We just finished an amazing four weeks of week-end performances in the off-Broadway venue Theatre Row of The Actual Dance in New York. Each of the twelve performances was followed by a facilitated discussion with the audience. One of facilitators was Rabbi Joshua Stanton. A young Rabbi of extraordinary talents and a wonderfully reassuring presence. Our goal in having a facilitator is to help members of the audience express their own feelings and reactions to the show. Rabbi Stanton wrote about his experience and the surprise he found in the impact of the show on him. I wanted to share his words and his own reactions which offer a point-of-view that I the playwright and performer am no longer able to offer.
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Emotional Paces of Caregivers: “The Actual Dance”
By Rabbi Joshua Stanton
It is a rare moment in theaters large or small that a packed house gives its due in resounding applause after a show. It is rarer still that the audience sticks around because they want to talk about a show that has so moved them.
After one Saturday evening’s performance of The Actual Dance, a one-actor show that recently featured at the Studio Theater at Theater Row in New York, few audience members moved. Instead, these near-perfect strangers opened up to each other on the heals of a common and meaningful experience.
As a long-time family friend of the playwright and performer of The Actual Dance, I was given the chance to moderate the post-performance “talk-back” conversation. Though I would have attended and done my best for a friend whether or not the show was fulfilling, I was struck by the depth of audience participation and just how stirring they (and I) had found it.
People I had never met shared of losses in their lives, loved ones they had cared for, and spiritual questions that illness had evoked. One spoke of a sibling who had been in a serious accident and was currently in the hospital. A fellow member of the clergy spoke of his faith – and reliance on it in moments when he found himself supporting or advising congregants. I found myself in role as rabbi, rather than moderator, because of the pastoral outpouring. … Continue reading here
By Rabbi Joshua Stanton
It is a rare moment in theaters large or small that a packed house gives its due in resounding applause after a show. It is rarer still that the audience sticks around because they want to talk about a show that has so moved them.
After one Saturday evening’s performance of The Actual Dance, a one-actor show that recently featured at the Studio Theater at Theater Row in New York, few audience members moved. Instead, these near-perfect strangers opened up to each other on the heals of a common and meaningful experience.
As a long-time family friend of the playwright and performer of The Actual Dance, I was given the chance to moderate the post-performance “talk-back” conversation. Though I would have attended and done my best for a friend whether or not the show was fulfilling, I was struck by the depth of audience participation and just how stirring they (and I) had found it.
People I had never met shared of losses in their lives, loved ones they had cared for, and spiritual questions that illness had evoked. One spoke of a sibling who had been in a serious accident and was currently in the hospital. A fellow member of the clergy spoke of his faith – and reliance on it in moments when he found himself supporting or advising congregants. I found myself in role as rabbi, rather than moderator, because of the pastoral outpouring. … Continue reading here
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