Godspell

I arrived to the theatre in the middle of Bike week hustle. Beach Street was packed and people were everywhere, the theatre parking lot was filling up quickly and people were quickly making their way inside. When I first walked inside the ushers were waiting by the escalator to take our tickets and shows us to our seats. I sat on the right side of the three-quarters thrust style stage. Seated around me were a few couples in their forties and a woman with a younger daughter around three, towards the front of the stage were a few older couples. The unique style of the theatre really gave an interesting view of the audience during this performance; you could hear everyone chattering until the music started. With the ending of the opening song the audience was happily applauding and following what I thought to be normal American convention. As the show went on I realized how much the little girl was enjoying herself, she was responding to what was going on to her mother, even getting up and dancing at some points. When the actors invited the audience onto the stage to join them before the break many of the younger audience members went up to dance and get punch. The little girl was slightly more hesitant, but eventually went forward when her mother accompanied her. The audience was very receptive of the setting and overall show, everyone was enjoying themselves and it was nice since the play keeps a high beat. At one point when the actors went out to tell the audience about their troubles they really connected to the audience well and had people laughing with some quick jokes or outrageous stories they had to tell. At one point were one actress had the solo “Turn Back Oh Man” the woman behind me was singing, what she may have thought was quietly, along to the song. The thing that sticks out in my memory most was the little girl towards the last portion of the play when Jesus was being crucified and her reaction to the emotion taking place on stage. The lights began to flash and the hue of the stage turned red, the music was high stressed, the actors began to wail, and cry. The girl became terrified and started to get out of her seat. She kept asking "What’s going on? Why are they crying? What’s wrong with Jesus?" She became rather stressed out and her mom almost had to take her out of the theatre because she was reacting so strongly. I thought it was an amazing example of how theatre and actors can really capture the feelings of their audience and bring them into the emotional state the show is trying to portray. On the flipside the girl had an equal reaction to the happy parts of the show with the dancing and excitement she shared with her mom. When leaving the theatre I had the opportunity to talk to the mother and she said her daughter loved the show, and she was surprised how involved she became. This was great to see and really me feeling good about the production for that evening.