Once a year theatre itself is in the Limelight, and that's because it's Tony Season. Theater deletants are allowed to quote statistics that would rival a baseball fan or the owner of a fantasy football team. What show, what actor, what writer, what choreographer and what composer will join the ranks of the celebrated and win a Tony. I was never much on statistics, but do feel the need to contribute to the general knowledge of the theater to justify my own Tony Award. So here goes.
There is a type of theatre called the Opera House. Now Opera can be done on most any stage but just performing Opera in a theater does not make it an Opera House. Although it has a connection to how big the theatre is, even small towns can have a 300 seat Opera House. I never knew the correct destinction before playing the Abbeville Opera House in Abbeville, South Carolina.
In a fund raising event last night the manager and artistic director of the theatre was explaining about his theatre to a group of prospective patrons.
Michael Geniveve said it is an Opera House when the working area of the stage, including the wings is bigger than the area alloted for the audience. This is to accomadate the large sets and production of an Opera. I was not a drama history student so I never heard that before. I guess if something interests you, you never stop learning.
It is like the difference between a Broadway Show and an Off- Broadway Show. I always thought it had to do with geography but it does not. It's not how far from Broadway or 42nd street, or even Times Square. An off Broadway house is a theater that has less than 500 seats. A Broadway theatre has more than 500 seats.
The Tony Awards Show is Sunday night on CBS. I will be experiencing a little dejavu as I once again relive a unique moment in my career. The arts are the life blood of humanity, the shine on the finish of compasion. It is so easy to cut the budgets of arts programs in schools because the value in arts is a silent knowledge. It comes into use when you live the facts you have learned in school. Maybe if kids have a chance to find an outlet in creativity there will be fewer who think their only alternative is to take a gun to class. Support the arts, go to the theatre, see a play, experience a musical, feed your soul.
And to my friend Neal Patrick Harris.... break a leg and have your speech ready,
As you were,
Jay
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