Just a couple more thoughts about The October Game and that morning show we did over the PA system in high school.

As we had to do five shows a week, come hell or high water, we didn’t have much time to plan and no time to rehearse. Granted the shows were only a few minutes long but typically we were only planning them a day or two in advance, maybe a week tops.

For something like the special occasions, such as holidays, there might have been a bit more planning. 

I have no particular memory of writing the script for “The October Game” but most likely, I typed it up from a copy of the story, editing it as I went. Probably only a single draft, although perhaps I made some notes ahead of time, but I wasn’t big on making notes.

Anyway, I’m certain that there was only one copy of the typed script as we didn’t have a Xerox machine in those days, only clunky mimeograph machines which I didn’t have access to.

So Gary, Mary Lou, and Debbie would have been reading from the single copy of the script. If they were lucky, I probably got it to them the day before so they had a chance to read it over a time or two, but if they rehearsed it, they did so on their own.

We did those shows in the back stage of the auditorium from a single microphone. No fancy equipment of any kind.

The main point of those morning shows was to fulfill a requirement for Mrs. Papson’s Public Speaking class. Every student  in the junior class had to do at least one show in order to pass the class. We’d give them a brief, very brief, like a minute, inspiring speech to read, and then we (the Irregulars) would fill out the rest of the time. It seemed to work out well for everyone.