The Experience: A Chorus Line
Attending the performance of “A chorus line” is a priceless experience in one’s lifetime, at least for me. The epic performance happens at the Shawnee mission Theatre in the park. The show opens amid an audition that was meant for entertainment purpose. However, during the occasion time, watching it is heaven when the occasion in the theater in rather the hot weather is transformed in a heartbeat into some wonderful and sweet consummation. The performance that occurs allows someone to exist at different times, that is, during its fast cast on the stage and the present time. The hot and humid weather condition at the time does not prevent the audience to enjoy every bit of performance. No one wants to be left out at any single time before, everybody was on a high. Even during its initial previews the tickets for the show are the hottest in town and everyone is nervous for the experience (Swope, 1989). It is attended by a sizeable number of over 200 people of different age groups. To my assumption it is that the elder people of almost 70 year come to experience the new version of the highly anticipated original cast that was produced in 1975. On the other end, the children of even around 10 years are there to have fun for themselves.
The stage is prepared by the lighter designer people and the sound designers. The ecstasy of this “A Chorus Line” arrives and the attendees have to carry their own seats to the event, some of the attendees carry blankets and mats for sitting purposes. One would wonder about exactly what is happening on the stage. The dancers who are in their rehearsal clothes are seen trying out some new steps for an audition, which does not seem to be this show. It looks like some old backstage movie musical. The performers are more than two dozen, some of them kids who are vibrant and after a few minutes one sees the potential to make everyone scream. Everyone on the stage seems so desperate for work. A Chorus Line, having been developed collaboratively over a long period of time had no set of deadline for when it was to be completed (Schmitt, 1990). The result is a show that uses movement and song and also a script to narrate its story to the audience.
It is evident that the show was mounted relatively inexpensively, as its primary materials are the dancers. The dancers are asked to introduce themselves and they somehow also reveal their pasts. The stories in the show depict step by step progresses from their childhood through adulthood to the end of their careers. The audience seems so much entertained and following the stories keenly from where they are. For this show, however, people were not allowed to carry alcoholic drinks. The interest most people is the moments of performance, but not what its outcome will be. There are no breaks for scene changes and the dancers execute various combinations as part of the audition. The Chorus Line corresponds to life outside the theater (Schmitt, 1900). The Chorus does not have a tone that is overall for the performance, it is a musical, not a comedy musical. Thus the moods and the characters are abutted all of a sudden against one another.
The experience at the Shawnee mission Theatre in the Park is one that cannot be forgotten. There are instances of play within a play which makes the show more compelling. The performers and the roles they play are very close that you cannot tell whether the people standing listening to the speaker in the play are characters or not. The audience becomes intimate to the stage for a performer and their role are easy to identify and the show becomes so much interactive. During the performance people brought food and drinks, and since it happened in the open air some also brought sprayers for insects that may tend to disturb them.
References
Swope, M. (1989). What they did for love: the untold story behind the making of A chorus line. New York City, NY: Bantam Books.
Schmitt, N. C. (1990). Actors and Onlookers: Theater and Twentieth-century Scientific Views of Nature. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.
