I just returned home from the Theatre. I can’t often say that. Not that I don’t go to the theatre often. I have been going to, creating, performing in, writing for, teaching, etc., theatre all my life. It’s just that there’s ‘Theatre’ and there’s ‘theatre’. Normally, or hopefully, we go to the theatre to experience Theatre, but mostly we return home having experienced ‘theatre.’
Well, I just returned home having experienced ‘Theatre.’ And I am very grateful for the experience. I just saw “Tracers” at The Grange. I did not want to go. It was Dreary today, Saturday, if you recall, and I had nothing But reasons to stay home, except for a feeling that I really Needed to go. And I’d told Gillian Smith that I would come. So I went.
And I experienced Theatre. The young men in the cast, untrained and inexperienced, were, each and every one, flawless. I found myself in that magical place of, utter belief in what I was seeing, and emotional connection to each character. Not a false note was struck by anyone at anytime and even if it had, the others would have shifted in such a way as to make it work. In other words the thing was alive on the stage. The men were in actual relationships with each other and their connection to one another seems to have given them an incredible ease and trust of one another so that they appeared perfectly relaxed, in the moment, spontaneous and true. Needless to say, it was profoundly affecting. I felt high afterwards. It was Theatre.
Jane Alden
My husband, Bill, and I did not have what would have been the utter thrill of attending a performance of Tracers. But we were treated to regular segments by phone from our son, a first-time thespian–oh, alright–actor. We would sit in front of the speakerphone (it felt like we were huddled around the old radio for a BBC Performance). We would hear the crisp–shall I say acrid–tones of Drill Instructor Sgt. Williams. Because he’s my son, I could accept his use of the scripted profanities as a necessary part of his tremendous growth resulting from being offered this role. Thank you, Lin McNulty! And I am delighted that Tracers was Theatre for Jane Alden and, hopefully, for others. (Now where is our video?!)
Bill & Dawn Statham, Boise, Idaho (proud parents of Philip Shane)
What a delightful story! It is a wonderful reminder of the profound and far-reaching effects that the arts have in our lives! War tears us apart. Turned into art, there is the potential for bringing us together and healing. Thank you for sharing this wonderful story!