To create art, and to share your art, is one of the most valuable and rewarding endeavors in the civilized world. Anyone who has ever attempted to express the inexpressible, to articulate the inarticulate, in a leisure moment, understands this.
But it’s more than that. Art is a primordial urge that even the caveman felt. We have creation in our DNA, plain and simple: individually, as a soul trying to make sense of its bodily form, and collectively, as a species with higher brain function than we sometimes know what to do with.
In that vein, we hope you know that producing a play is, at its heart, an artistic endeavor. We form a motley crew of people from diverse backgrounds, give them an overall vision, and watch as they scramble to use every tool available to share a message, cultivate an experience, transcend an audience.
This art form is temporary, enduring only a matter of months or weeks. In the case of Arsenic and Old Lace, we had only 6 total chances to perform. There are only 2 left; we’re approaching closing weekend.
It’s time to say thank you. Thank you to each and every member of our audience thus far. Thank you for making the drive through a canyon. Thank you for arranging and paying babysitters. Thank you for staying out later than you might normally. Thank you for setting aside an evening, not fully knowing whether it will be worth it. Thank you for purchasing a ticket when you could have sat at home and watched television for free. Thank you for respecting art, and for being receptive to ours.
One of our directors, Jessica Wall (who skillfully plays Martha in Arsenic and Old Lace) often describes acting as juggling a ball of energy. You can’t see it, but you can feel it. This invisible force is at the mercy of the cast’s teamwork. Each actor can chip away at it, or stoke its fire. With eye contact, with touch, with sheer feeling, we take that ball of energy and pass it back and forth to one another. This is how characters emerge; how stories surpass the set and seduce the imagination.
The audience also has energy. We feel when you’re receptive; we feel when you’re amused. It’s incredible, and makes all the hours of memorization, blocking, painting, and marketing worth it. Art is worth it. If you haven’t succumbed yet, we hope you’ll take the chance this last weekend. We hope you’ll solidify your plans, call up the friend, act on the off-hand thought that you should go see that.
Yes, yes you should. We’ll see you there!
2016-09-29 06:53:31
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