Performance Report 2

Introduction
For my second performance report, I attended the Thursday, April 15th showing of Side Show: The Musical. It featured a full cast of actors and musicians pulled from UTD arts program. All of these students and the faculty who aided them put forth a couple of years to make the production as successful as it is.

Music
With a full repertoire of at least 25 songs, the intermission was the quietest moment in the show. The small pit orchestra played for almost 2 hours strait. Almost every moment was built upon the emotions from the music that continually flowed. Most songs were put to a slow tempo with somber and quiet moods or slightly uplifting melodic contours. Although there were many times the music rised in tension with the play, none of the songs expressed discordant anger. At most a swelling of passion was expressed during emphasized events.

Performers
All the students who performed did well and were well versed in their practicing roles. The orchestra was composed of 5 woodwinds, 6 brass, 2 guitarist, 2 percussion and a synthesizer. The stage design broke visual contact of the them most of the time, but the amount of feeling in their composure was easy to hear. The actors sold their parts well and the emotions were easy to believe. Accessory to the visual representation, the musicians filled any doubt to the emotional composition of the story.

Audience
I expected to see mostly students cramming in to take notes for report writing, but was suprised when that was not necessarily the case. I observed a number of older audience members and several faculty as well. Several times the audience was asked to fill in middle seats in order to fit in more. By the time the performance began, the theatre was quite packed. Despite the lack of a heavy young influence among the audience, participants were still quick to begin chatting and gosipping during intermission and after the show. Almost no empty seats became available after intermission finished and the performance resumed.

Time and Space
The performance took place in a medium sized theatre on campus. This allowed for the small orchestra to still be heard clearly throughout without having to enhance their volume or loudly distort them. It was very packed performance. I think this was enough to cause a good case of stage fright, but the applause would have been loud enough to still inspire the performers. Being that I attend the free admission for everyone Thursday performance, even the people who came but wouldn't otherwise pay to see it would have been glad they came. Performances always seem to be better when they are a pleasant surprise, and this performance seemed to have that sort of air about it.

Conclusion
The performance of the actors and the musicians seemed more well put together and refined than I have previously witnessed from UTD theatre performance. The event received a standing ovation and well deserved it. The story, musicians and the visual representation of it all supported each other very nicely.