The Theatre

When someone says “I’m going to the theater*” in today’s day and age, I usually assume they mean the movie theater, and that they’re planning to purchase popcorn and soda and a ten dollar ticket to stare at the moving pictures.

This is today’s entertainment. And in today’s world of flashy, noisy, slick, entertainment, we have a tendency to think, “how on earth did anyone get entertained before movies?”

I’ll admit that I’m somewhat of a biased party in this, because I spent several years in high school as part of the theater production class and loved it, but I think people tend to undervalue good plays. Just a few nights ago I saw Twelfth Night at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and it was phenominal. Sitting in an incredibly cool outdoor theater, at night in the heat of southern Oregon, there was something magical about well-performed Shakespeare. The jokes were hilarious, the characters vivacious, and the story (although classic) thoroughly entertaining.

I should really see plays more often. There’s an immediacy to it that you can’t find in a movie. It’s an event, not just an evening. And it’s damn good entertainment.

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* I’m well aware that “theater” is spelled different ways in this post. The title is supposed to imply “the old school.”*