Acting

Magical Moments

My sister-in-law, Kjersti Parkes, is the drama teacher at Hunter High school. Her senior drama class put on Into the Woods last week. Their performance wasn’t perfect but there was something about it that made me think.

I attended Hunter High School and being there again made me reminisce. When I was in Jr. High, I was more involved with acting then when I was in high school. I took acting classes in both 8th and 9th grades. When I got to high school, I decided to concentrate more on playing the clarinet, so I didn’t make room in my schedule for drama classes. Still, I was in the chorus of the musicals each year and played bit parts in a couple of the school plays. Other than helping Annelise run her company, I haven’t had much to do with theatre since high school. I have, however, been performing regularly as a member of the 23rd Army Band.

Lately, I’ve been becoming aware of the importance of connecting with your audience. I’ve been watching videos by Tom Jackson, a live music producer. He talks about making an emotional connection with your audience and even though his focus is on performances by bands, what he talks about is relevant to any performer. As I watched, Into the Woods, I felt a connection from the performers. You could tell that they worked hard in preparing for their performance. They followed the direction of their teacher and got in front of an audience where they put their souls into the performance and created magical moments. Their performance was unrefined and a little bit rocky at times, but they put themselves out there and gave it their all. In so doing, they created magical moments that created an emotional connection between them and the audience. Their shortcomings as inexperienced actors were overlooked and we came away uplifted and fulfilled by watching their performance.

As performers we need to strive to connect emotionally with our audience. I don’t think we can call our performances a success until that connection is made.