These Parents Work Hard Behind the Scenes

Some parents thrive on cheering for their children at youth football games. Others drive their little ones to ballet and watch the jetes from benches along the wall. But when a child joins the Orange County Children’s Theatre, parents could find themselves wielding a hammer.

“We have a joke in the parents’ meeting that there are certain jobs that are really good for ex-husbands,” said Mark Goldhamer, a McDonnell Douglas executive who handles technical aspects of this season’s “The Music Man.”

“We’ve trained a lot of parents,” Goldhamer said. “Some of them come terrified to the parents’ meeting, and then they have a great time.”

The theater, a parent-operated nonprofit group, has been casting children in musical productions for 27 years. But this season, the parents and kids are suffering a location crisis.

When the Westminster Cultural Arts Center closed last year, the group lost its home base. The shows will go on, though, even if the audiences have a hard time finding them.

Along with their other duties of building sets, finding costumes, arranging lighting and sound, parents this year are searching for auditoriums while their children rehearse off-hours in stores at Huntington Beach Mall.

Chapman University offered its Memorial Auditorium for “The Music Man.” The spring production will be at Cal State Long Beach and the summer show at Orange County High School of the Arts.

The lack of a permanent location has meant some extra work for moms and dads. Chapman had a university concert scheduled earlier this week, so after last weekend’s performances the volunteers had to break down the “Music Man” set, one of the largest and most challenging they’ve ever built. They hauled it back Thursday for the show’s final weekend.

Parents say the work behind the scenes is rewarding, though.

“My daughters were never into soccer or girls’ softball, so this gives me something to do with them,” said Gary Loomer, a Westminster construction worker and father of two young actresses. “I love the theater. It’s tough. And it’s a lot of fun.”

Jim Blaylock, an English professor at Chapman, once even wrote a play for the group when a dispute over royalties almost blocked one production.

“It’s absolutely the best thing I’ve ever done,” said Blaylock, who has been with the group four years. “You get to hang out with the kids. You see all the kids and adults working together with mutual respect. That’s not something you see too often.”

For information about “Music Man” shows this weekend, call (714) 502-2244.