Report 2

The event that I attended for the second performance report was Side Show: The Musical. Musical theatre is a form of theatre that combines music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. This event took place at the University Theatre on April 17, 2010 at 8p.m. The story that was being performed by the artists was a true story of the lives of conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. The twins had move to Texas in 1920 but where abused by their manager. Later on they get there freedom and become very popular with some training in singing and dance. At the end they get marriage for publicity reasons and get divorced.
As the Musical stated there was an introduction of each of the characters in the freak show. The background music consisted of a fast tempo to provide the effect of anxiety to the audience as the performers entered the stage. All the numbers that were performed by the play were either of one of the following themes: Love, Life of the twins, or acceptance of the freaks in a whole. The dialogues amongst the performers were mainly phrases from songs rather than them talking. The music during the play used to accompany the dialogue of the actors to add more expression and feeling to the play. If the part was something intense in acting and dialogue the band would play a fast tempo song in the high octave. Another interesting thing I noticed was the pitch at which the notes were being played was matched by the volume of the actor. Suppose the actor had a very low voice the band used to play the same octave but in a softer volume and wise versa. I feel this was done such that the dialogue between does not get over shadowed by the music in the background. When the mood was meant to be a sad / dark atmosphere to the stage the rhythm and volume were slow and soft respectively. At times the music from the band was in time with the dialogue to provide emphases on the phrases; hence the band would not play anything when the performer is not saying anything. The pit band was directed by a director who used to instruct the performers whether they should play louder, softer, or stops.
The performers in this event consisted of the actors and the pit band. Unlike other Musical theatre the pit band was not hidden from the view of the audience rather they were set at the back of the stage where the audience could see some parts of the band. The performers at times interacted with the audience to provide a live feeling of what would have really happened in the past. The main focus of the play was around the twins and there love life. Even if the characters in the side were not the focus they still would provide the facial and body expression to help the main characters set the mood and tone of the scene. Throughout the play actors would change their customs to match the setting of the scene. This helped the audience understand the change in place and location.
The audience at the play mainly consisted of students, families, and friends of the performers. When the performance started the director informed us that this play was the biggest success they have ever had in their history with respect to the number of audience present. Since this was the last performance most of the audience was anxious to see the performance of the twins since they had heard great things about it from friends who had come to the play previously. Some of the audience members started to clap hands in between songs when someone did an extraordinary job. The audience had a very positive and energetic appearance. At the end of the show I was surprise by the number of people whistling to show their likeness of the show. All the audience at the end gave a standing ovation to the performers to acknowledge that they had done a great job. The loudest claps came in when the twins bowed down to show their thanks.
Since this was the last show of their two week of shows the audience had knowledge about the show prior to the start of the show. Since the seats were filled with audience I feel that if was an engorgement for the performers to show their best. Since the audiences were so supportive of the show, people at times would cheer the performers at the end of each scene such that they are motivated to perform.
In conclusion, the Side Show was a great success in terms of talent and audience. It was a show with multiple moods such as: humor, sadness, joy, and fear. This was a great platform of the Arts major to show their families and friends that they are able to provide us the audience with great shows to watch.

Source:
Side Show. By Bill Russell and Henry Krieger. Dir. Kathryn Evans. Perf. UTD Cast. Con. Winston Stone. University Theatre, Richardson. April 17 2010.