OPINION: Saint George was something special

By Harper Davis ‘24

Nicholas Wardwell (BHS ‘24), Efe Avci ‘24, Adam Maynard ‘24, and I in 2019’s Saint George and The Dragon. Photo by Sarah Keeney (my mom).

It was our big moment. Standing on stage, recorder in hand, a miniature leaf blower sent wind through our hair as we performed a rendition of “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys in front of the whole school.

This scene was a small part of the 2019 Middle School (Not) Saint George and The Dragon (NSG) annual play. Our class, the class of 2024, was the last to ever perform Saint George, which has now been canceled indefinitely.

Saint George was something special, and I think we lost a bit of school culture when it was canceled.

Saint George was a “sprawling improv … rollicking, festive, slap-sticky kind of event,” said Catlin Gabel School (CGS) Head of School Tim Bazemore. It was a tradition at CGS for over 70 years, but after the pandemic made the school board reconsider traditions, it was unfortunately canceled.

Few parts from the original Saint George Mummers’ play remain in the modern script. It was up to the eighth-grade class to add their unique spin to the classic characters.

To put it lightly, St. George was bizarre. Our rendition somehow included Sesame Street characters, Napoleon Bonaparte, Captain Underpants, Snow White, The Simpsons, the different emotions from Inside Out, and of course the Backstreet Boys

“I think for all the people that joined in high school … it probably felt like they were joining a cult,” said senior Scooch Herbst, who played the dragon in our rendition.

But every year some parts stayed the same. The iconic doctor with their medications, the Dragon’s infamous speech, someone short being the Giant while someone tall is Little One Jack, and of course the fake cancellation of the show every year.

To me and many others in my class, the annual rendition of Saint George was something to look forward to growing up, and it was very exciting to finally be the ones to perform and craft it ourselves. “That was one of those moments where it felt like we were all one cohesive community,” said Herbst.

If you had asked me in 2020 what I had thought of Saint George, my face would have flushed red, thinking of how embarrassing it was to be a Backstreet Boy in front of everyone, or how “cringy” the script was.

However, looking back in 2024, I’m exceedingly grateful for Saint George. The references and bad jokes aren’t embarrassing, but a time capsule of sorts, allowing us to look back and reminisce about not only the time period, but our class culture as a whole. 

The baking show bit in the chase video still makes me laugh to this day.

Saint George was canceled for a few reasons. Perhaps the most obvious is the material of the mummer’s play, where the white Christian Saint George defeats the Muslim Turkish knight. But conversely, for those who see Saint George as a saint, “having it be this sort of silly goofy character was a little uncomfortable,” said Bazemore.

This, unfortunately, does stain the legacy of Saint George, but I feel the modern story itself is so heavily modified that it undermines this aspect in our production.

I feel the whole spirit of the show is in modification, and so rather than discard the show entirely, it would be better to disclaim the history of the show. Better yet, lean into the spirit of modification further and heavily satirize the characters, modernizing the script and removing stereotypes.

Alternatively, I feel the primary story of Saint George is the knight Saint George versus a dragon, so if having that figure is uncomfortable, a new production could simply modify the name and have it be a different knight.

Another issue the school board had was with logistics involving the eighth-grade class. Along with the class size growing significantly, the production began to take up more and more class time. 

However, this production and this community-building activity are perhaps more valuable than whatever is taught in classes for a month or so. 

“I know it does take up a lot of time, but they could have turned that into a learning experience. It would be a place where the timeline enforced upon [the eighth-grade class] would have realistic consequences. If you can't write the play in this amount of time, you don't get to perform it,” said Herbst.

It was not an easy decision to get rid of Saint George. “It's important that schools have tradition,” said Bazemore, “it's never going to be the goal that we’ve got to get rid of all these traditions. I think it ends up being a conversation about what kind of traditions are we trying to create?”

Bazemore acknowledged that a play like this is part of the curriculum. “The clubs you get to be in, the community engagement you do, we all see that as a curriculum, and so we're always asking ourselves, does the curriculum that we're providing, and ask you to engage in, live by our values?”

“There are definitely people in our community that agree to a large degree, that those experiences in the long run of your life may have been more valuable or be more valuable than three more history classes … but there are some arguments for staying focused on some of those things,” said Bazemore.

Subjectively, over my 14 years at CGS, I’ve felt like there’s been a trend of disappearing traditions, whether it be Saint George or Revels. I feel as if there was some sort of magic to lower school, a deeper CGS lore, and a true sense of community that feels missing these days. 

I get that in lower grades, there is more freedom for traditions, but they feel largely absent in Upper School. Traditions like the school chapter recitation are relegated to one C&C a year and dreaded by many, regardless of any school cultural significance they may have.

Maybe I’m just nostalgic, but I miss having these events to look forward to every year. I miss shouting “the phystik, ooooh, the palsy, aaahhhh, the gout, ewwwww, and if the devil’s in, I’ll blow him out, AAHHH,” along with everyone else in the theater.

Saint George holds a special place in my heart, and it makes me sad to know future classes will miss out on this magnificent time capsule. 

I hope to see it come back.