Author Topic: Your First Theater Crush  (Read 5622 times)

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yomanda

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Your First Theater Crush
« on: Aug 23, 2013, 02:45 pm »
I recently read this article in the New York Times about what it was that first made you fall in love with theater. 

I paused to consider this myself: Is there a moment that began it all?  Can I point to an experience or conversation that began the fascination? 

Growing up my family did all kinds of little skits and puppet shows and watched lots of movie musicals.  So I could say that a love of theater was nurtured from childhood by my parents.  But if I had to pick an experience, I would say it was when my dad took me to see the national tour of Disney's Beauty and the Beast in Atlanta, Georgia at the Fox Theatre.  It was my first time in a performance space like the Fox and I was overwhelmed with the beauty of it.  As soon as the house lights dimmed and the overture began I was mesmerized, spell-bound for the entire show.  It is still my favorite show. 

Then, in my teens I was in a production of the Nutcracker.  I love dancing and enjoyed twirling to the classic music, but even then I got more enjoyment out of knowing that things were going smoothly backstage because I was also helping with props and quick changes.  I have always loved to create and I think that theater gives me room for my imagination to run wild and to be with other creative people and share in the joy that our work brings to others. 

How about you?  What was your first "theater crush?" 

itsDani

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Re: Your First Theater Crush
« Reply #1 on: Aug 23, 2013, 03:05 pm »
When I was very little I was obsessed with the classic movie Meet Me in St. Louis. I would pester my mother around the house begging "Can i watch Louis Louis? I wanna watch Louis Louis!" Until she would put it on for me to watch. When I was in 5th grade, the middle school that I was going to be joining the next year put on the musical, Meet Me in St. Louis. It was low budget, and... now that I think about it it was rather bad. But I loved it. I joined choir (the department there that put on one musical a year) and I loved it. Then I saw Wicked at the Pantages in LA and was completely sold. :)
Ironically once I moved up to high school I had met the guy there who was graduating the following year and was the stage manager. He fascinated me. He though that I had a crush on him, when in reality I had a crush on his job. Funny enough the same leads from the Meet Me In St. louis production that I had fallen in love with were now seniors at my high school. When I told them that I saw them back then they were so embarrassed!

K_Darby

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Re: Your First Theater Crush
« Reply #2 on: Aug 23, 2013, 07:59 pm »
I grew up with all the classic Disney movies and still love them all to this day. Disney movies coupled with many of the classic musical films (particularly any with Howard Keel) lead to me having a pretty big love of musical musicl. My mother really liked watching those films with my sister and I and all of the cassettes in our car were of musicals too. Then upon entering middle school, I guess a love of musicals just kinda stuck with me. It also didn't help that my older sister was in production throughout middle school and high school and that our mom worked as our school's scenic designer. Later I found out that I was basically doomed to be a theater lover, both of my grandfathers also worked backstage on productions in their local communities.

dallas10086

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Re: Your First Theater Crush
« Reply #3 on: Aug 23, 2013, 11:17 pm »
My mom loved movie musicals like The Sound of Music and West Side Story, and both parents were big fans of Phantom, but those didn't really influence me beyond entertainment value and artistic appreciation. I auditioned for Midsummer in high school in order to make myself less of an introvert, and I made friends within the theatre group. But it wasn't until my sophomore or junior year during a theatre trip to L.A. to see a preview of Sunset Blvd that it really happened. It had nothing to do with the show or the performances - it was the very audible gasp from the audience when Norma Desmond's mansion crept downstage from blackness to light that did it for me. I wanted to make THAT reaction happen every night.

I've been in an abusive relationship with theatre ever since.

missliz

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Re: Your First Theater Crush
« Reply #4 on: Aug 25, 2013, 05:53 pm »
Two:

My grandmother bought my mother tickets to Phantom of the Opera. She didn't want to go, so my grandmother took me. I was 4. The chandelier dropped and all I thought was "How did they DO THAT?"

I went to Les Miserables with my mom and had to write a review for class. (2nd grade.) I spent an entire paragraph marveling at the turntable floor.

Basically, I saw stage magic and I wanted to do THAT.
I personally would like to bring a tortoise onto the stage, turn it into a racehorse, then into a hat, a song, a dragon and a fountain of water. One can dare anything in the theatre and it is the place where one dares the least. -Ionesco

MatthewShiner

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Re: Your First Theater Crush
« Reply #5 on: Aug 25, 2013, 11:06 pm »
Theatre was sort of forced on me as a child . . .

But my first crushes include . . .

Jim Dale in Barnum . . . me and my grandparents sat in the front of the Mezzanine . . . and I could have sworn he was singing "Out There" right to me.  Afterwards, my grandfather took me backstage (A frat brother as in the show), and Jim Dale was introduced to me . . . made my life.

In undergrad, I knew an acting teacher of mine was in CLOUD NINE (A fantastic play . . .), she played the double role of the meek nurse (the role I recognized her in) and the role of the sexually liberated neighbor . . . but I never put it together that she was playing both.  With all the quick changes, I couldn't figure it out.  Blew me away . . . and I went back and saw the next five performances.  I fell in love with the show, the magic of theater.

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Cedes

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Re: Your First Theater Crush
« Reply #6 on: Nov 01, 2013, 09:45 am »
I performed in a school competition in 9th grade that was a state-wide thing (Not forensics, but a religious school one) A friend and I did the Mrs. Danvers/New wife suicide scene from Rebecca. We won 1st place, and it was in that moment that I knew this is what I was going to do for the rest of my life. (of course, I don't act now...but I'm still in it :) )

Zimmy54

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Re: Your First Theater Crush
« Reply #7 on: Nov 22, 2013, 09:40 am »
My parents took me to see the Pirates of Penzance when I was a kid and that is the first show I really remember seeing. I loved it. The music, the dancing, the people. I was in awe of the production. I wanted to do what those people did and be on stage, be creating new worlds. I was so excited. I kept going back with them each summer to that theater and now I work there. Its become my home and family. They made me fall in love over and over again with theater.

Kelasaurus

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Re: Your First Theater Crush
« Reply #8 on: Nov 25, 2013, 09:33 pm »
My grandma started taking me to see TYA shows when I was quite little, and I was always enthralled. It was something about the immediacy of it, I just loved it.

Then I saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at a local theatre when I was about 11, and I fell in love. I wanted to do that! I became obsessed with the show. I saw it multiple times, and owned the recorded version on VHS. I watched it so many times, the tape wore out.

I acted in church plays through middle school, and then auditioned for the mainstage theatre production in my first semester of high school. When I wasn't cast, the teacher asked if I'd be interested in being part of the show in another way. And that was my first time on a running crew. I stepped up to ASM the next semester, and I have never looked back.
‎"We keep moving forward, opening new doors... because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."
- Walt Disney

leastlikely

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Re: Your First Theater Crush
« Reply #9 on: Dec 04, 2013, 04:17 am »
When I was 9 I saw a production of Joseph at a local dinner theatre. I don't know if that was really the moment that made me say "this is what I want to do with my life" (and I'm glad for that... I wouldn't survive in dinner theatre!) but it definitely made a lasting impact. It's not the first show I saw, I had attended a couple TYA shows here and there - just the first one I have a solid memory of. I've been back to that theatre a handful of times over the years.

Around the same time I have vivid memories of putting on skits with friends (camp talent show, or just backyard plays) but it never occurred to me that I'd be making plays for a living in the future.

Honestly, the first show that made me say "this is what I want to do with my life" was a summer camp production of High School Musical, I was the stage manager and a co-counselor with the director, choreographer, and music director. At that point I was just doing it for kicks, but it was that show that made me realize, wow hey this could be it. Maybe this is what I need to be doing.
« Last Edit: Dec 04, 2013, 04:21 am by leastlikely »

Dart

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Re: Your First Theater Crush
« Reply #10 on: Dec 04, 2013, 02:02 pm »
I was the butt of all jokes in my college theater department for my first theater crush, but there we go. While I do remember going to plays, performing, and being a toddler dictator director, when I was younger, my clearest, most awe-inspired memory was watching Cats. The recording, not even live. I fell in love with the costumes, and the dancing, and the lights, and the set. This was definitely my first tech crush.

I didn't really speak English then - I watched it when I was abroad in England to immersion-learn English right before moving to the US. So Cats, with its simple plot that always gets made fun of, was easy to follow for me. I remember trying to watch James and the Giant Peach in England and I definitely couldn't understand it.

I got to watch Cats live twice after that, once in Madrid (in Spanish!) and once in DC.

 

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