Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
Friday, August 25, 2006, Washington Post

Sing One for the Home Team

This week I am not going to talk about athletes such as Mark Brunell, Tiger Woods or Venus Williams. I am going to talk about Joan Phalen.

Phalen is a teacher's aide and mom who has been getting the kids of her Silver Spring neighborhood together to put on a summer musical for the last 14 years. Phalen calls it Kids Chorale. My kids call her "Saint Joan."

Nan Shapiro, another neighborhood mom and teacher who plays piano, helps. I guess you could call her "Saint Nan."

On Monday and Wednesday nights, kids gather at Phalen's house to learn the songs and figure out where to stand onstage. They eat popsicles afterward.

It's not just a couple kids. More than 100 kids, from kindergarten through fifth grade, appear in each summer's musical. The fifth-graders get the big parts. But Phalen and Shapiro don't believe in tryouts. Any kid who wants to sing or speak onstage can volunteer. Phalen puts all their names in a hat and draws for the parts.

The little kids are in the chorus, where they do plenty of singing. Everyone gets to do something. Sixth- and seventh-graders help with the sets, sound and lights.

When they are ready, they head over to the auditorium at the Mormon temple and put on the show. Over the years Kids Chorale has performed "The Music Man," "Oklahoma!," "Oliver!" and "The Wizard of Oz."

This year's show is "Seussical," so the kids are singing about Horton the Elephant and the people of Whoville. This Sunday the kids will perform at Children's Hospital in Northwest Washington.

Now understand: Kids Chorale is not Broadway. Sometimes a singer struggles to the end of a song, sort of like the last swimmer in a B-meet race. And sometimes the little kids in the chorus get restless. Their legs start wiggling and you can almost hear them thinking about the ice-cream social that follows every performance.

But the kids give it everything they've got. And with Phalen and Shapiro's help, they put on a terrific show.

I talk a lot about teams in this column: the Redskins, the Nationals and other pro teams. I talk about the sports teams that kids play on: Little League baseball, travel soccer, basketball, lacrosse, hockey and football teams.

Sometimes I think I make too big a deal about sports teams and forget that kids are on other teams, too. The school band is a team. The kids who put on the school play or build the sets are part of a team. So are the kids building a robot as a science project.

Being on a team is about learning to work together. It's about trying your best, not just for yourself but also for your teammates. It's about doing things you might not want to, but doing them anyway for the sake of others.

So when more than 100 kids stand on the "Seussical" stage in front of parents, friends and camcorders and sing " It's possible. It's possible. Anything's possible" -- well, that's a team, too.