The show will go on for Anderson

May 20, 2009

By Brenda Rader Mross
The Wellington

To beat a different drum. Wellington Junior High School’s music director, Linda Anderson, retires from school life this year with hopes to someday open her own theater studio for all ages. Photo by Brenda Rader Mross

How in the world did Linda Anderson manage to outdo herself every year for 33 years as music director at Wellington Junior High School?

The same way she survived an aggressive form of breast cancer and a double mastectomy — one moment to the next, putting one foot in front of the other.

“I think cancer brought out the best and worst in me,” said Anderson, now celebrating six months cancer free. “Hearing that word is devastating. I had to make a conscious choice to be positive and smiling even when I wasn’t.”

Linda may be retiring from teaching this month, but she is not retiring; she has plans to become a professional music conductor.

Ultimately, Anderson hopes to open her own theater studio for participants of all ages.

Anderson — fondly known to her students as “Ms. A” — is well qualified to walk the talk; she has directed the Fort Collins Children’s Theatre production of “Once upon a Mattress,” as well as a collection of titles for the junior high that reads like a stroll down New York City’s famed Broadway Avenue.

Since 1998, Anderson has put on “Dragonslayers,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Music Man,” “Wizard of Oz,” “Once upon a Mattress,” “Grease,” “Big River,” “Godspell,” “High School Musical” and “Bye, Bye Birdie.”

“I was proud that ours was the first authorized amateur production of ‘Big River’,” said Anderson about WJHS’s 2006 performance of Roger Miller’s musical adaptation of “Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain. “I had actors from all over the country wanting to audition. ‘You’re doing that with children?’ was their standard response. Mine was, ‘Yes, I am, and I’m proud to be doing it with them, too.’”

Last year’s “High School Musical” was special on several notes. It was Anderson’s first full run with an entire set from stage, to crew, to musicians; and during the finale, three children from Make-A-Wish fulfilled their dreams of performing live on stage.

“To have had a huge impact on the final days of such very beautiful children,” Anderson said with glistening eyes, “well, in this life, it just doesn’t get much better than that.”

Anderson’s unabashed love of the children and her relish for variety has continually inspired her to go the extra mile with gusto. Not only is she the only teacher in the district to direct choir, band and orchestra, but every couple of years Anderson has taken a select group of students to perform at places like Disneyland, Disney World and New York City.

“I really just wanted them to see the big picture and work with some of the greatest choreographers in the world,” Anderson said.

Picking a favorite trip would be akin to favoring one child over another, but the huge amount of individual growth in each and every student was what fueled the next tour.

“The students each year came in as kids and left as young adults,” Anderson observed. “My reward for all the extra practicing and fund-raising was seeing parents and kids come together. We became like a bigger family.”

It was on her first outing to NYC in 2002 that Anderson experienced one of the most moving moments of her career.

“We got to sing ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’ at St. Paul’s Chapel,” said Anderson, recalling the memory of her Eagle Ambassadors performing at the 243-year-old Georgian classic-revival style building across the street from Ground Zero. The church was a sanctuary for thousands of volunteers after 9/11.

“It was like all who perished were singing with us,” she said.

Anderson was born in Denver where she attended West High School, which had a high dropout rate at the time and a tough culture where white females were in the minority.

“I got my nose broken twice because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut,” Anderson recalled. “But it taught me something about community and how important it is to be fair with everybody.”

Thanks to percussion lessons from her only sibling, Ron, the 54-year-old knew since second grade that she wanted to be a music teacher. Brother and sister later played together in the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra while she attended the University of Northern Colorado. Anderson received her bachelor’s degree in music education and later a master’s in the same discipline along with performance percussion.

Blending teaching and playing would be Anderson’s road to the future.

In October 1976, she was hired to teach two classes at Cache La Poudre Junior High School, which she supplemented by working summers at King Soopers, stocking shelves and checking.

Then Ed Rice, principal of WJHS, employed Anderson as a part-time vocal instructor, and she commuted between the two schools before working full-time at Wellington in 1977.

“Obviously, I chose well,” Anderson reflected.

Anderson found time to make a name for herself as a premier percussionist. She was timpanist for the Fort Collins Symphony for 27 years, house drummer for several shows at the Carousel Dinner Theatre, and she has drummed professionally all over northern Colorado.

Anderson has also been known to sing at WJHS fund-raising dessert theaters, among other venues.

Her favorite role remains “Mom” to her 20-year-old son, Andy Anderson, who is currently at the Merchant Marine Academy in King’s Point, N.Y.

To relax, Anderson likes to ride up the Poudre Canyon on her Honda Helix scooter, cooler strapped on the back, and cast a line because she and her father, George Marvin Anderson, were great fishing partners.

“Those were among the few times I could forget I was what the kids called me: Crippled Girl,” Anderson said quietly, revealing that she had to wear leg braces to correct a birth disorder that had caused her feet to turn outward at the ankles. Anderson said she didn’t learn to walk until she was 3, and after corrective surgery, she wore leg braces until she was in 11th grade.

“That’s just life,” she said. “All I really know is that I learned more from my kids than they ever learned from me.”

Not when it comes to the fine art of living one second to the next, Ms. A., step by step by step.