The KIDS from Wisconsin Experience

I'm sitting in my dorm room at the State Fair Park in West Allis, WI as I type this, exhausted and dazed but otherwise feeling good about the month of June. I was hoping this summer would provide the opportunity to share my thoughts on the road about traveling with KIDS and talk about our tour, sharing interesting facts and stories that were funny, heartwarming, and entertaining. Instead, the job of tour director/stage band director has consumed most of my life (in a very positive way) and has reinforced the fact that this summer and the entire experience is completely about this group of thirty three very talented and very wonderful human beings and not so much about me. But I have some time on this, the first day of a three day break, to share some thoughts about the experience so far.

For those of you who don't know, I was in the troupe back in 1998. I had just finished my first year of college and was looking for something to do during the summer. It was a good experience for me, but in many ways I was a cocky, immature little SOB back then, and I didn't recognize the true value of the experience of being a KID until later. This was confirmed during our seventeen day training camp when I met up with some of the staff who were in the troupe with me that year! In fact, I realized what a good experience it actually was for me only after I had been away for a while - especially in midst of my job in the live entertainment division at Valleyfair the following summer.

To be honest KIDS wasn't even on my radar at all prior to this year. I knew that it existed and that I had been a past member, but when I got an email from the producer asking if I would be interested in the stage band director job, I didn't know what to think. First of all I had not been the most enthusiastic member of the troupe (to put it mildly) and second, I am going to be thirty-five years old this summer. I'm getting too old for this, right? Could I really handle this job: eighteen hour days, riding buses all over Wisconsin, living with thirty-three high energy 15-20 year-olds, working with music that I don't know or to which I never listen, and eating fast food for practically every meal? It has proved to be challenging for my introverted self, used to a quiet house, reading, going to bed at 11 PM and waking up at 6:30 AM, and working a few hours a day at grad school work and my youth orchestras, attending daily mass, and keeping to myself mostly.

So far the challenges to me personally have been met with even greater rewards. I know that we've only completed only one third of the summer (!) but I am looking forward to seeing these kids again in a few days. They have helped me grow in my understanding of self, they have challenged me and pushed me harder than I've been pushed in a long time, and they have entertained me endlessly with their sense of humor, creativity, talent, and (even though they might be too cool to admit it) their sense of childlike wonder which is still present beneath the mask of adolescence and young-adulthood. The teacher in me truly enjoys being a part the experience with these kids on and off stage all summer long.

Finally, I am so happy to be here this summer at a time in my life when my sense of community and belonging is completely disoriented. After a year that brought enormous changes to my life, I am happy to know that "once a KID, always a KID," is actually something that is very true. The warmth that I have felt from my fellow staff members who shared the stage with me when I was nineteen years old, the sense of welcome from the artistic staff - many of whom were present in 1998, the openness of the troupe, and the rhythm of the KIDS experience between camp and tour, have made me not feel so old actually. It is truly a remarkable place.

Riding the elevator in the dorms.