Performance Report 2

Introduction:
I, the author, am Michael Heise. In this article I shall attempt to describe a performance I attended on the campus of the University of Texas at Dallas. I hope to explain various foundational concepts of musical performances and how they relate to the event "Side Show: The Musical". Let me first admit that I am not an avid follower of musicals and the music culture surrounding them. Even though I am not an expert regarding the event's music culture, I am still capable of noting various aspects of this musical performance as well as the various aspects that genuinely surprised me. Now that I have established my background with this music culture I would like to give more specific information regarding exactly what performance I saw. It was a Friday evening of April 9, 2010 that I saw the performance. The performance was held in the university's theater. The performance was scheduled for eight o'clock; however, the performance started approximately three minutes late according to my watch. This was not a large delay and could have been caused by late arriving patrons and attendees. Hopefully this brief introduction shall be enough background information to help the reader understand the performance I saw as I explain the aspects of the performance.

Music:
The music consisted of a relatively small group of people playing the accompaniment as the actors sang the script as lyrics to the songs being played. Quite a few of the songs were light hearted and had relatively fast tempos to demonstrate feelings of happiness or joy. Some of the songs were slower in their tempo and expressed somber feelings such as loneliness or rejection, which were recurring themes in this particular musical. The direction of the various vocal talents changed from song to song, for instance one song had men singing one part and the women the other while other songs had groups of men and women singing together. Some songs would have only one singer while others would have many singers. The lead singers were primarily sopranos or tenors depending one which roles they played in the musical.

Performers:
The performers’ interaction with the crowd was astonishing. Normally when I attend an event that has a stage with side entrances to the stage I am accustomed to the performers entering from the stage's entrances; however, the performers entered the stage from the rear entrance where the audience is enters and exits. They had even sung their first song while still standing on the various elevated ledges next to the end seats. Since I was sitting in the fourth seat from the end I was very close to the performers as they began the show. The performance continued throughout the night without any noticeable mistakes. The performers must have practiced quite a bit to perform without any noticeable flaws. Furthermore, this was particularly astonishing to me since one of the performers was wearing elevated heal shoes throughout the performance and danced doing high kicks in close proximity and parallel with another performer in those shoes.

Audience:
Prior to the performances start the audience was rather restless. It seemed primarily filled with students of the university; however, there also seemed to be non-student and non-faculty attendees during the performance. The audience seemed to nearly fill the seats. I approximated about seventy five percent of the potential seats were filled. Once the musical began the audience watched tentatively and applauded the performance.

Time and Space:
This performance was held the Friday following the Thursday premier. The Thursday premier was free to all attendees while the performance I attended only to UTD faculty and students. Thus, I was impressed that there were what appeared to be several non-faculty and non-student attendees. Perhaps the large turn out was due in part to it being Friday and thus a day that most people have the evening free to do as they please.

Conclusion:
In summary, the performance was a little non-traditional in the way the performers entered the stage, but had some traditional elements in roles and they range of pitch that they sang and traditional in that the music is primarily used to support the plot.