Staged

While I'm way too shy to have ever been involved with it, I absolutely love theater. Performance in general really, dance, live music, whatever. When they're all together, and done well, it thrills me to no end. I'll fidget in my seat, almost ready to burst, because I'm just so excited to have all my senses engaged like that. I can ride the high of a good show for awhile. For example, I went to a concert back in 2003 that put me in such a good mood that the next morning my spirits couldn't be dampened--even when I got to work and a guy immediately backed into my car in the parking garage. He kept apologizing, and then thanking me for being so easygoing (and obviously I got his information and his insurance company replaced my bumper). But seriously, nothing can ruin that mood sometimes.

Last night I saw a pretty fantastic performance of Rent. And while it really doesn't include the dance element, the staging of this particular performance was a dance in itself, and I've always been a fan of the music. I feel like Rent is the cliche "favorite" musical theater production of my generation, having debuted in 1996, I first saw it on tour in 1998, and it was even made into a movie in 2005 (with most of the original cast). But oh well, I can't help but love it. I had the soundtrack in high school and have seen the stage production probably 5 times now, several times from the orchestra pit. I spent most of last night's performance mouthing all the words, but I'm convinced most people in the theater hadn't seen it before, and I think a couple people even left at intermission (that always seems to happen, somebody doesn't like the subject matter and peaces out).

So one of the things I was excited about in moving to Chicago was getting access to a bustling theater district. Certainly more opportunities to see great stage productions here than I had back in Louisiana. I've seen a number of performances since I moved, both dance and theater, and I told myself back when I was unemployed that as soon as I could afford it I would get season tickets somewhere. But now I'm not sure I want to get season tickets to one theater, because I sorta prefer being able to pick and choose what I'm going to see, since there are so many options. (Although the performances I've seen that I didn't have a choice in I still ended up enjoying). Also in this trend of last minute coupon deals with half price options (how I saw Rent last night) sometimes it's best to wait til opportunity comes knocking. Then I can afford more opportunities!

I'm not sure there was really a point to this post. Oh well.