Most weekends, high school students will unwind with time in front of the television. An escape from the mundane can come in the expert editing and larger than life special effects of a movie, or the episodic storytelling of a show that allows viewers to tune in whenever convenient.
But is something lost between the splicing of takes and the pause between episodes?
Last fall, I had the opportunity to go to New York City with the school’s Drama Club and see two Broadway shows. I’ve considered myself a theater kid for four years, but I was never a musical geek or tech aficionado; I’ll be honest – I was a cynic. I considered theater a little outdated, most musicals goofy entertainment and plays as a method of storytelling that would bore to tears anyone with a short attention span. Seeing professional performances, however, made me realize the potential of theater to move audiences like no other medium.
First, the Drama Club, fresh off of “Clue”, went to the Jacobs Theatre to see the musical adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel “The Outsiders.” The show had just taken home the Tony for Best Musical and I was excited to see how the fairly simple story of the book would translate into a big budget production. The first thing that struck me was the set design. Bits of rubber became gravel, an abandoned tire and rusted-out car served as a fountain and bed; the need for the audience to suspend their disbelief complements the show’s theme of imagining a better life. The limitations of the stage held no bearings on the ability of the musical to tell its story.
On the night I saw it, there were a few understudies on stage, including Ponyboy. This is one of the most interesting aspects of live performance. Every actor cast as a character brings a slightly different interpretation. Depending on which production you see, the entire story can be slightly altered and create an entirely new experience. For each performance as well, there is a striking uniqueness. An actor’s delivery on any given day can never be perfectly replicated and so each watch is exclusive.
There is also an understated merit to seeing interactions unfold in front of you, in real time. Without the separation of a screen, emotions are heightened. This was most apparent during the Rumble scene. As opposed to the more point-of-view style of typical film fights, the show makes use of the full picture in producing an expertly choreographed fight that is disturbingly real, especially when crossing into the surreal.
Two days later, my friends and I saw the hit play Stereophonic at the John Golden Theatre. The play follows Fleetwood Mac expy rock band who record an album amid a rapid rise to fame and subsequently are bursting at the seams. Staring back at the audience was a replica of a recording studio that felt acutely lived in – knick-knacks packed messily on the shelves mirrored the messy attempts that the characters would make to desperately pack the morphing figures in their lives back into recognizable positions later in the play. Cutting through the mess was an immense mixing table, the precise instrument whose demands would end up mixing up the characters in the same way it commanded sound. Behind everything was a fully functional sound booth where actors would play songs that live mixed on stage. Even more impressive was the use of scents on stage. To this day, I have no idea how they were able to fill the stage with the stench of cigarettes and weed as the characters fumbled through fits of procrastination towards their burning debut.
The intense attention to detail created such a genuine feeling that it was easy to dismiss the sometimes predictable fall from grace narrative of the show. The power of viewing the story without cuts or specific shots increased its impact. I’ve never gotten emotional watching similar stories in films like Bohemian Rhapsody, but I found myself sniffling during the show’s climactic scene.
But what about the merits of movie magic? There is no doubt that the tools at a film crew’s disposal, such as framing and overlaying a soundtrack, crafts striking visuals that elevate a narrative. At the same time, the tangibility of a live performance can affect an audience viscerally; it can reach past the part of us that knows it is a simulation and forms an emotional reality. There is something to be said for endurance, the way an audience is effectively held hostage by whatever emotions the actors project.
Take a break from binge watching and go see a show. Locally, there’s the Midland Theater nearby, and if you venture into Columbus you’ll find OSU’s Wexner Center for the Arts and the city’s bustling theater district. You won’t be disappointed.
