Currently, I am in a show called, "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind." It’s a collection of 30, two-minute plays in 60 minutes. Thirty numbers are strung up on a clothes line and audience members shout out a number and whatever play that number corresponds to, that’s the play we do. The show is strictly one hour so we stop the show even if we do not get through all the plays. You can only imagine that towards the end of the show with the clock ticking, there’s an even more heightened frenzy of urgency.
Yesterday was our opening night and we somehow made it through all the plays. After getting through all the plays with approximately twenty three seconds to spare, adrenaline was pulsating all through out my body. Having all my friends greet me in the audience just confirmed my joy for performing.
There’s something that makes live performance so magical. Live performance calls for everyone to be completely focused on the present. Live performance will not wait for anyone. You can’t quickly check your Facebook notifications or listen to music while you watch a live performance. Live performance calls for 100 percent of your attention. Live performance is real. Unlike film writing, visual arts -- when it is a live performance -- there’s no filtering out the mistakes. You learn to make art and find meaning from your slip ups because you have no other option. Live performance requires collaboration, between all the performers, the crew, and most importantly the audience. It is a give and take event. Audience members get their joy from the performers, and performers feed off the energy of the audience members.
So go attend your school's play, dance performance, stand up poetry, a Mozart concert, because it will offer you something most aspects of college can not.