Conductors Tim Siess and Lewis Norfleet offered a great example of teamwork when the Southwest Washington Wind Symphony opened its seventh concert season on Nov. 6 at Union High School.
They shared the baton, but that’s not all: Their teamwork actually involved some sports teams. Siess and Norfleet are band teachers at Union High School, and the Titans drew a postseason football game on Nov. 4 — the same time they’d scheduled the symphony’s final rehearsal.
“I took the kids on the buses at 6 p.m.” to McKenzie Stadium, Siess said. Norfleet started the symphony rehearsal, and then rushed to the stadium to conduct the Titan band while Siess returned to the school to take over the symphony rehearsal.
That was just the start of their symphonic teamwork. Norfleet’s first concert piece was Souza’s tribute to baseball, “The National Game.” Norfleet conducted it while wearing a St. Louis Cardinal baseball cap and a jersey with the name and number of Cardinals’ star Albert Pujols.
The cap and jersey belonged to Siess, who grew up in St. Louis.
One more team was saluted in the concert program. “St. Louis Blues” is an American classic, but it’s also a sports franchise.
“I was in the fifth or sixth grade when the NHL brought the Blues to St. Louis,” Siess said.
— Tom Vogt
Dracula and Sherlock,yep, in the same play
When the character of Dracula appears with his deathly pallor and imposing cape, the audience immediately knows who is the vampire, but what if the identity of the vampire was a mystery until the last 10 minutes of a play? What began as a question for theater and history teacher Charlie Jackam has turned into Hockinson High School’s first show of the fall season, “Sherlock Holmes and the Legacy of Blood.”
Dracula and Sherlock Holmes have more in common than it first appears. “If you’re going to have a mystery, who better than Sherlock Holmes to solve it?” Jackam, 50, wrote the play many years ago, over the course of four to five months with a collaborator. While researching, Jackam noticed coincidences between the stories of Holmes and Dracula, such as Dr. Watson having served with an orderly named Murray, which is the maiden name of Bram Stoker’s Mina Harker.
“I altered the timeline 10 years and everything matched up nicely,” said Jackam.
The original play also turned into quite the challenge for the Hockinson students in the production.
“They’re enjoying it greatly on a number of different levels. They’re having fun with the fact that I wrote it. And I also presented it in a fashion where they didn’t have the final pages of the script until three weeks ago,” said Jackam. Being a part of the mystery allowed the students to play their characters honestly, and added a level of subtext to challenge the students’ acting skills.
Solve the “Legacy of Blood” with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson at 7 p.m. Nov. 18-19 at Hockinson High School, 16819 N.E. 159th St., Brush Prairie. Tickets are $6, $4 for seniors and children younger than 12. Call 360-448-6450.
— Ashley Swanson
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