Raring to go after a live show

By April Lynn Newell

LOGOS EDITOR

Silence made me laugh and trash left me in awe.

Yes, you read that right. It has been awhile since I have been inspired. Occasionally a movie will hit that creative nerve, but never the same way that live theatre does.

Perhaps by my first line you already know what show I’m talking about, but that isn’t my point. I am not writing a review but a declaration and a challenge.

It was fantastic to see a full theatre on a Friday night. Sure there were a few scattered empty seats, but for the most part the Majestic was cramped. There were people my age, older and younger, all to enjoy “Stomp,” a traveling show, live, loud and heart pumping.

If you have never been to a live performance of any kind, concert or play, I urge you to go. Splurge, get nosebleed seats, whatever you have to do! It is so worth it. If you have not been to a live performance in awhile, get to one soon! There is nothing like the thrill of the theatre. Which was why I was so enthralled at the crowd. It’s comforting to know people still attend.

Newspaper is dying, many say. I think journalists and those in theatre share a common thread in that saying. Our art forms are at risk. I say we can still save them.

So find a play or a concert and get to it!

Live performances inspire like no movie can. They spark creativity, they mesmerize and cause the right brain to salivate. It makes you believe, if even for an hour or two, that you can do something great!

Seeing these performers, normal and not touched-up by Photoshop or misrepresented in any way, sparks confidence and encouragement in their audience.

“You don’t have to be thin, tall, white, black, shiny-haired or even remotely perfect,” says the stage. “Just be you, do what you do.”

So go!

Go laugh.

Go cry.

Go scream.

Go dance at the theatre. It is an experience you will not regret and want to relive again and again.

I tend to get something, a truism, a moral from every story. That night I realized that sometimes I live with my head in the clouds. What if this? What if that? What if dreaming didn’t hold me back? What if I looked at the here now and actually accomplished a “what if”? What would the world look like if we stopped dreaming and began initiating? Began acting? Started an organization to feed the hungry? Built a business from nothing whose revenue went to cancer research? Finished medical school and opened a free and stable clinic in Uganda?

You can do it. Stop dreaming and start doing. Dreaming is a first step, take the next one!

So now you are thinking I am pretty crazy, getting all worked up over a measly play. Test it. Go to one. Analyze it until there is nothing left if that’s your pleasure, or just sit back and enjoy it. See if you aren’t inspired to create, build or do something.

E-mail Newell at adowning@student.uiwtx.edu

April Newell