If I had more time, I'd love to be a judge for the "Freddy Awards."
I love going to the musical productions our area high schools put on every spring.
And it's even better for me if I take along my wife and 12-year-old daughter, who love the musicals much better than the sports I normally cover. And believe me, anything I can do to stay out of the doghouse is much appreciated.
My problem as a judge would be deciding the winners because to me they're all winners just for participating and getting up there and performing in front of an auditorium full of strangers; well most of them.
In sports we have a scoreboard or a stopwatch to tell us winners and losers. In theater, there's no scoreboard.
Thanks to Northwestern athletic director Jason Zimmerman, I was able to get tickets at the last minute for Sunday's soldout finale of the Tigers' production of "Footloose."
The original movie "Footloose" starring Kevin Bacon just celebrated its 30th anniversary. I probably haven't seen the movie since 1984, but Northwestern's vast cast of more than 50 brought it all back to life with a rollicking, fun presentation of the Bomont, Texas, town that banned dancing after the tragic death of four kids in a car accident.
I loved the music.
But in addition to the signing and the dancing, I marveled at how seamlessly the sets were changed by the crew.
They moved from a church scene to a kitchen to a school hallway to a country-western honky tonk all with ease and minimal interruption. The show flowed nicely. The sets were well constructed. Nothing flimsy.
Director and choreographer Bill Mutimer did a great job of casting. No one seemed misplaced.
Alex Bobbyn had the charm and charisma to pull off the lead role of Ren McCormack.
Zach McDonald had the perfect Don Knotts-like awkwardness to deliver Willard Hewitt, the nerdy country boy who becomes Ren's best friend. Certainly Willard, pulled off by McDonald, delivered the most laughs in the show. No one could have done it better.
And certainly, Haley Smith had the right amount of sass to pull off the character of Ariel Moore, the Rev. Shawn Moore's goody-goody daughter who wants to be bad and cut loose.
However, the performance that stole the show for me was Kurtis Reif capturing the essence of Rev. Shawn Moore, the pastor who banned dancing from Bomont as sort of revenge for his son's death. His transformation is the true essence of "Footloose." John Lithgow played the Rev. Moore in the movie and I think even Lithgow would have appreciated this performance.
Reif's gut-wrenching emotion displayed in "I Confess" in which he comes to terms with the loss of his son and reveals why he's so angry, brought a tear to my eye and many others in the audience. It was the show stealer in my mind.
What made this particularly poignant to me was the fact that Northwestern Lehigh has lost some young people over the years. As I was watching Reif's heartfelt performance, I couldn't help but think about former Northwestern basketball player Mark Guensch who died in a car accident in 2008 or Dylan Roth, another former Tiger basketball player, who died much too young after a courageous battle with cancer.
And frankly, Bomont could have been New Tripoli, or vice versa. Both are tight-knit, rural towns where everybody seems to know everybody and pulls together in times of need.
When a show can make you laugh at one point and cry at another, you know it's a good show.
Great job by everyone involved at Northwestern and since this is a sports blog, I wanted to give a special mention to all of the student-athletes involved because we know that sports keeps them busy enough, and yet they found time to participate in something which was so special for the whole community.
I remember a time when it wasn't cool for an athlete to be involved in the theater arts.
What I saw today was definitely cool.
My congrats and kudos to:
Alex Bobbyn -- football, track.
Daneen Haas -- volleyball
Haley Smith -- field hockey, track.
Alec Fixl -- football, track
Jenny Von Holt -- volleyball
Devon Devers -- cross country
Noah Seng Delong -- soccer
George Haddad -- football, track
Brad Stuby -- cross country, track
Maria Haddad -- field hockey
Ben Hoover --- cross country, track
Jacob Najarian -- football, track
Jacob Schnur -- football, track
Brooke Novotnack -- field hockey
Jordan Schnur -- track
Brooke Devers -- cross country, track
Jacob Wiersch -- soccer
Harry Hall -- football, track
Alec Marchek -- golf, baseball
Megan Rebert -- cheer, track
Frank Dangello -- football, track
Alessandro Consuelo -- cross country, track
Juliet Long -- cross country, track
Adam George -- track
Dylan Snyder -- football, track
Adam Lebrecht -- soccer, track
Mallory Brinley -- field hockey, track
Austin Weiss -- track
Jessica Fixl -- track
Elizabeth Iobst -- cross country, track
Elizabeth Fornauf -- cross country, track
Camryn Beers -- field hockey
Taylor Norman -- soccer, track
Rachel Landes -- field hockey, track
Julia Haas -- volleyball, track
Matthew Strickland -- soccerm track
Abbie Smith -- cross country, track.
Plus, we can't forget the student-athletes participating on the crew and technical staff:
Sarah Overstrom -- volleyball
Catie Ziemniak -- track
Colleen Morrison -- softba;;
Carley Sheetz -- field hockey, track
Laura Kresge -- volleyball
Grace Schoeniger -- track
Nicole Generose -- volleyball
Natalie Cugini -- field hockey
Rosey Pergosky -- volleyball, track
Monica Hosler -- soccer
Steven Narkin -- cross country
Jacob Pergosky -- track
Sydney Davis -- softball
Michael Mazzucco -- track
Jeffery Garbacik -- track
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