Back when our community was soliciting funds to help build a theater to replace the one where we were doing shows (it was in a strip mall...), I asked a rather wealthy friend of mine if he'd like to help us in our efforts in the form of a monetary contribution.
He laughed and said that to him, he considered live theater to be "an expensive nap."
To those involved in live theater, them's fightin' words!
So, live theater's not his thing. It's not a lot of people's "thing." He's a federal government prosecutor. There's a lot of people to whom being a federal prosecutor, or having anything to do with government is not their "thing," so I can understand him.
Last week the latest show to which I'm involved opened. My kids loved seeing it so much the first time, they asked if they could go again. This is a rare thing. My kids see so many shows that I'm in, they get kind of bored sometimes with the whole thing.
Not this show--not this time.
In fact, my kids were watching the Broadway version of Shrek on Netflix over the weekend and my youngest came up to me and said, "Dad--I think you guys do the show better." Even though he's ten-years old, I'll take it!
I was going through my pictures of the past week and I came across ones I took when the kids came to the show. Many involved in theater often talk of the "magic" that is found in theater. There's a lot to be said of that, magic for those on stage and for those in the audience--magic for the writers and musicians and the crews that work the shows.
When I see my son next to the über-taleneted BJ Whimpey after last Wednesday's show, I thought of my friend who would have considered the whole experience "an expensive nap," and I think of what he's missing. He's missing the magic.
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