The Royce Files

My Alma Mater, Park HS of Cottage Grove, recently put on the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat  which I also did at Park and it made me think- is there a record of Park musicals since the move from the old building in St. Paul Park to one on 80th St in Cottage Grove in 1965?  I tried in 2007 to create such a list. It is actually somewhere on this blog. Whew, almost 20 years ago! Now I could dig through a bunch of yearbooks or South Washington County Bulletins that I have no easy access since I am out of the region now. So for now I will rely on my memory and what I can piece together on the net. Accessing memory..... Park High School originally occupied a building in St. Paul Park. By the 1960s the school outgrew the space so a new campus was built over in the neighboring city of Cottage Grove. The old campus ended up getting used as junior high for a time but then became apartments and community space. The new campus included a music 'complex' across the ...

I had the distinction of attending Park High in my fledgling days. And it was one of those schools people would mistaken for the half dozen or so other schools which had a Park in its name: Como Park, Champlin Park, Spring Lake Park, Brooklyn Park, Park Center, Highland Park, Park Rapids. And let us not forget Darth Maul- Ray Park. But that was later. My Park was in the south east suburbs- a kind of forgotten collection of bedroom communities which is now home to 4 high schools since East-Ridge was added recently. Well back in the day it was just Park and Woodbury and that private high school and Hastings if you want to stretch it. Now these burgs usually get overshadowed by their southern neighbors Eagan and Apple Valley and Lakeville. But back in the day we held our own. There is so little about Park history out there on the web I thought I'd add what I recollect (and discover) from those days when Park was still the Indians. Park had been the Indians since the beginning- which ...

I t came as sort of a surprise that my class would be gathering to comiserate 15 years after graduation. I put it off originally- I don't like driving to the TCs from Go. Well, I thought it over and paid the fee and planned to attend. The following is a commentary of the event. It was held at the Grove's other golf course, Mississippi Dunes. The previous reunion was held at River Oaks. The Dunes is far superior with its riparian vistas and deck. It would seems an excursion boat could stop by with clientele. However, I saw no dockage. Nevertheless, I arrived fashionably late at around 7:30 PM. Maybe around 25 classmates were already in attendance. I saw Tom W. (works for SuperMoms), Jeff R. and then Desi (totally shave head but looking slick) and then I saw Phil M (didn't talk to but he looked tough) and then Mark E (the red hair was shaved) and Joe Fabeck (very jocular.) Sarah , Carolee, Amy Not too many I was very close to but I knew about them so I could strike up a conve...

A listing of the musicals that Park of Cottage Grove has performed in the past 20 years. Prior to 2007 the musicals were in the fall and usually ran the two weekends before Thanksgiving. Sometime after 1997 the second weekend was dropped. [* no sure if this is correct] 1985- Sound of Music * 1986- Man of La Mancha or Wizard of Oz * 1987- Lil Abner 1988- Bye Bye Birdie 1989- George M! 1990- 42nd Street 1991- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat 1992- Cinderella 1993- Hello Dolly 1994- Working 1995- You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown 1996- Barnum 1997- Godspell 1998- Anything Goes 1999- Little Shop of Horrors 2000- The Mystery of Edwin Drood 2001- Into the Woods 2002- Oliver! 2003- Pippin 2004- Once Upon a Mattress 2005- Hello Dolly! 2007- Grease

A week ago I had the opportunity to return to Par Ki and revisit the place I spent much time in my teenage year - a small stuffy theatre. Unfortunately I was unable to visit the infamous upstairs dressing rooms but my father and I had some superb seats to see the musical Grease . Through some new theatre booster marketing scheme, my Dad entered a car show and received 2 complimentary tickets to the show. I don't recall how many times have attended a perfomance of Grease . I actually appeared in a condensed version of the musical with the guy who did sound and lights for this show. Arch rivals Woodbury did it when I was in 9th grade. Hastings put it on my senior year in high school. Somewhere between those I think Rosie O'Donnell came through the TCs with a touring company. My friends and I won the a school talent show with a rendition of the song "Summer Loving." I think I saw it one other time but I cannot remember where. Needless to say I know the musical pretty we...

I took an extended weekend in the TCs for some meetings and leisure. Plenty of blog material will more than likely come from the trip but the most important is revisting Par Ki. Nearly 10 years have eclipsed since I stepped foot in the building I spent 4 years traversing the halls. My return was precipatated by the school musical, "Grease." It wasn't because I couldn't miss another performance of this musical, because I have seen it at least 4 times. In fact I was in a condensed version of the show in my 4-H days. [Trivia: The lighting and sound designer for this version of "Grease" played leading man Danny Zuko in the 4-H version I performed. More on him later.] No, I went because by some means my father obtained free tickets for being part of the classic car show that occured between performance on Saturday. I couldn't pass it up, especially since nobody would recognize me either. Since my days the school added a larger gynasium next to the previous o...