(no subject)

[rm]

I do still exist. Although in a state of extreme exhaustion. Amanda is here, and we've been running around like crazy people -- the cabaret night on Wednesday (which was wonderful! And involved this woman with this incredibly old world sort of voice playing accordion and singing songs in French and then doing this awesome poem about the World Trade Center that didn't suck) and the piano bar last night and tonight, Boheme! Actually, we're about to leave the house to go get the rush tickets, which should be a long and moderately painful process.

I modeled for the lovliest art class yesterday in this incredible Victorian-era house, and there just aren't words for the pleasantness of being told I'm the sort of woman Vermeer would have painted, or that I have a face that suits that time period, or if one could just capture a certain reflection of light on my eye they would be a master. Huge fun. Even if I'm all achy for it today.

Anyway, got to throw my clothes for tonight in a bag and get ready to go, since I'm not standing on line all day in a red dress I wear for tango and a pair of heels, and I do believe in dressing for the theater for a number of reasons (a long tirade on this will surely follow my waxing poetic about the show tomorrow, as someone always wears jeans and I'm always fundamentally appalled).

Comments

[camfangrrl.livejournal.com]

I do NOT understand how some people do not dress for the theater.

As a member of the t-shirt and jeans crowd, I'll tell you. It's a two-pronged thing.

1. I have a hundred dollars. Tickets to the show are 75 dollars. I can buy jeans for 25. I can buy a fancy dress for a hundred dollars. Now, either I can buy the dress, and not go the theater, or I can go to the theater and enjoy the show in jeans. I prefer the latter option.

2. I show up at the theater ten minutes before showtime. In that ten minutes, I spend exactly one minute outside the theater. I spend three or four more with the entirety of the area from my shoulders on down invisible, due to the many people crowded around me. I spend a few seconds getting to my seat. Once I am seated, the only person who can see my jeans and t-shirt are the two people on either side of me. When the lights go down, absolutely nobody can see me. When the show is over, nobody is looking at me because they are too involved in leaving their seats and getting on with their own lives.

So, where's the benefit to me making an effort to look fancy? What's in it for me? You get eye candy; I get nothing. I'm going to the theater to see the actors on the stage, not to watch the audience, which, see number two above, I mostly can't see anyway because they're crowded around each other and sitting in the dark.

Re:

[fleur.livejournal.com]

It's a respect thing. It's like putting out a little extra effort to look nice for church/temple.

[camfangrrl.livejournal.com]

See, now, I'd say that's a different situation. In church/temple, the people attending are the ones "on stage," as it were. They are meant to be noticed as attending. And in a literal way, the people attending services don't spend 99% percent of their time in the dark. They can be seen. The "actor" on stage, the minister/preacher/whatever, goes out of his/her way to notice them. The same is not at all to be said for the bulk of Broadway theater. The actors do not want or need to look at the audience and see that this person is wearing Prada and that one is wearing Kate Spade in order to give a good performance. At least, I hope they aren't. The actors are the ones to be respected, and in that case, the goal I would think is to be as undistracting as possible. If I'm wearing a pair of jeans that let me sit comfortably still in my seat, I'm helping the actor better than if I'm wearing a gorgeous dress that looks divine from a distance but makes me fidget and itch and need to adjust the cleavage and straps every few minutes.

This thought occurs to me. Dressing up is like cosmetic surgery. It has to be an individual decision. It's one thing for me to decide that I really need to have a facelift, but there's something deeply wrong in telling another person, "I'm so appalled as how you look, you really should have a facelift." I think that's a line that shouldn't be crossed.

(Preemptive response: But going to the theater is a collaboration! Everyone who goes is on stage and acting a part, whether on stage, off stage or in the audience. My response: Okay, the people on stage and off are paid to be there. Who's going to pay me to dress up nice? Nobody? You mean I have to pay for the privilege of showing up, and then pay some more for my own costumes? Sorry, that show can close a little sooner for the lack of my dollars. Tell Broadway audiences that they need to wear casual formalwear, and you can count on the fingers of one hand the number of seconds it will take for advance sales to dry up and the theater as a whole to disappear.)

Re:

[fleur.livejournal.com]

Gee, here I thought the point of going to church was to practice spirituality and communicate with God, not to See And Be Seen!!!

Since you apparently think you already know my response (and you're wrong) it would seem to me that you are only interested in talking to hear your own head rattle, so I won't comment further.