(no subject)
. so when groton school accepted me i was completely fifty fifty on whether I would actually go. peacock was, of course, the only reason i was thinking of staying (public school sucks i think and teaches so many more wrong lessons than right ones...). now, i know my high school has given me so much and i dont regret going but being back in town this summer has alerted me to exactly what it is i've missed and what it is that made me hesitant to leave. the other day I was talking with some kids about godspell (the real old one, with jared and katie and scott severance at peacock), and somebody said that that was the show where people started saying "yanowhat these little kids have really got something going on". and it was a great show, of course, for all the comedy and the music and singing and debauchery, but what sort of set it apart, i felt, were the moments during on the willows and by my side and stuff, where all these kids were showing and really feeling something deeper than a line or song in a show, they were radiating sadness and hope from their very eyes (which is the only place that can't lie, right). and that pulled me in when i was thirteen or fourteen and pulled in thirty or forty year olds who understood and started talking about peacock.
. i think that that honest emotion was what set that show apart, and has continued to set peacock and it's players apart. i didn't realize it then, and only partially realized it afterwards. but eric said to me a few days ago that his generation was a "better" generation than mine was, performing-wise, and i think that's only partially right, because that certainly doesn't explain why peacock shows have continued to bring in crowds and die-hard fans and actors for four or five or six years now. i think it's true that the dancers and singers and actors aren't as numerous or as developed as they were years ago, but i also think that for one, talent takes time to grow (and this new generation's talent is certainly growing), and two, there are just as many peacock players who are extremely pure in their art (just like the old godspellians) - who's performances and emotions are unblemished by ambition and ego and all those things that seem to come with age.
. watching young company this summer, especially during songs for a new world, has reminded me of the importance of this intense kind of passion... the kind i'd understood when i used to do shows here and had gradually lost touch with over three years at groton school. i saw it all in renees eyes during the opening for songs at the camp preview show, saw it in sam every time she finished her song, and saw it in aaron when he came out to introduce this brilliant show he'd created, not because he'd wanted to be a director or win an award but because he'd wanted to make something great. of course, i hate it when yall are bitches to eachother, and when you whine more than you should because you didnt get a part, and especially when all that gets in the way of a show, but most of all i hate it when i'm told that peacock is not what it used to be because the critics need to adjust their criteria - places change and obviously quality will fluctuate as younger kids are forced to step up to the plate and learn, but i've been around again for two months and i've seen that it still has what's most important.
. now, i met or actually got to know most of you this summer for just the first time, but i'm sad that i'm leaving for china and then for college, because although we're not old friends, i'm thankful that you've kept peacock as passionate a place as i remember it to be, because i know (from experience) that it's something that's very hard to find anywhere else.
. i think that that honest emotion was what set that show apart, and has continued to set peacock and it's players apart. i didn't realize it then, and only partially realized it afterwards. but eric said to me a few days ago that his generation was a "better" generation than mine was, performing-wise, and i think that's only partially right, because that certainly doesn't explain why peacock shows have continued to bring in crowds and die-hard fans and actors for four or five or six years now. i think it's true that the dancers and singers and actors aren't as numerous or as developed as they were years ago, but i also think that for one, talent takes time to grow (and this new generation's talent is certainly growing), and two, there are just as many peacock players who are extremely pure in their art (just like the old godspellians) - who's performances and emotions are unblemished by ambition and ego and all those things that seem to come with age.
. watching young company this summer, especially during songs for a new world, has reminded me of the importance of this intense kind of passion... the kind i'd understood when i used to do shows here and had gradually lost touch with over three years at groton school. i saw it all in renees eyes during the opening for songs at the camp preview show, saw it in sam every time she finished her song, and saw it in aaron when he came out to introduce this brilliant show he'd created, not because he'd wanted to be a director or win an award but because he'd wanted to make something great. of course, i hate it when yall are bitches to eachother, and when you whine more than you should because you didnt get a part, and especially when all that gets in the way of a show, but most of all i hate it when i'm told that peacock is not what it used to be because the critics need to adjust their criteria - places change and obviously quality will fluctuate as younger kids are forced to step up to the plate and learn, but i've been around again for two months and i've seen that it still has what's most important.
. now, i met or actually got to know most of you this summer for just the first time, but i'm sad that i'm leaving for china and then for college, because although we're not old friends, i'm thankful that you've kept peacock as passionate a place as i remember it to be, because i know (from experience) that it's something that's very hard to find anywhere else.