Great performance – dumb audience

I have had some interesting theatrical experiences this week. The other day a director asked me if I sang and then proceeded to tell me all about a part and even sing me part of the song. I knew they were going to ask me to take the part, but they never did. Instead they just said how great it was that I was going to be able to do it. The look on their face when I told them I couldn’t was priceless. It was “the audition that wasn’t.” I don’t know if I’ll ever have as much fun turning down a role as I did that one.

Last night I attended a show I’d been looking forward to for almost a year. More than 7 years ago I watched the Aubrey Hepburn classic “Wait Until Dark,” and was scared spitless. Last year the Hale Center Theater in Orem (HCTO) announced that they were going to be producing the play as part of their season this year. I was very excited about experiencing the show live. The HCTO is a small in-the-round theater, so the audience is right there with the actors the whole time. If the actors were to trip slightly, they end up in the laps of the people in the first row. And I had good seats.

Before getting in to how good the show was, I want to complain about the audience first. The general age of the audience was old, so they really should’ve known better. But they were stupid anyway. The play starts with a darkened (not dark) stage and a man pokes his head in from the door on the side and says “Hello?” or something like that. A man sitting a few chairs over from me, answered him! And then he and the woman who I assume was his wife, and the man next to him, had to laugh about their great joke! Who taught them how to behave in public?

My next issue with the audience came during the second act. The stage and theater are completely dark. You cannot see anything. But the actors are moving around on the stage, and it should have been possible for the audience to hear them. Except the audience was moving around in their chairs making noise, and a few were even giggling. It is an intense part of the play, so the emotions are running high, but giggling was not the appropriate response. When the power goes out at work and the room gets dark, I expect a reaction from my students, but adults, who are probably a bit familiar with the story, or who should have at least been paying attention and known that the lights were going to go off, should have been prepared.

But the show, it was amazing. The actors did a wonderful job. They were very convincing in their roles. I don’t know if I could put a finger on the emotions I was feeling at the end, but it felt like if I moved too much or tried to speak that I would’ve cried. The emotions were that strong. While it was definitely a mix of a lot of different emotions, the main one was probably relief, relief that she had survived. And I felt that even knowing how it was going to end. That emotional charge was worth the show. It was an amazing experience.