Yes, “West Side Story” was indeed a remarkably fun part of Mrs. Hadley’s class that year!
Yes, Tony was my part! Mamma mia! Such fond memories of Barb was Maria! And Clayton! And Laura! And Tim! And everyone of us! It was so much fun! I believe Becki Gilpin was our masterful director!
Thank you Mrs. Hadley!
An interesting anecdote: I had the pleasant good fortune to run into the REAL Tony (actor Richard Beymer) here in Fairfield at Everybody’s, one of our local grocery stores. He is a TMer and Sidha (practitioner of the TM-Sidhis including Yogic flying) and lives in the southeastern section of Fairfield.
At any rate, I mentioned to him that we had done “West Side Story” in school and more specifically that I had played Tony and he said, “Birth to earth…” and seemed to be waiting for my response. I had none! I eventually learned he was quoting from the movie script and waiting for me to say, “Womb to tomb!” In the movie, when Riff was referring to their relationship and said, “Birth to earth.” Tony replied, “Womb to tomb!”.
Because I had no idea what he was trying to do, I imagine Richard must have doubted the truthfulness of my story about playing Tony! Yet the truth of the matter, I have since realized, was that the script we received in 8th grade was edited for our grade level and they left out the “Birth to earth” and “Womb to tomb” lines! I guess they considered “womb” and maybe even “tomb” to be a little too much for us youngsters!
At any rate, I never thought in a million years I would ever meet Richard Beymer, let alone have a meaningful exchange with him. Yet it happened and has happened several times since. In fact, he has even met my Mom!
And to share the whole TM experience with him? I feel pretty lucky!