A Brief (?) History of SF Productions--Part 10
There's a lot to cover here, so take a seat.
We had the inevitable 25th anniversary extravaganza (being the 25th tape), which of course was a clip show. It also includes the only audio evidence of one short-term member of the team. Steve Hall was a British exchange student, and with dreams of Monty Python dancing in my head, I cajoled him into suiting up. It didn't work out--I suppose he considered us to be too strange--and he returned to his homeland (hopefully not due solely to us).
Hall also had a small part on SF's only live performance in front of an audience--at a school talent show. We wrote up a parody of morning news shows ("Good Day USA"), which included some bad impressions (I did a poor Dan Ackroyd as Tom Snyder) and an exploding wastebasket. Bill and I spent more time on the latter than the script as a whole, and the response was tepid. Perhaps if I ever get some comments or traffic on this blog, I'll track down the script and post it.
Good Day USA did introduce two more members--Steve Hunt and Sharon Billey (Mirchandani). Steve moved into town in 10th grade, and I believe I met him through Semanon, the permanent tech crew for the High School auditorium (that's a topic for another day). Steve became a major player in the group, especially during the "we're actually going to do this for a living" era. Sharon was the accompanist for the school choir as well as the show choir where I got to know her. Sharon was always willing to jump into a role in our productions without hesitation.
Now to the main point of this post. As you've surely noticed, SF had a few references to Nazism. I want to make it crystal clear we're were not supporting them--keep in mind SF was founded around the time the Neo-nazis got going in Skokie, Illinois. I think it's safe to say that Eric and I were appalled that this was actually gaining traction, so we made fun of it in the form of Eppi.
Our high school put on the Sound of Music my senior year, and due to the small part I was given, I had plenty of time during rehearsals to ruminate on the storyline. I'm not sure if Eric or I came up with the idea of re-telling the story from a pro-Nazi point of view, making it a very dark comedy. In any case, we began to write alternate lyrics to the songs, and by the end of that year, it all came together. Most of the team was there (Mike declined to participate, stating the he might want to run for public office some day, and that evidence of this could ruin that chance). This was the first (but hardly the last) production we did in Lynda's basement--necessary so Sharon would have a piano to play. Lynda played Maria as a Nazi spy, Saylor played a laid back Georg, Bill made strange noises, Steve joined the chorus, and Eric made sure we didn't wuss out at the end.
And with that (whew), here's our take on a musical classic...