Kinds of Theatre

One of the greatest things about theatre is how much variety is contained in that one little word. Theatre.

By day (this week) I direct kids in Snow White. This week they are young and are struggling with some...okay, most parts of the show. Today we felt elated when we actually got through a full scene with only a few missed lines, and most weeks we wouldn't feel that sense of accomplishment until we had run the whole show. The kids this week mostly come from difficult back grounds, many read several grade levels below where they should, they fight chronically with one another and can't stay quiet for longer than a few minutes. But wow, when our 11 year-old Queen came on stage from the correct side and shouted out her first few lines, I felt such a rush of joy and pride! And today, amidst the sounds of squeals of excitement and lap drum rolls, we opened the curtains and showed the kids the set. You would have thought Christmas was behind that ripped green curtain. They cheered and pounded the floor with their feet; our simple set, squeezed onto that tiny stage, totally made their day!

And this evening, another kind of theatre, equally entertaining, if entirely different! We went to Sweet Briar College to see their opening night production of Crimes of the Heart. What an absolute pleasure it was to take in some live theatre! Especially when enjoyed from the comfort of a squeaky audience chair, and it simply wasn't my job to tell anyone else to stop squeaking the seats or when to come on stage, or that yes, they may go use the bathroom! Crimes of the Heart is an excellent show and this version was really well done! I laughed a lot, and got chills, two of my favorite results of good live theatre.

I love it that there is goofy, fun kids theatre in which they (try to) memorize their lines in just a few days, and the plethora of corny jokes are book ended by stick-in-your-head-for-weeks songs. And that there is other theatre! With elaborate sets and scenes with real smoking on stage and laughing hysterically at death, and true characters that you actually feel as though you know well by the end of act one. I don't think I would really appreciate the one kind of theatre, if I didn't also get to enjoy the other.

Thanks Matt

So, the purpose of my first post on my new blog is to thank it's creator- Mr. Matt Loehrke! You are awesome to spend part of your spring break setting this up for me- many thanks! Since you may well be the only one who ever actually reads this, its only fair that you get a post just to you!