In Memory

Any time a member of the Wilmington Friends School community passes away, we feel great sadness by the loss. But reflecting on their lives and contributions to the greater good helps us cope and remember the many good things about them.

Please visit our website at www.wilmingtonfriends.org/alumni/in-memory or use the QR code below to read about these wonderful members of the WFS community. We are now sharing full obituaries online instead of the printed magazine so we can be sure to include all of the information.

If you would like to let us know a friend or family member in our community has passed away, please email Lynne Nathan at lnathan@wilmingtonfriends.org.

Past Faculty: William "Bill" Anderson

Past Faculty: Thalia C. Putney

Class of 1943: Dr. Ayres Holmes Stockly

Class of 1946: Dr. Edward Marvel Phillips, Jr.

Class of 1947: Elizabeth "Betsey" Ocumpaugh Beadle Herrmann

Class of 1950: Janet Mitchell Harper ,William "Bill" Armstrong Reed

Class of 1953: Antoine "Tony" Marie de Sercey

Class of 1956: Cynthia Pyle Woolley

Class of 1975: Deborah "Deb" Crawford Moodey

Class of 1980: Ray "Ray-Ray" Douglas Board, Jr.

The Shows Went On!

Two were online, one was masked without an audience, and one was outside, but all of the shows went on! Eighth graders presented The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet as well as Dear Edwina Online Edition; fifth graders presented Super Happy Awesome News; and upper schoolers presented The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Teachers and co-directors Margaret Anne Butterfield and Micheline McManus (a.k.a. McButter) wrote this article for the Delaware Music Educators Association newsletter about their experience with the upper school musical outdoors and shared helpful tips for other directors.

iPads, Doppler Radar, and Sunscreen: The Tools You Need to Put on a Pandemic Musical

Looking at the grey sky, we were worried. Our tech person had set up his outdoor sound equipment, and we had paid for three hours of equipment rental and expertise. There was some muffled feedback coming through mic number four as the actors bravely meshed mics with masks and attempted to sing, dance, and act through the appropriately titled number “Pandemonium.” It started with a drip, and we looked at each other. Then the wind blew the props off the table, and we looked at our tech guy. Drips turned to rain, and he gave us the sign that he needed to stop to protect his equipment. We moved all the students to the football press box overlooking the field, and we stood outside, shivering, looking through the sideways rain. Looking at radar on our phones, we pondered cancelling, but then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the rain stopped. We moved the students back to the wet football field that was our stage, and started right where we had left off. Tech rehearsals are always stressful affairs. Tech rehearsal in a pandemic was something else entirely. What were we thinking when we decided to put on a musical during a pandemic??? We had already made tentative plans to present The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee as our 2020-21 musical by the time we went into lockdown last March. Not having a crystal ball, and being COVID-cautious, we decided to aim for the spring of 2021. We secured the rights for Spelling Bee with April dates, crossed our fingers, and started a little planning. Once we realized that we would have to do this outside or not at all, we weighed so many options, including pulling the plug entirely. Eventually, we moved to May dates (grateful that MTI was willing to be flexible!), rolled up our sleeves, and got to work, holding auditions in mid-March and beginning rehearsals as soon as we returned from spring break.

What kept us going? Just this - we had to do something to offer our dedicated musical theatre students an opportunity to showcase their passion, but still be safe. Every decision we made was predicated on trying to give them a modicum of “normal” and help them maintain their passion. In the end, moving ahead with this production was absolutely the right thing to do. The smaller cast meant those students developed a

Eighth graders presented The Seussification of Romeo Dear Edwina Online Edition as well as and Juliet

Fifth graders presented Super Happy Awesome News

The 25th Annual Putnam County Upper schoolers presented

. Spelling Bee

wonderful camaraderie, even though they spanned all four grades and had varying levels of experience. They supported each other through rainstorms during a tech rehearsal, an iPad failure in performance, and even a temporary quarantine. “The show must go on” was never more true!

Handy tips for putting on a fully-staged musical during a pandemic:

• Choose a show that has a small cast, but still offers opportunities for ensemble performers, and is set in the current era (so much easier to costume!). • Stage the production on an athletic field, and create a set using athletic equipment (it really helps to make friends with your athletic director!). • Juggle numerous conflicts with games that get rescheduled. • Rent the performance tracks so you don’t have to set up a live pit outdoors. • Hire a professional sound company for outdoor amplification (and pray that you can find funding!). • Schedule matinee performances so you don’t have to rent lights. • Rehearse outdoors whenever possible, even on chilly evenings – at least until the sun goes down. • Wear sunscreen - lots of it. Think of it as the new stage makeup. • Make contingency plans for weather – every single. day. If you have them, you probably won’t need them, but if you don’t... • Realize that the audience will be spread out because of COVID restrictions. They will be sitting on bleachers to watch the performance, and it may be hard for the actors to hear their laughter. • Hope you have a supportive administration who helps you submit a last-minute application to DPH to move the production indoors, if necessary, with social distancing considerations in place. • Enlist help from parents for tech week meals, box office duties, audience seating plans, etc. • Know that iPads can overheat in direct sunlight.

True story: when that happens, and you have no idea what to do, your students carry on as if nothing happened, sing four-part harmony to finish one song, then begin the next song without the track, only to be perfectly in tune when the tracks resume.

Panic and pride can co-exist! • Keep your sense of humor and stay humble. When it rains sideways, the iPad overheats, and you have to grab the windshield mid-performance to keep it from blowing over, it’s better to laugh and let go of your idea of what the show was going to be. Whatever happens, it will be unexpected, sometimes terrifying, always worth it. But the rain will stop; we promise.

Visir our online school store, KangasCloset.com, to shop for apparel, accessories, and more! There is a wide variety of merchandise so you can show your school spirit in many ways. There are great gift ideas too!

101 School Road Wilmington, DE 19803 www.wilmingtonfriends.org

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Homecoming • October 29-30, 2021

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 1249 Wilmington, DE

The school garden was more robust than ever this year, and we were able to consistently donate fresh produce to the Lutheran Community Services food pantry throughout the summer.