To say that I had fun watching Charlotte's Web is an understatement. I got to see three showings over two days, and it was just cool. But before the first performance, Caroline warned me that I might not be getting what I expected, and she was right.
See, when we were growing up, Grandmother Lawton would take us to the Bob Jones theater. Say what you want to about the politics of the school, but those guys really invested in their theater productions. Spectacular sets, glorious costumes, powerful voices, good direction, and casts and crews that knew their jobs.
And so, as a kid, when you went to the theater in my household, you got a stern warning ahead of time.
YOU WILL BEHAVE.
There wasn't even any suggested punishment offered as a quid-pro-misbehaving-quo. You put on the coat and tie, shoes that pinched your feet, and went out to spend an evening with the grown ups. Often, but not always, the choice of play was Shakespeare, performed with lofty accents, and the expectations were every bit as high as the 'culture' we were getting. The expectations and limits were clearly delineated.
As I grew older, and saw more theater in different places, I knew the rules - they had been inculcated into me early in life, and they stuck.
So Caroline was warning me to be prepared for something a little different.
The theater at Wheelock is very big. I had expected a smaller, more intimate setting from which to watch the play, but the seats were comfy and there is not a bad vantage point in the entire stadium-seating theater, so I settled in pretty quickly to enjoy.
The first showing was a matinee. Afterwards, Caroline said that it was a remarkably well behaved group of kids. I looked at her. "Huh?"
"I SAID THAT THE AUDIENCE TODAY WAS VERY WELL BEHAVED. THE BEST WE'VE SEEN!" (She had to say it twice, so that my dazed brain could focus enough to actually hear what she said.)
The kids were out-of-their minds excited by everything. Like the audience of a rock concert the moment before the opening chords, the audience of 600+ kids (and three adults, by my count - the rest, I suspect, were hiding somewhere under the seats) vibrated with unbridled energy. And when the play started, they screamed their roar of delight at a decibel level that would make an ground controller at the airport look for a replacement pair of ear protectors.
To my utter fascination, the kids were engaged completely in the performance. Not just appreciating the performances, as I was taught to do, but living the moments. Excited honking back and forth between friends while watching the physical comedy of the geese perform on stage. Bleating in imitation of the speech patterns and physicality of the sheep and lamb.
And answering the questions.
When the newly-hatched Wilbur comes out on stage (What? I'm no farmer - I don't know how these things work), he asks 'Who am I? Where am I?' The existential questions of every philosopher-poet ever - from the bowl of petunias to the sperm whale. And the line is intended to spur the remainder of the monologue.
No chance. 'Who am I?' was immediately met with a chorus of 600 screaming kids YOU"RE WILBUR!!!!!!
'Where am I?'
ON THE FARM!!!!
During the intermission, kids stood up and replicated dialogue. They inhabited the characters they had been watching. They shouted, ran around, pointed, and climbed. They lived the performance in a way that I have never done.
The second performance was, if possible louder and more energetic.
The third performance was an evening performance, with parents and kids. And I liked it. I caught snippets of dialogue that I had totally missed out on for the cacophony of audience voices that accompanied each action of the cast. I saw subtle physical cues between cast members that reinforced the relationship of the characters: a reassuring touch here, a side-eye there, an unconscious mirroring of actions between animals standing side-by-side.
The richness of the show is incredible, and much of that richness I missed in the first two performances. With the overwhelming sensory overload that comes with 800 screaming schoolchildren, your senses have to focus on very specific sensory inputs to be able to follow. You have to listen carefully for the dialogue, or you will miss it. You have to watch for the spider's descent, or you will miss it. Whatever is outside of the direct focus of your attention gets lost in the roar and the wiggle.
The evening performance allowed for the audience member to pick up on a lot more that is unavailable to the school matinee audience member.
And it was, by comparison, boring.
Not that there was anything different about the play - the actors nailed their performances and I loved the play. But the audience participation - especially in that uninhibited way that children play - is simply not going to happen with a mostly-adult crowd. The rules will be explained, and the limits will be set (and tested) and somebody's bottom will become strangely warmed halfway through the first act.
But the audience is separated from the action.
Just before the first performance, I leaned forward to the girls sitting in front of me and said, "You want to know a secret? That (pointing to the program) is my sister."
"Nuh-UH!"
And for the rest of the show, every time Charlotte made an appearance, they would both turn around in their seat and whispersqueal "THERE SHE IS!" ...and then turn back around and interact with the play, fully committed to the action.
When it came to the 'adult' play, there were some titters and oohs and ahhs, and some appreciative laughter. And conversations during intermission.
But not a single bleat or honk. And I found it terribly disappointing. Are we adults just not as affected by the majick of theater as we were as kids? Has the venue become a holy sanctuary, where we dress up and whisper in hushed tones and worship at the altar of an amazing performance, only discussing it afterwards? Have we moved from 'play' space into 'sacred' space? Is there any way to infuse the experience with the spirit of a thousand kids? (OK, maybe a thousand is too many. But the idea is still the same...)
I think I'll start the trend of interacting with the cast members during the performance. Who's with me? Maybe in Romeo and Juliet, I will respond when she asks "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" with:
HE'S BEHIND YOU!!!*
*Yes, I know what 'wherefore' meant....
See, when we were growing up, Grandmother Lawton would take us to the Bob Jones theater. Say what you want to about the politics of the school, but those guys really invested in their theater productions. Spectacular sets, glorious costumes, powerful voices, good direction, and casts and crews that knew their jobs.
And so, as a kid, when you went to the theater in my household, you got a stern warning ahead of time.
YOU WILL BEHAVE.
There wasn't even any suggested punishment offered as a quid-pro-misbehaving-quo. You put on the coat and tie, shoes that pinched your feet, and went out to spend an evening with the grown ups. Often, but not always, the choice of play was Shakespeare, performed with lofty accents, and the expectations were every bit as high as the 'culture' we were getting. The expectations and limits were clearly delineated.
- No crawling on the floor.
- No climbing on the back of the chair.
- No talking - not even in a whisper.
- No kicking the back of the chair in front of you.
- Eyes front.
- No, you cannot go to the restroom; you'll have to hold it.
As I grew older, and saw more theater in different places, I knew the rules - they had been inculcated into me early in life, and they stuck.
So Caroline was warning me to be prepared for something a little different.
The theater at Wheelock is very big. I had expected a smaller, more intimate setting from which to watch the play, but the seats were comfy and there is not a bad vantage point in the entire stadium-seating theater, so I settled in pretty quickly to enjoy.
The first showing was a matinee. Afterwards, Caroline said that it was a remarkably well behaved group of kids. I looked at her. "Huh?"
"I SAID THAT THE AUDIENCE TODAY WAS VERY WELL BEHAVED. THE BEST WE'VE SEEN!" (She had to say it twice, so that my dazed brain could focus enough to actually hear what she said.)
The kids were out-of-their minds excited by everything. Like the audience of a rock concert the moment before the opening chords, the audience of 600+ kids (and three adults, by my count - the rest, I suspect, were hiding somewhere under the seats) vibrated with unbridled energy. And when the play started, they screamed their roar of delight at a decibel level that would make an ground controller at the airport look for a replacement pair of ear protectors.
To my utter fascination, the kids were engaged completely in the performance. Not just appreciating the performances, as I was taught to do, but living the moments. Excited honking back and forth between friends while watching the physical comedy of the geese perform on stage. Bleating in imitation of the speech patterns and physicality of the sheep and lamb.
And answering the questions.
When the newly-hatched Wilbur comes out on stage (What? I'm no farmer - I don't know how these things work), he asks 'Who am I? Where am I?' The existential questions of every philosopher-poet ever - from the bowl of petunias to the sperm whale. And the line is intended to spur the remainder of the monologue.
No chance. 'Who am I?' was immediately met with a chorus of 600 screaming kids YOU"RE WILBUR!!!!!!
'Where am I?'
ON THE FARM!!!!
During the intermission, kids stood up and replicated dialogue. They inhabited the characters they had been watching. They shouted, ran around, pointed, and climbed. They lived the performance in a way that I have never done.
The second performance was, if possible louder and more energetic.
 |
| CW run-through before I inserted the ear plugs. |
The richness of the show is incredible, and much of that richness I missed in the first two performances. With the overwhelming sensory overload that comes with 800 screaming schoolchildren, your senses have to focus on very specific sensory inputs to be able to follow. You have to listen carefully for the dialogue, or you will miss it. You have to watch for the spider's descent, or you will miss it. Whatever is outside of the direct focus of your attention gets lost in the roar and the wiggle.
The evening performance allowed for the audience member to pick up on a lot more that is unavailable to the school matinee audience member.
And it was, by comparison, boring.
Not that there was anything different about the play - the actors nailed their performances and I loved the play. But the audience participation - especially in that uninhibited way that children play - is simply not going to happen with a mostly-adult crowd. The rules will be explained, and the limits will be set (and tested) and somebody's bottom will become strangely warmed halfway through the first act.
But the audience is separated from the action.
Just before the first performance, I leaned forward to the girls sitting in front of me and said, "You want to know a secret? That (pointing to the program) is my sister.""Nuh-UH!"
And for the rest of the show, every time Charlotte made an appearance, they would both turn around in their seat and whispersqueal "THERE SHE IS!" ...and then turn back around and interact with the play, fully committed to the action.
When it came to the 'adult' play, there were some titters and oohs and ahhs, and some appreciative laughter. And conversations during intermission.
But not a single bleat or honk. And I found it terribly disappointing. Are we adults just not as affected by the majick of theater as we were as kids? Has the venue become a holy sanctuary, where we dress up and whisper in hushed tones and worship at the altar of an amazing performance, only discussing it afterwards? Have we moved from 'play' space into 'sacred' space? Is there any way to infuse the experience with the spirit of a thousand kids? (OK, maybe a thousand is too many. But the idea is still the same...)
I think I'll start the trend of interacting with the cast members during the performance. Who's with me? Maybe in Romeo and Juliet, I will respond when she asks "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" with:
HE'S BEHIND YOU!!!*
*Yes, I know what 'wherefore' meant....
