When I saw the touring production of TITANIC, the end of Act 1 gave me chills. The crew realizes they are heading toward the iceberg and suddenly the stage goes dark and a replica of the ship glides silently across the stage surrounded by a calm, starry sky. It forced a change in perspective as an audience member that still gives me goosebumps.
The next example, that truly changed my life, is going to be hard to explain, but here goes. In the mid 80's, Showtime began airing SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. I wasn't into theatre at the time, having just turned twenty with limited exposure to Broadway. I kept seeing snippets of the first act when I was channel surfing, stopping to watch for a few minutes Patinkin and Peters in their Color and Light duet. I thought it was very interesting, but not for me, so I continued to channel surf.
A few days later, again changing channels, I came upon Act 2 where Marie is singing Children and Art. As I watched, Peters pointed to a woman in the painting and asked Patinkin if he knew who it was and he replied, "That is your mother." When Peters started pointing to all of the women in the painting and singing, "There she is, there she is. Mama is everywhere, he must have loved her so much", I realized tears were streaming down my face. Suddenly, the connection of what I'd seen days before and what I was seeing now made sense. I understood the correlation between having to stand back a distance from the artist's painting, and indeed the whole play, to fully understand what you're seeing.
I immediately checked the TV guide for when it aired next, so I could watch it from beginning to end.
I've been in love with theatre ever since.
Updated On: 6/6/13 at 07:21 AM
