A Play's the Thing



Wearing yellow Lacoste pants as a Who and knickerbockers as a member of the boy's band in Harold Hill's Rivercity-- that's the extent of my acting career. I suppose we could count the occasional church road show if we wanted-- though I usually do my best to forget them.
I've never been a "theatre person" and to be honest I always thought of theatre as a dutiful homage to the past, remembering what the bored people did before television. Nothing more. 

I have felt the change creeping in slowly though. Back to the 80's my Senior year got me pretty psyched. BYU's production of Beauty and the Beast had me crying (*twice*) my freshman year. But I'd have to say the biggest turning point was when I took a Shakespeare class where we, obviously, were required to attend some performances of Shakespearian plays. When my teacher explained that no matter the actor's performance, you will never see the same show twice because you will never have the exact same audience, the exact same weather, exact same circumstances leading up to the show-- it's impossible to see the same show twice. My mind immediately rekindled the feeling I felt as a newly-able-to-read 6-yr-old on a road trip who felt sad at letting a single billboard pass going unread because I knew I'd never have the chance to read it again. I now felt that same urgency to take in every play I could because each performance was the only one of its kind. I was converted. 

I went to see BYU's Much Ado about Nothing tonight. They did an excellent job and it was a fun production. It's true that in a lot of ways media has come a long ways with the movies and TV we're able to watch (Disney+ I'm lookin' at you!). But nothing can quite replace the uniqueness of theatre. The human connection in real time. The exerted effort. The actors' shamelessness. The impressiveness of memorized lines.  The tangible tenor of the room comprised of each person present. The actor's skill of being fully transformed into their character while at the same time having a listening ear to the audience to adjust as that tenor deems necessary. 

It's a media experience like no other. 

For some of my favorite Shakespeare excerpts see links below!
1. Much Ado about Nothing (Kenneth Branagh & Emma Thompson 1993)

2. As You Like It, 2013, RSC




3. Meryl Streep and Raul Julia in Kiss Me Petruchio (Taming of the Shrew, 197-something)



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