We had the opening night of The Lost Gospel Ensemble's performance of The Meal last Wednesday. It was one of those times when I sat in the seat, watched the performance, and thought to myself 'I'm at work right now?' I cannot believe how fortunate I am to have a career that not only allows me, but requires me to meet a bunch of new artists year after year who continue to surprise me when it comes to the extent of people's talents.
Rick Maddocks is the genius behind The Meal. Well there are several geniuses behind this show, but Rick is the composer who was commissioned by the PuSh Festival to create a show for the 2011 Festival. The director of the show had worked with us in our 2010-11 season prior to that original concert. He was wise enough to make sure our Artistic Director went to see their one and only performance in the festival to see if there was a chance that we might remount it as a guest production in our 2011-12 season. And I cannot express just how thrilled I am that he did.
It's not exactly a theatre show, and it's not exactly a concert. It's what they've called a theatrical song cycle. The show is inspired by the gospels of John, Thomas, Judas, and Mary Magdalene and the film The Exterminating Angel. The music is so beautiful and moving ... I'm really without the words to explain just how good it was. I made sure to buy my CD that night because I needed to keep that music with me beyond that one evening.
I love these moments of being so moved by something that I had some kind of part of. In this case I really didn't do much other than sign a contract and write a few emails to make sure everything was set. But knowing that creating these moments in other people is essentially my job ... well that's a pretty darn awesome feeling. Thank you Rick, Richard, Ron, and the entire cast and crew of The Meal!
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