North Shore Country Day School - Mirror Yearbook (Winnetka, IL)

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tion gotten from the opera on one side of a scale and then tried to balance it with the work put in on the opera, the amount of fun would by far outweigh the amount of work. No one would give up the fun of rehearsing, of the Sunday afternoon practice for the leads at the Duff ' s, of the supper the night of the dress rehearsal, of the excitement of the performances just because he was afraid of a little hard work. The person who originated the idea of an annual opera deserves a medal of honor be- cause North Shore without an opera would be like a cake without frosting-. Zl

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OPERA The girls ' gym was a scene of great con- fusion. The freshmen girls were administer- ing a few last minute dabs of powder upon the noses of some members of the chorus. Several boys dressed in the attire of old time sailors, artists, and farmers were wandering aimlessly around getting in everyone ' s way, and groups of girls in costumes of 18S0 were chattering and giggling, trying to act unex- cited. Upon the stage Mr. Duff, several pounds thinner than he had been a month ago, was pacing nervously up and down, and nearly stumbling over the robed, bewigged gentlemen who were sitting glumly on the edge of the stage, rather pale under their make-up. A whistle blew and a crowd of boys and girls gathered in front of the stage. With a few words of instruction and encouragement from Mr. Duff, the orders were eiven for everyone to take his place for Trial by Jury. This moment was the climax of weeks of work and worry, the time that the whole high school had been eagerly awaiting since the middle of winter. When the curtain went up on Trial by Jury, and the actors looked forth at that endless sea of blank faces staring up at them, they felt a momentary pang of stage fright. This feeling soon passed, however, when they began to get into the swing of things. As the time came for A Nice Dilemma the whole cast mentally gritted their teeth, pitched in, and battled to a successful finish. At the end of Trial by Jury, the actors made a mad clash off the stage, and the sta je crew hurried on to change from the detailed set of the first opera to the simple, modern- istic set of Xingabru. The girls tore down stairs to cover them- selves with liquid powder and to change from long skirts to pastel-colored sarongs decorated with bright flowers and wide sashes. Dorothy Lamour would have bought herself a snowsuit if she could have seen the jungle belles of North Shore. The boys were transformed from jurymen into red-coated Northwest Mounties and black cannibals with feathers in their kinky wigs and bones in their noses. The premiere of Xingabru by Duff Jameson was awaited with as much excite- ment as any Hollywood opening. The fact that it was the first performance of the opera whose libretto was written by a North Shore student and whose musical score was com- posed by one of the faculty, drew a record- breaking crowd both nights and made the experience a more personal one for actor and audience alike. In the second act the antics of the canni- bals dancing the conga to the wild beat of a jungle drum literally stopped the show. They were called back for an unprecedented encore at both evening performances. On Saturday night when the last curtain fell, and it was all over but the shouting, the whole cast filed from the stage to get rid of the grease paint and scrub off the liquid powder. With a very let down feeling they realized that this was the last opera per- formance till next year. For the seniors, there was no cheery thought of next year, however, and in the future they would be only onlookers. If you could put all the fun and satisfac- 26

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NATIONAL DEFENSE Since the war overshadows everything now, and since war effort is taking the cen- ter of the stage, we feel that the things which North Shore is doing for Uncle Sam deserve a place in the Mirror. One of the first projects to be started was the paper collecting campaign. Maybe there was some use in all the written homework they dished out to us, because the more we wrote, the more paper we had to throw away, and the more shell cases we helped to make. The sale of War Stamps was also one of the early activities started by some patriotic students. Every Tuesday and Thursday in the lunchroom we were coaxed in dictatorial tones to Buy a defense stamp ! Most of the senior girls, not at all daunted by those unkind cartoons appearing lately in the press, took a First Aid course from Doc. They discovered that it was as much work as taking on a fifth subject, but they learned all about the treatment for shock and what you do when someone faints or pricks his finger. The sophomore girls, under the direction of Dr. Landau, did their bit by working for the Red Cross. They knitted sweaters, suits for youngsters, and afghan squares, as well as turning out sewing kits. The Lower and Middle Schools were right up with the High School in their work for national defense. They sewed for the British War Relief and collected things such as old medicine bottles and broken records for the U. S. O. North Shore was the first school around here to have an air raid drill. After the first couple of practices, which were not too suc- cessful, a simple and satisfactory plan was worked out, and the drills began to go off smoothly. To some people air raid drills seemed a silly precaution, but we felt that it is better to lock the barn door before the horse is stolen. A school like North Shore could exist only in a free and democratic country like the United States ; therefore, we have worked hard to contribute toward the defense of this country and to help keep it free and demo- cratic. 28