Blue Men connect with Beveridge students

Photo showcase: Blue Man Group's performance Tuesday night in Omaha

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In character, Blue Man Group cannot speak. Blue paint and blue clothing conceal all but the eyes of the Blue Men. “We’re trying to convey everything through our eyes,” said Kalen Allmandinger, a Blue Man member who was born and lived for part of his childhood in Davenport, Iowa. So it’s probably a good thing four members of Blue Man Group did not show up in character at Beveridge Magnet Middle School Thursday to meet with band and music students. Sans the paint, they still had the 44 students enthused and interested in music and the performing arts. To be fair, the students were an easy crowd: Beveridge has a magnet theme of global studies and the arts. The New York performers are in Omaha for shows this week at the Orpheum Theater. The men explained their gig and the origins of Blue Man Group: performances at various venues around New York City, culminating in a run at off-Broadway’s Astor Place Theater that began in 1991 and continues there. They told the students how the group’s music and acting are shared with new members — only through demonstrations, never by writing down the music or the stage blocking for the performance. They also told the students about their own performance beginnings. Michael Petrucci, a musician with the group, was 8 years old when he told his parents he wanted to play the drums. OK, they said, and got him a teacher. “It kind of chose me, in a way,” he told the students. When Allmandinger was in middle school, he thought he was destined to be the world’s best drummer. The 45 minutes the students had with Blue Man Group was a laid-back affair. The performers answered questions and played a few bars of music. Petrucci and Allmandinger along with the other two members — Blue Man Bhurin Sead and musician Ramsey Roustom — all played the drums. Roustom sat in front of the percussion set. Allmandinger and Sead stood and tapped floor toms. Petrucci slammed the bass drum. Connor McGonigal, a seventh-grade band and percussion student, was one of three who volunteered to learn from the Blue Men. Allmandinger taught him how to play one of the group’s common rhythms on a floor tom. “They were just normal people, and then they went from that to almost superstars,” Connor said. The students sought autographs and quizzed the men about what advice they have for teenagers who want to be like them. “Once you find something you really enjoy, just really latch on to it,” Petrucci said. Principal David Lavender and head custodian Scott Slegl thought enough of the group to have the members sign “The Beveridge Stall of Fame,” an honor typically reserved for former Husker football players, professional athletes and other notable Huskers such as UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman and Lil’ Red. In 1985, then-Indiana coach Bobby Knight used the bathroom of the boiler room during a break from a basketball clinic he was giving at Beveridge. After washing his hands, he posed for a photo with Slegl, thus beginning the “Stall of Fame.” About five years ago, Slegl started asking local celebrities and athletes to sign the pea-green stall door. And with a black Sharpie, the four visiting members of Blue Man Group obliged. They scribbled the first signatures on the public side of the door. Allmandinger wrote: “ ‘BM’ (blue man. what’d you think?)” Contact the writer: twitter.com/jonathonbraden, 402-444-1074, jonathon.braden@owh.com

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