High School Trips to the Theater

For a high school in a small town in South Jersey, Penns Grove Regional afforded its students many cultural opportunities. Regular field trips added enormously to my general education. Often these trips included the theater and must be the reason why to this day I am a theater buff, who sees forty some plays a year. An English teacher, Mr. Thomas, took us to the McCarter Theater in Princeton to see several Shakespeare plays. The McCarter Theater remains one of the country's best regional theaters.

Mr. Antonick, who taught Biology, took us to see a touring production of "Cabaret" at the Wilmington Playhouse. I will never forget how the goings on at the Kit Kat Club in Berlin on the eve of the Nazi takeover captivated my imagination for that city and stirred my desire to travel there so that I could see it myself. I have been there five times!

During my sophomore year in high school, I was lucky enough to have Miss Grabosky for English. She was young, beautiful and hip. We all loved her. One night, she took us to Philadelphia to see the great Angela Lansbury in "Mame," one of the most legendary musicals of all time, in its try out run before transferring to Broadway.

Beyond the pleasure of seeing Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur, who would later achieve fame as "Maude," two unforgettable things happened that evening. Rumor had it that Ann-Margret was in the audience. Of course, we students were in the nosebleed section of the balcony. We went up to the railing and looked way down into the orchestra, where all the "rich people" were sitting. I spotted a woman in one of the rows closest to the stage. Cascading down her petite porcelain white shoulders was the most gorgeous red hair I had ever seen in my life. I just knew it was Ann-Margret's, and, as if to prove it just to me, she turned around. What a thrill for a kid from Penns Grove to see a movie star, who was then one of the most beautiful women in the world.

It was also that night that I was called "Sir" for the first time in my life. During intermission, I bought a program. The attendant said, "Thank you, Sir." I looked at my friends, laughed and said, " Hah! Sir!!??" Without missing a beat, the woman quipped, "Force of habit!" I'll never forget that night, and I'll never forget those high school trips to the theater which so stirred my imagination and made me the theater buff that I am today.