Finally something the entire Wright family enjoys.

Yes I admit it. I am addicted to “Glee”.

First heard on the radio about this weird quirky show about a show choir at a fictional high school in Ohio. Did not grab my attention. Then my wife and daughters rented first season DVD of “Gee” from Blockbusters. Watched an episode with them. Then two. Three. And four.

I was hooked.

It is quite funny. Despite the painful awkward situations. Overbearing wife tries to keep her husband’s attention by faking pregnancy. Cheerleader and active member of the “Abstinence Club” is pregnant. Tells her boyfriend he is the father. Which he isn’t. Choir director and Spanish teacher with overbearing wife attracted to guidance counselor. Coach of national championship winning cheerleading squad resents school resources going to show choir and sets out to undermine and destroy it by any means necessary. And so on and so on.

To a large extent the show is about misfits. Everyone is different. But some of us are considered hip and cool (cheerleaders and football players) while others are at the bottom of the social totem pole. But they find their place in show choir. Including a few cheerleaders and football players. In show choir the misfits rejects and outcasts along with the cool kids are accepted for who they are.

But even within show choir there are still misfits. The boy in the wheelchair. The African-American girl. Sure enough Mr Schuster finds ways to include and celebrate them. An entire wheelchair number. More “chocolate” numbers. There is one deeply moving scene when the show choir from the school for the deaf comes by for a scrimmage. At first the hearing students squirm with discomfort. But soon they walk up and stand next to these deaf students to sing and sign with them.

The writers may not have this in mind but is that not what the kingdom of God is all about?

After this I looked, and there was a multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages [including sign language? and all different abilities?], standing before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,

“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

One small thing I have had difficulty is the student who insists he’s not gay but finally comes out. Not that he is gay. But man is he flamboyant and effeminate. He can even sing an F whatever that means. Surely there are plenty of gay men who wear flannel and jeans and sneakers rather than angora sweaters with “sensible” shoes.

But then that would defeat the whole purpose of his presence in the show. The issue is not that he is gay. The issue is that he is different. A misfit. But he finds his place in show choir. For dramatic reasons he has to be flaming gay and dress ten times above his mechanic dad’s income. So his character does make sense.

But I think our whole family enjoys the show because the visual and performing arts run strong in the Wright family.

Mom’s side:

• Mom did music and art and got her degree in art and art history
• Aunt did art and won a national competition
• Uncle did music and his teachers wanted him to go to music school but he wanted to be an engineer
• Other uncle – well okay not everyone got the genes but two of his kids are artists

Dad’s side:

• Dad did acting and music and played in a band for years
• His dad sang and played guitar and called dances
• Aunt – no idea

My immediate family:

• Brother did drama and music and still plays with local bands
• Sister did music drama and dance and majored in dance and teaches dance and is an increasingly well known choreographer and producer in the Twin Cities
• Other sister did music drama singing and dance and majored in dance but is working on becoming a zoologist
• I did music drama and art and my teacher wanted me to go to art school

My own family:

• Wife studied dance for years
• Both daughters went to McKinley Middle Magnet School for the Visual and Performing Arts
• First daughter does dance and singing but now is in talented art program
• Second daughter does dance singing and drama but now is in talented drama program

So while we enjoy the show as a whole what really moves us is the numbers. When the kids break into dance and song.

Yeah like anyone in the Twin Cities reads this.

But I need to do a better job of bragging on all the brilliance in my family such as my sister Cathy Wright. Studied dance at the University of Utah (no kidding) then after a few years returned to Apple Valley High School not as student but as teacher of dance. She of course was brilliant as such for years – despite all the rubbish she had to endure thanks to No Child Left Behind and incompetent/dishonest administrators.

Because of budget cuts she is taking a “sabbatical” (read – can no longer afford to teach there and is trying to figure out what comes next). But even before that she was becoming increasingly involved in choreography and productions outside of th school. Reviews of her work have been universally positive:

Wow. Where did Cathy Wright come from? And do her colleagues at Apple Valley High School run and hide, or flatten themselves against the wall, when she walks by? One has to ask, because if her dark, ritualistic work “Return” is any indication, she’s “into some seriously heavy s**t” (as one of her high-school students might say). And we’d all better pay attention, because it’s good. Intriguing. Weird. Fantastical. Creepy, even. But good.

(Heh – that was complimentary right?) Check out her propaganda page at MNArtists.Org.

Recently got word of a show “Admittance: An Evening in Seven Parts” this December 04-07 at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis:

Bush Fellowship Composer Matthew S. Smith presents an evening-length production, engaging choreographers Deborah Jinza Thayer and Cathy Wright in a work combining dance, film, and music. Set in the fear-laden atmosphere of the Cold War 1950s, at a time when the government was denying the effects of nuclear testing on its own soldiers, ADMITTANCE imagines the layers of trauma and denial in a family stunned by a mother’s schizophrenia and institutionalization. Paired with Thayer’s unique movement vocabulary and Wright’s arresting choreographic urgency, ADMITTANCE features Smith’s layered electro-acoustic score, weaving sound and bodies into a space where detonations obscure or expose what we’re able to admit.

Be there. If you dare.