Sept. 20th: Performance Envy!

I remember a day when I used to hate musicals.  And I mean HATE.  This was when I was back in high school and felt that I knew everything.  Having taken a total of 5 drama classes I felt like I was expert on theatre.  Despite also taking a lot of music classes, I felt that the focus of music in musical theatre took away from the authenticity of the story and made the performances contrived.  I actually came around to musicals a while ago, but today was a great way to reflect on how wrong high school Alison was.

Having just come back from the Arts Club production of Next to Normal, I want to give a huge shout-out to all of the performers.  I feel like Next to Normal would have been the perfect example of why I didn't like musicals in high school.  It's a very dramatic story sung all the way through in musical stylings ranging from melodramatic to rock.  'Fake' would have been the word that misguided high school Alison would have used to describe the show.  Fortunately I have grown-up and learned a lot, and can now understand what an authentic performance looks like, and I found it tonight.  The music was impeccable and the acting performances were absolutely beautiful and truthful.  I am extremely envious of the talents I saw tonight,  however I am also inspired.  I know that I will never have the vocal qualities that these performers possess, but they all make me want to be the best performer I can be.

So I might not have been right about everything in high school, but I was right about wanting to dedicate my life to theatre.  I am grateful to be working in an industry that has the level of talent that I witnessed tonight, and to be able to share in this talent often.  Now to work on my own performance abilities!