The AKUS Glowstick Party of 2011
At some point during KraussCon ‘11, Allie, Africa and I realized three things:
1. The average AKUS audience is made up of two kinds of people: those who just want to sit still and not get into the show at all, and those who really want to get into the show but are too self-conscious to do more than just clap politely. (There are also the jerks who yell at Alison to marry them, but that’s a whole ‘nother post…)
2. This rather subdued audience atmosphere is at odds with the often silly antics happening onstage.
3. Allie bought way too many glowsticks for just the three of us to wear. In fact, she bought enough to light up two rows in the Tennessee Theatre.
It was only natural, then, to orchestrate a surprise glowstick rave during “Man of Constant Sorrow” as a way to celebrate the final show, but also to give a bunch of people an excuse to dance in their seats and be silly during an AKUS show.
There were many obstacles to convincing 26 mostly middle-aged strangers to break a glowstick and wave it around in sync, including:
1. the need for security clearance;
2. questions such as “Will the glowstick burn me?” “When I break the glowstick, will it spill?” and “How will I know which song that is?”;
3. several people who were entirely unamused by our ingenious plan;
4. and our own suspicion that most people would chicken out at the last minute.
Despite all that, the plan succeeded rather beautifully. You can’t tell very well from the picture, but the majority of the two rows pulled out their glowsticks at the beginning of the song and proceeded to wave them in unison throughout the song.
There were a few sticks in the mud, of course, but for the most part everyone was admirably game, proving our theory that most people at AKUS shows really want to party but will only do so when somebody else is doing it first. A few people even continued afterward to wave their glowsticks like cigarette lighters, or substituted frantic glowstick waving in lieu of applause after every song.
The three older ladies in front of us had a ball, and thanked us at the end of the show for instigating it. They kept their glowsticks as souvenirs.
After “Man of Constant Sorrow,” Alison pointed out the glowsticks and commented that things were exciting in our section of the theatre. But really, people in every section of that theatre were excited. AKUS concerts are exciting things! People sometimes just need a nudge to admit it in public.
Sorry there’s no video; turns out thin, weak lights flailing about in the darkness don’t capture well on video.
But honestly I am so proud of pulling this off, and so proud of that audience for being such great sports about it.