**Sigh**
It’s already December and the end of an extremely eventful semester.
As I think back to those first days of semester in August, the main words that run through my mind are: “Who would have thought?” Who would have thought that I could stay awake and alert in a class three hours long, when I could barely manage in my forty minute classes in high school? Who would have thought that I would get to explore my city so much, even venturing out to Brooklyn for the first time in my life? Who would have thought that there would be so many people on the subways at 1 a.m., as I found out when I traveled back from the opera one night. Who would have thought that this class would give me so much to talk about and so much to look back fondly on?
I flash back to the beginning of the semester. I am talking to my friend about my photojournal project. I’m so excited about my photos that I email all my friends the link to my Macaulay page, telling them to keep up with my photos. I remember one of my friends calling me lucky and saying that she wishes she had a fun class on her schedule. I tell her that’s why she should have come to Queens.
A few weeks later, this class gets even better for me. We go see “The Little Foxes” and it’s my first time getting to see a live performance. I’m nervous and excited because of course, I want to see a live play but then the weather outside is terrible and I’ve never been out to the city so late before. I find out as the semester goes on, that I love being in the city at night. There’s so many people around and it feels safe and it’s beautiful. Plus, hailing a taxi to come back home actually makes me feel sophisticated and grown-up, for some reason. Anyways, back to the play. I think that “The Little Foxes” affected me the most precisely because it was my very first live performance. Everything was new and exciting and magical to me. I remember sitting in my seat like a child, gazing in awe at the stage, flinching every time the actors started to yell and hit each other, and just thinking “This is so cool. This is so cool”.
I also think that “The Little Foxes” affected me so much because the plot of the play was just so interesting. Coming into the theater, I had no idea what the play was going to be about. I think that this made the experience better for me, because as the play unraveled and all the drama between the siblings, and Regina and her daughter (yes, it’s been so long I’ve already forgotten some names) exploded, I found myself caught up in the drama and wanting to know what would happen next. Also, for me at least, the characters make or break a story for me. If the plot of a story is bad but then the characters are oddly fascinating, I’ll give that story a positive review. With “The Little Foxes” I thought that all the characters were fascinating because they weren’t two dimensional and I never knew if I should feel sorry for them or hate them (with exceptions like Birdie, of course. See, the names are coming back to me now).
Of course, we saw so many performances there has to be one that wasn’t that enjoyable. Hmmmm…. a performance that I didn’t like…. a performance that made me wish I’d stayed in my house all day…. a performance that made me think Professor Healey was purposely away for it… This is going to be a tough one. No, as I’m sure many people can agree, the Ralph Lemon piece at BAM was my least favorite.
I guess that this piece was the least affecting for me because it wasn’t what I was expecting. You see, when I walked into the BAM, I thought that I was going to see a dance performance. I thought that this meant music, cool costumes, and well… dancing. However, I actually didn’t get any of that. Reading some of the blogs about Ralph Lemon’s visit to Queens College, I saw that the Ralph Lemon piece was not meant to be something that we would understand. It’s just that I didn’t know that when I actually sat in the audience and watched the performance. I just sat feeling really confused and bored about having to watch people twirl and bang themselves on the ground and put socks on their feet. This wasn’t entertaining for me, and I think that this performance disappointed me because I was expecting it to be really entertaining. Despite how bad I might have found this performance, however, it still makes for an interesting memory and an interesting story to tell.
Besides more knowledge about the arts in NYC, one of the biggest things that this seminar has given me is a treasure chest of stories to tell. It has also opened my mind to some wonderful directors and writers that are out there. I will even be giving my bookworm friend my copy of “The Metal Children” to read. I hope that we can discuss it, just like the discussions that our class had that I will miss so much. I’ve come a long way in this semester and I will always remember it as my most exciting class of freshmen year.
Au revoir, Arts in NYC.
