If you haven't already figured this out by reading my previous posts, I like lists. It helps me sort out what I truly like and what I just kind of enjoy. Here's another one, this one was hard because I've seen many live performances but these take the cake.
5. RED- Winter Jam 2012
I went to Winter Jam of 2012 on a whim, and expecting no more than a good time with some great Christian artists, I was stunned by the quality of performance the heavy rock group RED put on for us. A steam-punk themed, fire blasting, head banging set-list, RED left nothing behind. Toting heavy pyrotechnics, the band played with mass amounts of ridiculous fire, making it a sight to behold. I'm usually not a fan of metal bands, Christian or not, but RED turned me in to a believer, and definitely made for some of the best time I'd had in years.
4. The Taming of the Shrew- The Shakespeare Theater 2013
In Mrs. Nolan's English, during the 2012-2013 school year, we had a unit on poetry and Shakespeare including the ever-classic Macbeth. Our class took a trip during the school day to go see this done live in a very intimate theater with excellent acoustics. Thanks to Mrs. Nolan's teaching, I understood nearly every word when spoken in old English, and I enjoyed every last bit of it. I laughed hysterically, I held my breath in tense moments, and the actors did an excellent job at portraying the characters they played. It gave me a new appreciation for Shakespeare's work after that excellent day.
3. Kayla Nicosia- The White Witch- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe- 2013
Narnia was full of excellent actors, and included in all that was one of the best experiences I'd ever had. But there was one person who stuck out to me the most throughout the whole show, and that was Kayla. I've seen the White Witch played quite a few times, and none quite compared to this unorthodox version of the character. The only thing I can compare the performance to is Heath Ledger's Joker, in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Masterful in every sense of the word, as well as chilling to the bone. In rehearsals, I would always try to get a glimpse of the artist at work, completely straying from her normal kind-hearted self. The best way I've heard it described was by our own choreographer, "When she looked at me, I truly thought I was going to die."
Well said Rachel. Well said.
2. Bye Bye Birdie- Spotlight Northwest Cook- 2013
I could not stop laughing. That's pretty much all I have to say about the show and you should still know that it was incredible. And not just that it was funny, but also very well done. In most shows I've seen, there's usually that weak link that you kind of just point out later, but this was not the case with Bye Bye Birdie. Each and every actor displayed true and utter joy on stage, and it shone brilliantly through excellent choreography, stellar voice work, and brilliantly conveyed jokes. To this day, it remains the best Spotlight show I've seen, and it will be a very hard one to top.
1. River Shierdan- Marius- Empty Chairs and Empty Tables- Les Miserables- Spotlight Rockford- 2013
While the show was great, I wasn't in love with all of it. In fact, I was bored at times by some of the more mediocre performances and numbers. While he was excellent throughout the entire show, a true standout over the entire cast, it was Empty Chairs and Empty Tables that held my attention, heart, and soul captive for an incredible amount of time, and I never wanted it to end. River and I had just recently become friends at that point, so it's not like I had any really close attachment to him (we've become much better friends since then, but that's not the point), and that is also what helped make the performance so masterful. Throughout the show I saw Marius as River, until this song came along, then I saw him as a whole different entity. As he hobbled across the stage, full of injury from battle, examining the place where he once sat with his friends he loved so dearly, you could feel the passion in his voice, even before the song began to pick up. By this point I was all in, engaged and ready to be wowed. He did not disappoint. Marius belted his feelings out in a display of vocal prowess, and as his friends' corpses rose and haunted him, you couldn't help but feel his pain. Marius's friend's had left him, in body and spirit, and he collapsed. His knees bashed the floor, creating a sickening thud. He screamed, "My friends, my friends!", crying, painting his emotion over the audience. Marius's feeble body tried to rise, hurting from injury, he continued, leaving everything on the stage. By the end I was a complete wreck. I have never once cried during a live show, and I was not afraid to show it now.
And then I realized, Marius isn't real. This is a man playing Marius.
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