I have come to see music and theater and the arts in a whole new light over the last few weeks, during what is starting to look more and more like an economic disaster befalling the United States of America and much of the western world as well. As I am sitting here typing this blog entry, Charlie Gibson on ABC is describing what he called “another day of calamity on Wall Street” and I am still digesting the news received this afternoon that someone very close to us has lost their job. (I don’t want to say their name or any clues, except that they live someplace else.) The ground beneath us has never seemed so shaky.
But I look on my laptop screen and see a picture of the cast of “Beauty and the Beast” onstage at the Racine Theater Guild, in the joyous final measures of the show. . . and I suddenly realize that when I was sitting in the audience, watching the show, the woes of the world were a million miles away. . . and I am grateful for anything that accomplishes that for me these days. And I guess I’m glad to have a lot in my life into which I can deeply immerse myself. . . . when I’m teaching a voice lesson to a gifted student . . . when I’m in the midst of a morning show interview with a great guest . . . when I’m rehearsing the Senior Choir . . .
On the other hand, sitting in meetings at Carthage – like today’s meeting of the Fine Arts Division – is the WORST for me because I find myself unable to fully engage with the administrative you-know-what being discussed and instead find my mind wandering to the unsettling headlines which are confronting us day after day. . . And just as bad a time is at night, lying in bed, when Kathy is already asleep and I am prey to the most frightening demons of my overactive imagination.
One of the bad things I imagine is that this economic meltdown is going to create havoc in the arts world, with symphonies, opera companies and theater troupes going out of business left and right as money grows scarce and more and more things begin to look like unaffordable luxuries . . . That’s a very real possibility, I think, and maybe even a reality already playing out in some places.
But then I think of the profound spell which “Beauty and the Beast” cast over me last night . . . and that was just a rehearsal. I think part of what made it an especially exciting night is that it was the first time the cast was actually onstage rather than down in the green room, and there is something so incredibly exciting about being actually onstage. It makes all of this seem so much more real – like this show is really going to happen ! And if it was doing that for me, a member of the audience as it were, I suspect that it’s doing the same for the members of the cast who are actually up there doing their thing. Anyway, there was a marvelous energy and excitement in the room, and it makes me think that even in the darkest times. . . and maybe especially in the darkest times . . . . we need dancing forks and spoons to sparkle onstage and invite us to come and be their guest at the most wonderful party you’ve ever seen. This isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity, at least for me.