Live

Ahhhh.. Ooooh!

There is nothing like live theater. Yesterday a play I directed was performed at the San Francisco Theatre Festival: "Cat in a Cell," by Judith Offer, with actors Gift Harris and Tamara Sabella. Some students of mine and Tamara's attended, along with various friends and relatives, and a large drop-in standing room only audience.

The performance took place in a small, intimate space without a stage, and only the living room lamp I brought with me for lighting. Beige masking tape on the gray carpet formed the "scenery." We placed the audience chairs close, in three sides around the performing area, so that we were all very close to the actors. Perhaps due to the intimacy, the students seemed almost to anticipate the subtle interactions of the actors a fraction of a second before they happened. They understood the smallest glance, the twitch of an eyebrow and they made sounds... ooooooooh... and laughed... and listened to the message about life.

The actors took energy from the responses of the students as well as from the warm laughter and rapt silences of the adult audience. The result? Community and fun are words that fall short. Pure magic. Impossible to define for someone else, you have to experience it yourself. Soon.