Grandparent of a student

Play Shapes Up as Good Lesson

Beware. The phantom is creeping everywhere, at least at Hampton Cove Elementary School. It's not that guy in the basement of the opera house. It's the Phantom of the Octagon. "Eight sides, eight sides, I'm so complicated. Why can't I be simple, cute with a dimple, handsome like a square," sang the Phantom, played by Willis from the stage in the school cafeteria.

His soul-felt solo was just part of an extravaganza performed by more than 150 second-graders. After a dramatic introduction to the play, with lots of lighting and musical effects, the chorus of more than 100 students dashed to the stage wearing ponchos in a rainbow of colors. Several students had speaking parts, all wearing shapes on their hats or heads. This elaborate production was the brainchild of Steven Todd Miller, a second-grade teacher at Hampton Cove. "I had been thinking about this play for many years," said Miller, who has taught in Huntsville city schools for 20 years. "I knew this particular program was going to have to be big. I thought this would be a good place to do it." He knew he could make the play come together when he found out one of his students, Cecil, was Martha Pullen's granddaughter. Pullen is the head of a sewing business that includes the magazine Sew Beautiful and a television series on PBS. Pullen pledged her support, and Miller began writing his script. He also had the backing and help of the other six second-grade teachers and art teacher Deborah Bailey. "It kind of grew and grew and grew," said Miller, who has acted in and directed a number of local theatrical productions. He has appeared as the King in "The King and I" and won a Wings award, the local theater equivalent of an Academy Award, for his performance. Using "The Phantom of the Opera" and all its grandness for inspiration, Miller composed songs about not fitting in and finding acceptance to tunes from the "Phantom" as well as "Oklahoma" and even the theme song to the television show "Gilligan's Island."

At the center of the play were the Phantom and the beautiful Circlene, played by Cecil. With four years of dance lessons behind her, Cecil glided across the stage in her red dress and circular headpiece. A group of students dressed as clowns performed a complex modern dance in the "Land of Irregular Shapes." That's where Major Pentagon and Shepherdess Heptagon come to tell the Phantom that "there are many irregular shapes like us." With all the fun, the play still met academic standards, said Miller, addressing cadence, sequencing and reading rates required by the Alabama Reading Initiative as well as the obvious math. He regularly uses dance, songs and rhythm in his classroom. He had a Samurai lesson on defeating the "math monster." "Children this age need a lot of ways to make (learning) internalized," Miller said.

Coordinating the schedules of seven teachers and all those children was challenging, but each teacher practiced with his or her classes individually before all the elements came together. A packed audience of parents and grandparents filled the Hampton Cove cafeteria for the night of the performance. Miller sat on the floor in front of the stage, signaling entrances with the help of the other teachers.

The play ended with a classic coming together with a song set to the title tune from "Oklahoma." That was Whitney's favorite part. She played a twirling gypsy who wore a triangle and issued warnings. "It was happy," said Whitney, "and I always like happy endings." At the end, the actors received a standing ovation. "I thought it was a great experience," said Cecil, still flush from her dance sequences. Although she'll remember her part in the play, "I don't think I'll ever forget what an octagon looks like," she said.