Pomfret Magazine | Fall 2022

Hard Act to Follow

STORY BY Corrine Szarkowicz

PHOTOS BY Lindsay Lehmann and Corrine Szarkowicz

The script, loosely based on “Steel Trapp: The Academy” by “New York Times” best-selling author Ridley Pearson ’71, went through numerous revisions before the first table read. Students, faculty, and alumni spent six months — two terms instead of one — perfecting the scenes and musical numbers. Opening night coincided with the highly anticipated reopening of Hard Auditorium. Each performance of the three-night run was standing room only. The original production of the mystery musical — “The Academy’ — will be a hard act to follow.

ACT I: INTRODUCTIONS AND IDEAS

Ridley Pearson ’71 and Theater Director Chip Lamb met in 2011 when a group from Pomfret School attended an off-Broadway production of “Peter and the Starcatcher” — a play based on Pearson and Dave Barry’s book of the same name. The two kept in touch, and in 2019 Lamb got the idea to turn another of Pearson’s books into his third and final original play with a connection to Pomfret School.

For the School’s Centennial Celebration in 1994, Lamb wrote “I’m a Master, I Believe” about Pomfret’s founder William Peck. In 2013, he staged “70lbs of Books” — the story of Pomfret alumn Loring “Ring” Bailey ’63, who died in the Vietnam War — on what would have been Bailey’s 50th class reunion weekend. For Pearson’s 50th reunion, Lamb wanted to adapt the author’s second book in the Steel Trapp series, “The Academy,” into a play. The young adult novel is set at a boarding school loosely based on Pomfret and includes some of Pearson’s experiences as a student in Clark Chapel and as a head waiter.

When Lamb asked Pearson about turning the book into a play, he happily agreed. Pearson contacted Disney, who owns the rights to the story, and they also gave their approval. Then the pandemic hit, and the original production was put on hold. Stuck at home with his book deals on hold, Pearson found himself with some time on his hand, and decided he wanted to become a larger part of the project and write some music for the Pomfret production.

Before he became a writer, Pearson was a “professional” musician. To make a living while performing with his band, he wrote nonfiction before finding success writing fiction novels. Pearson also found the staging of his novel “Peter and the Starcatchers” fascinating and wanted to be part of the theater world again. Adding a musical component to the production of “The Academy” was his chance. Lamb was accepting of the idea, and the two set to work. “I had no idea we were embarking on a multi-year odyssey,” says Lamb. “I had no idea our version of the story would be a musical. I had no idea Pearson would fully embrace this project, put his own professional projects on hold, and spend hundreds of hours writing music, lyrics, and the script with me. I had no idea about his total dedication to our school, a place that changed his life.”

ACT II: MUSIC AND LYRICS

Ridley Pearson ’71 and Theater Director Chip Lamb at the table read.

With some help from Jacques Bailhé ’71, Pearson and Lamb created an outline of the story and started drafting the show.

Steel, played by Austin Kendig ’22, and Kayleigh, played by Maya Bullied ’23, get an unfriendly welcome when they arrive as freshmen at their boarding school that bears a striking resemblance to Pomfret. They meet a frightening deputy head of school, played by Brooke Zahansky ’22; a peculiar head of school, played by Anders Kirkland ’23; and ruthless upperclassmen, played by Kaya Horvath ’22 and Lexi Beck ’22. Luckily, they are fast to make friends with Steel’s roommate, played by Nat Kikonyogo ’25, and an upperclassman, played by Mak Curley ’22, in whom they instill their trust when they come face-to-face with a mystery to solve. At the end of the first act, Steel and Kayleigh learn that the school has an underground spy program which they immediately join. They are tasked with their first mission during the second act — to keep tabs on a mysterious janitor, played by Bob Dong ’23. Throughout the play, Steel and Kayleigh suppressed their love for one another but found themselves together in the end.

While Lamb and Pearson were drafting the script, Pomfret was working on a space worthy of this monumental project. Built nearly one hundred years ago, Hard Auditorium no longer met the needs of the School — in fact, the entire community no longer fit in the space. The debut of the original production was also set to be the reopening of the yearlong renovation project.

“Having narrowly missed Pearson’s 50th reunion in 2021, the desire to be the first play staged after the renovation of Hard Auditorium motivated us. It established a timeline and gave us a benchmark to meet,” said Lamb. “We were excited to celebrate the reopening of the theater and show off the hard work of so many constituents. The opportunity to get to do something like this is once in a lifetime.”

With a deadline to meet, Pearson and Lamb completed the first draft of the two-act mystery musical before the start of the 2021-2022 school year. Students and faculty integral to the production got their first look at the script in November 2021 at the table read in Parsons Lodge. As students read aloud the words Pearson and Lamb had been laboring over for nearly two years, everyone laughed at the jokes and comical moments. They paused to hear rough cuts of the show’s lyrics and music. During a break, students talked excitedly about bringing the production to life. “The table-read experience was amazing! Working on an original show is every performer’s dream,” exclaimed Maya Bullied ’23.

“I was so thrilled with how animated the students were,” Pearson reflected after the reading. “They put so much emotion into it and made the pages come to life. It gave me a lot of hope.”

The energy from the table read propelled Pearson and Lamb through casting and into the first rehearsal. Together with thirty students, they got to work fleshing out the script, revising the lyrics, and putting movement to the music and stage direction. During the Project: Pomfret period, the cast dedicated two weeks to perfecting Act One. “I really enjoyed working with Ridley, Dr. Burns [Pomfret’s Director of Music], and Kaya on the songs,” said Lexi Beck ’22. “We got to play with different harmonies. If the words in the song or the dialogue didn’t work, we were able to change them because we want them to be natural.”

ACT III: STANDING ROOM AND A STANDING OVATION

The cast and crew of “The Academy.”

On the night of the premiere, every seat of the newly renovated auditorium was filled with parents, alumni, and members of the School and local communities. Students lined the newly constructed balcony and eagerly watched with their faces pressed against the glass barriers. As the cast took their final bow, they were met with a standing ovation. “The premiere was arguably one of the best opening nights we could have asked for. The audience was so involved, which was amazing,” said Austin Kendig ’22. “The cast fed off their energy, and everyone backstage was so laser-focused, but also having fun.”

Pearson and Lamb could not have agreed more. “Opening night was a triumph! I was so impressed by our Pomfret company of actors, stagehands, and musicians,” expressed Pearson. “It was both exciting and satisfying for our creative team to see the students’ efforts pay off. The joy on their faces in the final curtain bow said it all.”

The show, years in the making, was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that Lamb, Pearson, and everyone involved and in the audience will never forget. It will be a hard act to follow.

Ridley Pearson ’71

Photo courtesy of Ridley Pearson.

Pomfret is where Pearson first learned to write. He got the writing bug in William “Terry” Murbach’s class. Since catching the bug, Pearson has written more than fifty award-winning suspense and young adult novels, including the “New York Times” bestseller “The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer.” His books have been published in two dozen languages and adapted for network television and the Broadway stage.

While at Pomfret and throughout and after college, Pearson was in a folk-rock band called the Big Lost Rainbow, made up of his Pomfret classmates. Robin Pfoutz ’71 played the cello, Adam Berenson ’71 played the piano, Tony Morse ’71 played the flute, Jacques Bailhé ’71 played the bass, and Otis Read ’71 and Pearson played the guitar. While the band never hit it big, on a nationwide book tour a media escort named Kathi Goldmark learned about Pearson’s musical experience and invited him to join a band she organized made up her literary clients.

Pearson found himself in a band with Barbara Kingsolver, Stephen King, Amy Tan, Dave Barry, and the “real” musician, Al Kooper. The band is called the Rock Bottom Remainders. In the book business, a remainder is an unsold book taking up space on a bookstore shelf. The Remainders occasionally performs for literary causes and nonprofits that support First Amendment rights. What they lack in musical talent, they make up for in their written literary works. The band is where Pearson met Dave Barry. The two wrote “Peter and the Starcatchers,” and in 2009, their book was adapted into a play.

Pearson is a dedicated alum. In 2011, he served as the Lasell Visiting Alumnus and received the Pomfret School Alumni Award. Together with his brother Brad Pearson ’65, they established the Robert Pearson Short Fiction Award, in honor of their father. The award is given annually to the Pomfret senior who writes the best short story.