It’s nice when you have to frequent a thesaurus to find synonyms for the word Wonderful. I do that in writing these articles, looking for new ways to tell you how beautiful this show is. As much as I like to try and eff the ineffable, I have to resign to the fact that transmission of this experience is incomplete unless you’re in the room. Live theater isn’t really capturable. Transcendent live theater definitely isn’t conveyable outside of the direct experience. And transcendent live theater made by a bunch of once-strangers who gather to make something unique and honest and galvanizing and revolutionary, is another animal completely.
Thanks to all of you who came for making the night perfect. There was delectable, healthy, sweet and savory food that people kept talking about long after the night ended. And the stories were excellent. Allan Horn, Nan Sack, Jackson Cusick, Moises Norena, Geneva Manley, Manuel Botana, Clarence Browley and Angelina Marie told fantastic tales. Lily Be was your Audience Favorite walk-up teller, and we are excited to have her return in the spring! And, as often happens at a show where we let the theme determine itself, motifs emerged that were more profound than could have been prescribed. Most of the night’s stories had to do with resurrection; brushes with death, survival and rebirth (with some Springsteen thrown in for good measure). If you didn’t know this show, you’d definitely think we’d planned that ahead of time. But this kind of synchronicity happens often when people make story choices like we encourage them to: based on intuition, listening for which story feels right to share, and bringing that one. The connections are just one cool side-effect of that kind of trust and listening.
In another moment of beautiful concordance, at the end of Geneva Manley‘s powerfully sung story about her experience of healing from a deadly illness, she stood with her arm high in the air, and spoke a sentence that ended with the word “Amazing”, at which time my smartphone turned on all by itself, picked up her voice saying that word, and announced to the theater in full volume: “Amazing: Causing great surprise or wonder. Astonishing!” It really was. And so was the rest of the night. See for yourself in these beautiful photos by Viktor Gerasimovski.
Huge thanks to Lauren Yarborough for co-hosting with me! It was a dream to play with her.
We hope very much that you will join us for the next one. Likely in April or May. Springtimeish. Dates will be posted on this website as soon as we have them. <3
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