FARMINGTON – Expectations of hearing Mt. Blue Middle School band, orchestra and choir students perform Wednesday left some parents deeply disappointed and even angry with the performance of “Hurricane of Change,” a Foothills Arts Center’s production.

The production was an examination of global warming involving adult and teenage actors, musicians and puppeteers, Foothills Arts Director Anne Geller said earlier this week. Students from the After-School Program did some work on the scripts and costumes, and the Mt. Blue Middle School band, orchestra and chorus, along with a community chorus, accompanied the actors.

With a daughter in the orchestra, Lawrence J. Dwight Jr. of Wilton expected to hear music performed at the program by the middle school students, he said Friday. Instead, the orchestra seated on the far side of the gym in a darkened room, simply accompanied the actors who were mostly high school students and adults.

“I couldn’t even see my daughter,” he said as he explained how he felt the students, parents and school administration were deceived by Geller.

Dwight said the content of the play was too political and usurped the children’s concert. He also feels that Geller, who has long worked with children, this time exploited the students and the community and should apologize for it.

A donation box for Foothills Arts, Dwight said, was placed by a door and he contends that the money should go to the middle school musical program instead of Foothills Arts.

Two mailings with information on the production were sent out. One was sent six weeks ago and another two weeks ago, Geller said. The music teacher also gave out information last fall regarding the production plans.

Dwight said he has spoken with six members of the school board and plans to go before the board at the next meeting.

The biggest issue, said Assistant SAD 9 Superintendent Susan Pratt, was poor communication that didn’t make it clear that this would be a variation from the spring concert traditionally done to a multi-disciplinary production.

Pratt said she had received some calls from parents and others. Some thought it was a wonderful event, and others didn’t. This was a collaborative effort between the SAD 9 music program, Foothills Arts and the Community Players, she said.

One mother, Teresa Hardy, who is also president of the Mt. Blue Music Boosters, said she also attended the performance Wednesday expecting to hear the middle school band and chorus perform their last concert for the year.

“As a parent, I was disappointed,” Hardy said. “I went with the expectation of hearing my daughter, Ashley, perform and I was deprived of that right. There were things in the play I didn’t agree with, some of it was one sided, some of the message was good. It wasn’t what I would like to see be the final concert for chorus and band – that was a disappointment.”

Hardy’s daughter, a seventh-grader, was involved in writing a scene last fall for the production but didn’t want to continue because she felt it bashed Republicans and farming, she said. The Hardys work a farm in Farmington.

The show was revised to work without the school’s band, orchestra and chorus for Friday’s performance, Geller said, later saying that she did not receive one complaint voiced to her but had received compliments.