A nice interaction happened the other night between Rodney Harper, the drummer on our hit production of Ella and a young drummer named Walker. The drummer, a 14-year-old boy, met stage manager Rich Costabile at intermission, who encouraged him to chat with Rodney after the show. Not only did Harper, who is often gregarious with the audience, meet the young drummer, he brought the boy up onstage after the show and gave him a crack at a drum solo. “The boy impressed with a good sample of his work,” Costabile said.
After the impromptu performance, Harper gave the kid a pair of brushes and a pair of drumsticks and told the small crowd gathered for the talkback that it is not easy to jump up on stage and do what the young man had done so well. “Needless to say, Walker and his family left on Cloud 9,” Costabile said.