Perched atop a balcony in the Music Box Theatre, I’ve never felt more exposed in my life.
Fate had brought me to this exact location that has been awaiting my arrival for quite a few ticks on the calendar at this point… 1086, to be exact. My emotions have been steadying themselves for this moment that has been a long time in the making.
An overview to the occurrences that were unfolding before me down below, my default option of seeing the world through rose-colored glasses faded away with the dimming of the stage lights as a cellphone began to chime.
A silence washed over the audience, voices slipping into the darkness that immersed each row in a wave of engrossment.
The first echo of a note that tore open the shrouds of anonymity of what was to come reverberated off of the walls that enclosed my initial impressions. Even if I had witnessed a chorus of Sirens personally serenading me with songs of enchantment prior to this performance, their lackluster persuasion would have dimmed in comparison to the melodic tones of story-telling from this ensemble.
It teased me with a slight nod towards what came across as a minimally graded ascent to the overarching plot of what this all would come to represent. However, I was drastically proven wrong as the angle of the climb increased by tenfold as the personally tailored meanings that every scene holds to an individual on some deeper level came to fruition. They unraveled as neatly as welded chains would, piling each frayed and broken link upon your back while leaving you with no grip or equipment to assist you in conquering this mountain of emotions you still have left to tackle.
…
But after a swift 180 minutes of blissful turmoil, your tear ducts finally regain the opportunity to refill as you relinquish your eyes from the sporadic back-and-forth friction your hands created as they attempted to keep control over the gushing water from your falls.
Mouth entirely agape, but words fully absent.
The curtains may have closed on the production, but my eyes have never been more open to the world.
I was not somber. I was not broken.
I just… was.