My turn: Support school performance

The soundtrack of my childhood was a set of scarred 33 1/3-rpm records of the biggest Broadway shows of the last century — "The Sound of Music," "South Pacific," "Oklahoma," "Camelot," and, of course, "My Fair Lady."

It's often called "the perfect musical." George Bernard Shaw's story, Lerner and Loewe's witty dialogue and soaring music, and charming characters with nary a bad guy in sight all add up to great entertainment.

I am tickled that Portales High School will be presenting this show Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and I know how hard these theater students, their teachers and their parents have worked to put this together.

In spite of the long hours spent memorizing lines, rehearsing, scrounging for props, building sets, stitching costumes, and playing the score until it is ingrained in their dreams, there is one thing that these young actors and musicians cannot ensure and it is the one thing that live theater must have: an audience.

That's where we come in, folks. Show times are at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $5 and available at the door.

We pack our gymnasiums and stadiums to support our youth. Let's do the same thing with the PHS Performing Arts Center this weekend. The kids deserve it, and the reward will be ours.

Betty Williamson is hopelessly addicted to musical theater. You can reach her at [email protected].