'No Place Like Home' Musical Debuts at Nixon Elementary School

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The following was submitted by Wendy Heye and Jack Garrity.)

This is an exciting week for many students at Nixon Elementary School in Sudbury. On Wednesday and Thursday night, the Nixon Musical Theatre Players will debut their first production, “No Place Like Home.” Jack Garrity, who plays "Max" in the show, wrote the following article about the experience. 

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As the performance date approaches I have been thinking about what the show has meant to me. It is amazing how hard everybody has worked. After dozens of hours of practice and memorization, the actresses, actors, and crew are finally ready.

On May 30 and 31, the Nixon Musical Theatre Players shall present “No Place Like Home,” an original musical written by Connie-lin Nold.  It is based on the classic book, Where the Wild Things Are by the late Maurice Sendak. Mrs. Nold is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Boston with a Masters in Music and Opera Performance. She believes musical theatre is an essential part of public school education and I agree with her. I can tell it's helped many of the performer’s fluency and reading comprehension. Musical theatre has given all the actors and actresses a chance to understand and act how their character would. It has been so fun.

Believe it or not, there hasn't been musical theatre at Nixon in 15 years until Mrs. Nold started it up again this year. I wonder if it was as popular then as it is today. Volunteer parents and PTO support put the show together - making it really special in the respect that parents feel that their children really have a part in musical theatre.

The staff took everyone interested and gave them a part, giving them all a place in the musical. The script for "No Place Like Home" is  awesome. I hope Connie writes another one next year. Our doors open on May 30 and 31 at 6:30 p.m. There will a bake sale, a jewelry sale, and an art sale put on by wonderful volunteer moms at Nixon. All the PTO moms have been incredibly helpful getting the show moving twice as fast and finding incredibly accurate props.

Musical theater is really an essential factor to the growth, development and confidence of K to fifth-graders. Working on “There's No Place Like Home” has given me the courage to perform in front of a crowd, learn new things about the performing arts, and enjoy the company of the other actresses, actors and support staff. Connie has taught all the performers that whatever you are doing in reality (despite how embarrassing it may be) it is not you performing, it is the character you are playing. It has been a great time.