FeaturesMarch 6, 2016
'Something really special': Retiring teacher Mike Dumey looks back on more than 25 years of music education
Mike Dumey has had a passion for directing since he was about 5 years old. Like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, Dumey said he would put on variety shows with his cousins during their weekend visits. Leading his cousins in parodies of "Hee Haw" and his brother in renditions of "Harper Valley PTA," Dumey knew from an early age he wanted to be involved in the arts and directing...
Mike Dumey has had a passion for directing since he was about 5 years old.
Like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, Dumey said he would put on variety shows with his cousins during their weekend visits.
Leading his cousins in parodies of "Hee Haw" and his brother in renditions of "Harper Valley PTA," Dumey knew from an early age he wanted to be involved in the arts and directing.
"I would stage those things; even at that age [I] just enjoyed creating shows," he said.
As he grew older, he joined a singing group called the "Saints and Sinners" at New McKendree Church in Jackson, which eventually went on to perform "Godspell" at Six Flags St. Louis for several years.
In 1982, Dumey began doing dinner shows downtown at Port Cape. At the same time, he began his first teaching position in the Oak Ridge School District.
"Simultaneously, I was doing these entertainments on the weekends and in my spare time, and also teaching out there," he said.
During his first year at Oak Ridge, he had students from kindergarten through sixth grade participate in "The Wizard of Oz." To this day, Dumey said he has former students see him and say they still have their munchkin hat from that performance 35 years ago.
After working at Oak Ridge for seven years, Dumey made his entrance into the Cape Girardeau School District and worked at May Greene School near Fort D for two years.
Always wanting to be an elementary or high-school teacher, Dumey saw an opening at the junior high, which then was Louis J. Schultz School on Pacific Street. He thought once that position was filled, another elementary position might open up for him.
"I really had no desire to teach junior high, seventh grade. I'd always said I like little kids where you could have fun and they're cute, or high school, big kids, where you could really do something, where you can really let them shine. I did not want the wasteland that appeared to me, at that time, to be junior high," Dumey said.
But, to his surprise, Jim Englehart, assistant superintendent of Cape Girardeau schools at the time, told Dumey he would be placed in the seventh-grade position at Schultz, an assignment that would develop into a lifelong career neither man could have imagined at the time.
Englehart told Dumey he could see him having 50 or 60 kids onstage at one time, dancing and singing -- a memory that now makes Dumey laugh out loud. The cast for the musical conducted this weekend, "The Little Mermaid," included 130 seventh- and eighth-grade students, more than double Englehart's early prediction.
"So I think I've sort of, in that regard, exceeded expectations," Dumey said.
In his first year at Schultz, his daily choir class had 64 students and his regular music education classes had at least 28 students apiece.
The next year, the school opened up more electives for students, including home economics, which was taught by Pat Renard. At the same time, Dumey decided to have his students perform a spring musical instead of a typical end-of-the-year pop concert.
"And Mrs. Renard made one of probably the biggest mistakes she ever made in her life," Dumey said, laughing. "She made the big, huge mistake of saying to me, I'll never forget these words, 'Would you like a little help with the costumes?'"
Since that day, Dumey has steadily accrued a large staff of dedicated volunteers, which has included Renard, Mimi Higgins, Rev. Bill Burke, Dennis Wilson, his own wife and daughters and his late father, Ralph, among many others.
"He (Ralph) was a huge part of this, beyond belief. He was the man who I said, 'I need something,' and he built it. And I miss my dad terribly. I really feel close to him when we're doing these shows, and his presence is everywhere with the bracing he's built and things that he's done," Dumey said.
Over the years, the team of volunteers has produced technical details such as a hydraulic tire lift for "Cats," a rose that could lose its petals at the touch of a button for "Beauty and the Beast," many elaborate costumes for each show for more than 100 kids, vast, hand-painted sets and more.
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Dumey said the detail he and his volunteers put into each show was for the kids who participated, to help get them excited, "hyped" and engaged in working on a Broadway musical -- something some might call "old-school."
"When you go to enormous detail, the result is this -- that these kids are all so excited, because they know detail, they acknowledge it, they know when you've really gone to a whole lot of trouble," he said.
Although "The Little Mermaid" was Dumey's last production at the junior high, he had no intention of letting up until everything was perfect. With around 48 hours until opening night, Dumey (along with his family and some crew) was working on polishing the grotto set pieces, creating fireflies out of twinkle lights and figuring out final costume arrangements, all because of what he called "a crazy love."
"I'm going strong 'til the end and I love this, and I do it every year. The passion is still there, obviously," he said.
Considering Dumey's schedule is so tight around this time of year, he said he hasn't had much time to consider the fact that "The Little Mermaid" was his final show at the junior high.
"I have not had a lot of time to stop and reflect that, 'Oh, gee, this is the end.' And it'll never be the end; I'll be doing things out in the public, but here, the gravity of that has not hit me. Â… It will hit me after it's over," he said.
Since he started at the junior high, Dumey has produced 25 musicals for 25 years of teaching, and has worked with about 3,000 students to deliver annual spring performances for the community. He has gained a lifetime of memories and support from the community and people around him, and has created a culture at the school of anticipation and excitement around his musicals that undoubtedly will go unmatched in the future.
"From the very beginning to now, the standards for performance have always been the same, whether it was in the little Schultz Library or this year's production. The trappings may have been much fancier Â… but the kids -- they've always been the same, always. That's amazing," he said.
Dumey said he is retiring to spend more time with his family, but said he will miss the spring tradition and, most of all, the students.
"I'll miss the connections, the fact that I enjoy and have been able to connect with kids one-on-one and then in big groups. It may appear that I motivate them, but the real truth is they motivate me, and I will miss that, miss that terribly," he said.
But this won't be the final curtain call for Dumey, as he plans to collaborate with Kara Skelton to do Showstoppers Musical Theater Workshops year-round, and he will continue to direct dinner theater shows.
Though memories of Dumey may fade after a couple years of student turnover at the junior high, Dumey said his legacy will remain with the students he has taught and worked with throughout his career.
"If there's any kind of long-lasting impression, it's on the kids I have had and seeing what they have done, and it will be so exciting to see what some of them may do," he said.
Although it is in the early planning stages, a celebration of Dumey's career will be held April 24 at Lynwood Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau. A number of Dumey's past students and faculty, along with parent and community volunteers, will be present to pay tribute to his career and the effect he has had on the community for the past 25 years.
"To have some sort of a program about this is just very -- it makes me awe-struck to think people would truly feel that deeply about what I have felt deeply about," Dumey said. "And it's not a thing about me, it's a thing about what I have represented in the lives of these children, and it's all about the kids, it's not about me."
After the final showing of "The Little Mermaid" yesterday evening, Cape Girardeau Mayor Harry Rediger presented Dumey with a proclamation thanking him for his service to the community and the junior high and acknowledging his dedication to the program. Councilman Mark Lanzotti then presented Dumey with a city coin honorarium.
"When I say it's been a fun, wild ride, it's probably been a ride beyond anything I or Jim Englehart would have thought when he said, 'Oh, you're gonna get 50 or 60 kids up there,'" Dumey said. "And what's amazing is the people that have joined the ride with me -- students and production people alike, to create something that has really been special."
lyoung@semissourian.com
(573) 388-3632
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