Some interesting theatre notations

Saturday night I went to see The Sound of Music at Garden City High School. It was pretty nice... the actress playing Maria had this incredible operatic voice, and the nuns sang these wonderfully harmonized songs in Latin.

So, not a bad musical, although the bizarre time structure of the stageplay got the audience a little fidgety towards the end of the first act. I was invited to go with my aunt and grandmother, because my cousin was playing in the Pit Orchestra. We sat towards the back, so we could see everyone in the audience. It was funny to watch their body language; restless children falling asleep on their mothers, the occasional woman putting her arm around her husband, and a few single mothers who possessed multiple children who convinced her to leave halfway through act one.

Anyways, what I'm writing about is this great moment that the audience had with the performance. If you've seen the movie, then you'll know the majority of what I saw last night. Towards the end, when the Von Trapp Family Singers perform their encore, the other contestants come onto the stage to accept their third and second place trophies. We haven't seen these people's acts, but it's implied that they've already performed.

As each performer's name was called and they came onto the stage, several members of the audience clapped halfheartedly. Other members were conscious that these were people applauding something they hadn't witnessed.

For a brief moment, some people were unclear just where they were. They didn't know whose audience they belonged to. It was this incredible displacement, as though somehow the audience became the performers, adding to the story in the only role they wouldn't have to act as: themselves, an audience. It was an awesome surreal moment in the theatre, and was by far my favorite part of the show. Very holy theatre-esque.