One specific example that comes to mind is a time in my neighborhood when a few of my friends and I decided to put on a showing of "The Little Mermaid". Now we didn't have a script, nor any real sort of direction, so our first task was to watch the movie, and write down all the lines of our respective characters. I think we may have gotten through the first 3 minutes of the movie, pausing our VHS tape so we could write down our lines every five seconds. Soon we thought, enough is enough, we'll just wing it! So we made fliers and invitations, invited all of the neighbors, and only our parents showed up. Eventually "The Little Mermaid" turned into an all out free for all, and we all ran about the driveway screaming the lines we managed to remember at the top of our lungs.
Although it may not sound like much, it was a great memory for me, and to this day I'm sure it was quite an entertaining piece of theatre. Even today my little sister insists on performing for our family and guests. When she was younger my brother and I found it a pain that my parents made us sit down and watch my sister prance around our living room for half an hour, but now I realize that her imagination is so ripe and so pure, she can turn our living room into a jungle, and our pool into the ocean. It's often this imagination, this passion, which brings the rough theater to life and brings so much enjoyment to the audience.
I've seen a few Broadway shows in my lifetime, and every year since my sister was three, my mom, myself, and some of my aunts and cousins go to see the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes wherever they may be in the country. We've traveled to Branson, Missouri, Nashville, and even New York City to see them. However, every year I look forward more to my sister and younger cousins creating their own Rockettes dance for us after the show more than the actual show. Sure, the show is great in these magnificent theaters with the professional dancers, but nothing beats your little sister kicking the lamp off the table in the hotel room during her grand finale dance with my mom and me holding up a sheet for the curtain.
An inside joke with friends will be more funny to me any day than something a comedian can churn out. The rough theater to me is a theater full of family and friends, reminiscing and cracking jokes, and the fact that in this format, nothing can really go wrong.
1 comment:
Great post! There seems to be something universal about kids desire to take movies and such and recreate their own versions, as you did with "the Little Mermaid." I remember Shannon mentioning playing "the Outsiders" movie when she was much younger and writing down every line as a script. I used to record myself reading Garfield comic books on tape (radio station Andre). Interesting that kids are not satisfied simply watching a movie. They must be a part of the movie.
I think you are dead on about inside jokes between family or friends (or classmates, for that matter) being far funnier than what most comedians turn out because, again, there is this sense of group participation.
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