Recalling my high school graduation Off the Record Barbara Stinson Lee

When it comes time to cover the diocese’s three high school graduations, I am reminded of my own high school graduation in 1969. I can’t remember who the speakers were. I only know I was there.

My high school graduation was the culmination of four difficult years for me. I had a hard time fitting in in high school until I found the drama department. I had spent years working in Phoenix, Arizona’s outstanding Children’s Theatre, where the circle of friends changed with every production. As I got older, I moved on to Phoenix Little Theatre, a more mature theater experience. The wider circle of friends still changed with every production, but a smaller circle, including the theater’s staff and regular volunteers (of which I was one) hung on, preparing each new production, then tearing it down at the end of each run.

When I found Camelback High School’s drama and speech department, I found another place in which I could feel at home. In fact, for most of my high school years I would go to class, to the drama department, then either to whatever paying job I could get or on to Phoenix Little Theatre, where the work went on day and night and weekends. I confess that the only time I slept during my high school years was in math class, and I barely squeaked out of high school with the poor math grades I got.

When I was in my senior year of high school, Phoenix Little Theatre was in dire financial straights. It was decided that, for the benefit of Phoenix Little Theatre, one of the city’s most successful productions, Arcadia High School’s presentation of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” would be remounted at Phoenix Little Theatre for a short fund raising run.

This was great. I knew a lot of the people in the Arcadia High School Drama Department. We’d worked together since we were all young enough to do children’s theater together. I knew the leads in “The Music Man.” I knew the director. And I knew there would be a place for me somewhere behind the scenes in that theater I knew so well.

Sure enough, there I was during the last few weeks of my senior year in high school. I was painting scenery, mending costumes, polishing boots and shoes and keeping track of musical scores. As I had done for so long, I left one drama department (at Camelback High School) at the end of the school day for another theater experience. I worked for a few hours for pay in between. My weekends were equally full. I had jobs in local department stores from morning until evening, then on to the theater. I was poor, but I had understanding parents who never missed an opening night, no matter the play.

As progress on “The Music Man” went on, the night was set for its opening. That night was my Camelback High School graduation night.

There was never any doubt in my mind that graduation from high school was important to me. I needed that experience to close one book and open another. I needed to say good-bye, sharing kisses and tears with so many people.

It would be my late father and my mother who would make the night work for me. They were there to cheer me on as I picked up my diploma on the athletic field at Camelback. Then, they met me at the car in the parking lot and we were off to the theater. There would be no unsanctioned post-graduation party in the canyon for me. We had a show to open.

We arrived moments before the curtain went up, and I just had time to hear the play’s director read a congratulatory telegram to the company from Mr. Willson. Graduation went well. Opening night went well. We managed to float between the two without losing the importance of either one.

Things have changed. Arcadia High School no longer exists. Phoenix Little Theatre is now Phoenix Theatre, the city’s oldest arts organization, and Anne Tuttle, my high school drama teacher, now directs for the Utah Shakespearean Festival.

Graduations bring back many glorious memories.