Sunday, June 06, 2010

A night at the theatre

Piotr and I joined his mother and her friend for the premier of "Mały Książę" or "The Little Prince" performed at the Musical Theatre in Gdynia, Poland. The show is completely original, save the story, with new music, amazing costumes, great choreography and an integration of video. While the performance was dance based, small bits of speech and sound speckled the story giving it life. Overall, an amazing performance.

As we were leaving though two thoughts occurred to me: one, that theatre has come a long way since the last time I was in a show (nearly 10 years now); and two, that this was one of only (one) handful of theatre performances I've seen in the last 5 years. This amazed me! I was so involved in theatre in school and college, toyed with becoming a theatre major or minor, and traveled for a semester in Europe with a school group strictly focusing on theatre and literature. And I've seen less than a show a year in the last five years!

I have to thank my crew from the Portland Spirit, for without them I would have seen even less! Marianna Thielen in Sartre's No Exit was the first show I saw back in Portland and proved to be hauntingly memorable. Jacqueline Shoda-Iwasaki's opera performance at Portland State in Mozart’s "Cosi fan Tutte" was amazing. And the puppet-master, Shae Uisna, showed us a little of what she could do in Portland State's "Haroun & the Sea of Stories." Now that I think about it, I suppose the Spirit's Cinnamon Bear cruises were a form of theatre, which is probably why I enjoyed working them so much.

(I hope I'm not forgetting any performances I've seen. If anyone remembers another show I've seen, please let me know. I have a genetically inherited memory for things like this that sometimes needs reminding. )

Thank you to those who have performed, who continue to perform, and to those who have encouraged me to get out of the house and into the audience. My hat is off to you. While school takes me in a wholly different direction, albeit a good one, sometimes I long just to be back in the theatre.

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