The Essence of Theatrical Work

"...turnstile...." was enough to raise my eye brows during the Teacher's Day performance today. The turnstile at our school's back gate is infamous for its demented behavior. It has literally trapped at least a third of the school population and further more, its horrendously slow compared to the hinged gate with a magnetic lock. Everyone, including the teachers (no exaggeration) abhors using this 20th/21st century giant mechanical stainless steel human top. (evidence)

Turnstile aside, the theatrical work today was good. Normally, the drama club would present works so abstract that only abstract people would understand. Well maybe the drama club produces plays only to receive praises from drama producers, just as novel writers write novels to gain critical acclaim from other novel writers. Sadly, not everyone is that cosmopolitan to understand their arcane plays and hence, would never get a thumbs up from me at least. Thankfully, today's play was not by the Drama club but instead by more normal people with whom we can connect with. 

So what types of plays do I like? For one, it has to, i repeat, it HAS TO connect to me - be it because of the emotion, the content, context or culture that both the play and I have in common. For today's play, both of shared an understanding that the turnstile is messed up. But more than that, its because they agreed to make a mockery out of it - a rarity in the egotistical civilization I live in (me included, sorry if I insulted you here - lol). 

Secondly, is the timing of all the crescendos within the play itself. I have been involved in a couple of animation productions myself (within the school) for the past 2+ years. The animation at the crescendos are the most important parts. They need to be perfect with the beat. Similarly for the play, they have to perform better and better as the plot edges to the climax. In dramas, movies and plain music, the artists have to work extra hard to deliver the final punches. If anything, the audience will remember the best parts only. On the other hand, if your play doesn't deliver as expected, the audience will most likely not remember anything or worse, only have a picture of the worst scenes in their head. 

Personally, the above two qualities would suffice to qualify to be a blockbuster. But if you want to guarantee success, I guess the best way would still be to follow Pixar. Or well, you can't exactly follow Pixar. Guy (and gals) at Pixar are just cool because of their existence. Perfection is within their blood. While other production houses try to find shortcuts and even sacrifice quality to save time and money, Pixar doesn't even recognize these attributes as possible pathways (maybe money affects a little, but just a little in my opinion). Pixar is the embodies perfection within the industry. Every of their movies is painstakingly perfected to the minutest detail. They deserve my respect from every perspective. Thank you Pixar for providing such high quality work!

Before I end off, I would just like to wish all teachers a Happy Teachers Day! Its because of you the world survives. We will forever be indebted to you for the knowledge that you have passed to us. You have moulded us like the sculptors who mould their sculptures. Bit by bit, you try your best to make us perfect! Thanks a lot for everything!