Drama

My parents live in Plano, Texas, and each summer my mother, my daughter and I go to the community theater to see a play. We began when Sarah was in elementary school with selections like Cinderella. More recently, we enjoyed Footloose. During the intermission, my mother confessed to my daughter that she always thought Kevin Bacon had a great butt.  The tickets were dirt cheap, but the look on my daughter’s face was priceless!  Talk about the family drama when we returned to my parents house, and my daughter repeated what Grandma said to her Grandpa and brother.

This past year, we saw Dilemmas with Dinner, a play I later discovered is popular around the country with local theater. Set in the 1980s, the cast went all out with shoulder pads, lycra, big hair, and bow blouses. Requiring only one set, a combination living room/dining room complete with a Patrick Nagel painting, this easy to stage play kept the audience focused on the action.

Rising executive Brooke invites her boss to dinner to impress him and hilarity ensues.  Hilarity, that is for the audience. It’s a play of coincidences, awkward circumstances, obvious misunderstandings, and extreme mishaps that have the audience rolling in the aisles as the characters try to react to all the mayhem.  Fun for us, not so much fun for them.

Maybe that’s why we like this type of play.  Life is full of drama, and for most people who like to plan and know what to expect from the day when they wake up in the morning, living Brooke’s evening would be hell on earth.  We know just how she feels, and while we’re laughing at the antics on stage, some part of us is really happy it’s not us coming to realize that the night she thought would make her career is actually the one that ended it.

Drama in a play, movie or book is essential to enjoying the story.  Drama in real life is, for most people my age, less so. Maybe that’s why I enjoy going to the theater rather than living my life as a stage play.  I guess you could say prefer the role of Writer / Director in my own life story.