who lives in Dallas was visiting Lake Forest. Her daughter is a boarding student at Lake Forest Academy and she had a leading role in this year’s LFA class play, a production of Stephen Schwartz’s melodic play, Pippin. My friend asked me if I would like to join her for the Saturday performance and I was pleased to accept her invitation.

I was swept away by the quality and energy of this high school production. Even though the LFA play was done on a small auditorium stage with minimal accompaniment, the players sang and danced their parts with an energy and expertise that belied the young age of the high school cast. I have seen plays on Broadway that were not as well presented.

The quality of the production came through the intersection of three happy attributes. The play itself has the hopeful, youthful lyrics and melodies that perfectly fit the young actors. The actors themselves were disciplined and skillful in both solo performance and in chorus. Finally, the adroit management and coaching of the LFA teachers showed through. These teachers got the best out of the young actors because they expected the best. This theme of high expectations is one that runs through the LFA student experience.

Youthful energy

The character of Pippin accurately represents the hopefulness and naiveté of youth. Right before intermission, Prince Pippin does away with his father who had ruled his country with an iron hand in a war like and feudal state. Pippin’s first act as ruler reflects his sense of justice and egalitarianism. He issues a decree to redistribute land to the peasants. He empties the treasury to redistribute wealth to the middle class and the poor. He seeks to create utopian fairness in his country. No sooner were the decrees issued than foreign invaders appear at the city gates. Pippin realizes that an army requires funding and he reverses his utopian dreams to deal with the real politik of the world.

The poignancy of the lyrics, especially Pippin’s solo where he sings “Gotta find my corner of the sky” is all the more touching when we realize that the words were written by a young student composer about to begin his career in the demanding world of the theater. These were words that came from the heart.

Composer Stephen Schwartz

The youthful exuberance of the play does not come by chance. The lyrics and music for Pippin were written by acclaimed American musical theater composer Stephen Lawrence Schwartz. Schwartz wrote the play as a 19 year old undergraduate studying musical theater at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The play was originally performed by CMU’s student actors’ workshop, “Scotch ‘n’ Soda.” I remember seeing that student production when I was an undergraduate student at CMU some 40 years ago.

Carnegie Mellon at that time, and for some decades since, has emerged as the preeminent dramatic arts school in the country. Even though this Midwestern technical school was the first college in the US to offer an undergraduate in drama in 1917, it was not until the last 40 years that the school has gained real prominence in the dramatic arts. Now the school’s reputation in this field is well established. CMU alumni include Ted Danson of Cheers and Damages, Steven Bochco of NYPD Blues, John Wells of ER, Paula Kauffman Wagner of Mission Impossible, Zachary Quinto of Star Trek, Tamara Tunie of Law and Order, and Cherry Jones of 24. Bud Yorkin, who won an Emmy for All in the Family studied engineering at CMU.

Stephen Schwartz graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 1968 with a BFA in Drama. He had studied as a high school student in New York’s esteemed Julliard pre college program. His career as a lyricist and composer for Broadway and Hollywood spans four decades and includes such popular hits as Godspell, Pippin, Wicked, Pocahontas, The Prince of Egypt, and Enchanted. Steven Schwartz has won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics, three Grammy Awards, three Academy Awards, and he has been nominated for six Tony Awards.

 Great expectations

Such a career is launched with high expectations at an early age. A well respected professor that I know at Northwestern once told me his secret for teaching freshman engineering undergraduates. “I expect a lot form them and they deliver.” This professor had carried an automatic weapon as a squad leader in the Israeli militia when he was 19 years old, so he also learned responsibility early. He went on, “We are in the habit of treating the students as children when they are really adults. We should expect so much more from our young people than fraternity parties and video games. If we expect great things, they will live up to those expectations.”

High expectations are what created the marvelous performance at LFA on that Saturday night. The brilliant singing and dancing on stage that evening was a public example of the pride and energy that comes from young people who are expected to perform and who live up to those high expectations to be the best. High expectations is a theme that is a systemic part of the LFA experience.

At LFA the students are expected to dress properly for class. They are required to come prepared with homework completed so that they can fully participate in class discussions. The boarding school and day students at LFA are held to a high standard of behavior outside of the classroom as well. Every student has a full schedule of extra curricular activities including varsity sports and club activities. There is a zero tolerance policy regarding alcohol use and other substance abuse by students. Expectations are high and performance and student pride match the expectations. I personally saw an example of that excellence on stage at Lake Forest Academy on that Saturday evening two weeks ago.

Bob Gariano is President of RGA, an executive search firm that recruits senior executives and board members for public and private companies. Bob can be reached at rgariano@robertgariano.com