DANIEL TYLER GOODEN / L’Observateur / April 14, 2000

THIBODAUX – Many children may not understand what they have started or the importance of what they were involved in, but many do now know they have friends where they may have not have had them before.

The St. James Theater Program, in proposing the production “One Step Fromthe Edge” last October, strove to spread its arm to both sides of the river and gather all together. By April that’s what it had done.Elvis Cavalier, director of student programs for the schools, wrote, produced and directed the show in the hopes that all parish schools could come together, losing the east/west bank mentality and combining truly as the St.

James Parish School System.

“Many people see the river as a dividing factor in our parish. Instead, theMississippi is really the bond that we all have in common,” said Cavalier.

That theme was prevalent in the production 328 students and 32 adults performed on both sides of the river and in Thibodaux.

The show traveled to Thibodaux Wednesday, making the theater program the only student touring show in Louisiana. With hundreds of students fromsurrounding schools in the local parishes, the performers worked hard, and as Cavalier commented afterward, the morning show turned out to be the best they had done yet.

The show, “One Step From the Edge,” was a collage of interpretive dancing and performance both based in history analyzing the present and looking into the future.

The two-hour show opened with a welcome by Lutcher High School junior Rachel Hoover, who reminded the audience, “A dream is an answer to a question we have not yet learned to ask.” With that statement the first act,Glimpses of Americana, began.

Twelve dancers opened the main stage with a complex choreographed routine leading the audience into the first scene, “In Black and White.” A dozenVacherie Primary students stood paired together, all dressed in combinations of black and white outfits.

“A child is black,” one exclaimed, “A child is white,” the other returned, and in unison they said: “Together we can see the light.”Unity in race filled the stage, both in the lessons the children taught and the visual combination of the scene and its young players.

“Education is all we have, and an ignorant man hates what he does not understand,” one young girl said, summing up the importance of their scene.

Randall Fryou continued the theme in the next scene singing “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” as more dancers accentuated his words in the background.

Lutcher Elementary students filled the stage with a sense of American pride.

Dressed in camouflage, the performers sang the “Ballad of Ira Hayes” of the Pima Indian and the Marine that went to war. The after the song a flag wasraised, much like the famous scene on Iwo Jima, and the soldiers stood picturesquely frozen in the spotlight before the lights dropped into darkness.

When the curtain again rose four portraits of assassinated men hung before the audience: Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King andBobby Kennedy. The famous song by Dion issued a player for each great manand the people he strove to help. One by one the hallmark words of thesefallen men fell on new ears or revisited old ones, looking to remind what so many had done for America and its people. The auditorium resounded withthe applause that had been growing steadily since the beginning of the performance.

An intricate and fast-paced dance, choreographed by St. James High seniorEryn Shaw, captured the audience as it worked in and out of the rhythms of the song “Back of the Bus.”In the fifth scene war was brought to stage. Four men fought side by sidethrough smoke and incoming fire.

“He looks a lot like me,” one soldier said, noticing that in war it’s still men you are forced to kill in the atrocities of battle. One man was hit. “It mustnot be bad; I can’t feel anything,” he said optimistically before his body was carried off to the evacuation chopper.

The last scene of the first act presented tourists commenting on the ragged appearance of a flag flying above a courthouse. Cavalier was dressed as aveteran to explain the appearance of the torn and thread bare symbol. Hebegan with the crossing of the Delaware, where it received a small hole in following battles. It received a powder burn while flying before Frances ScottKeyes as he composed “The Star Spangled Banner.” On and on the oldveteran went noting every burn, tear and snag it received as America strove to provide the freedom the flag has stood for for so many years.

“It’s a little threadbare but in good shape. She can take a whole lot more,”the veteran said.

After intermission the second act moved into “Glimpses of Our Souls.” Thefirst scene was a crowd pleaser. The students filed on explaining the pastand what is coming in the future. Complexities of growing technology,understanding of other cultures and different religions filled the stage.

“Are you ready to be told of differences? Are you ready to take our place in this new world? Are you ready?” the students asked. “We are ready,” thecrowd cried in reply.

Scene two, “Circles of the Earth,” looked into the complex environment and the place where people fit. “People must realize that the world doesn’tbelong to him. He must care for what has been given to him,” the performerstold.

Hoover led the next scene about suicide narrating from the part of a girl left behind, the pain of loss and anger at surrender.

“Flow Me a River” portrayed the abstract of thoughts flowing from the head to the heart to the soul.

“Flow me a river from my head to my heart to my soul. Flow througheducation, equality, clarity, where waters run red, white and blue with patriotism. Flow so that we will not drown in self-pity and self-righteousness,” the students said. The following narrator summed up saying,”The river runs through St. James unifying the parish.” And the followingscene brought that full into view.

Starting with “1814,” dancers flowed through music of different times and attitudes with songs all about “Rollin’ on the River,” on “Down to New Orleans.” A long string of songs and dancers paraded across the stagehailing the river that holds the parish together by its banks.

Many other solos, band and choir performances filled the program that kept the audience in their seats for two hours. At the end all were pleased.Cavalier stood before the audience and told the students they should be proud to be from St. James Parish, which housed a tremendous amount oftalent. Superintendent Edward Cancienne was whole-heartedly excited by theprogram, saying, “This is the kind of stuff that’s going to lift us to the next level. Can you feel it?”

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