"WERE YOU THERE...?"
We all looked at our Professor puzzled, if not amused.
Doctor Theodora Ayot, as she was very respectfully known on campus, was always playing these games.
Standing before us in her billowing, traditional Kenyan dress. Her utmost kind yet unquestionable authority. Her warm, thick accent and voice. Her Grandmotherly, mischievous smile.
Then, silence.
"Well? WERE YOU THERE?"
Some creaks of smiles from the students begin to surface.
She picks a student and looks at them intently.
"Megan. Were YOU there?"
Megan plays along.
"YES! Yes I WAS!"
"Hmmm..." Professor Ayot grunted.
Then she selected another victim. And then another. One after the other as though we had descended into some absurdist play. Waiting for Godot....or..12 Angry Men. CLEARLY we were not going to be leaving this room until we locked into the punchline.
This Abbot & Costello bit goes on and on until some of us Theatre students begin to get in on the joke. We had just wrapped up our One Acts festival and knew Prof. Ayot, albeit a Doctor in History, faithfully attended every theater production at the University. We grinned with the inner knowing of each sharing an inside joke.
Finally, after a long game of "Who's on First," she finally booms, softly - DEAD SERIOUS
"If you were NOT there...You SHOULD have been there. Because they did a COMMENDABLE. JOB."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Laid it all down on the table last night.
So much thanks to those who shared space in that powerful, ephemeral moment. 🔥
It's here, and then it's gone. But those who 'were there'
KNOW
and
Hopefully
have a living, breathing experience alive in their throat. 🤘🔥🤙
I don't think we mean
"SUPPORT LIVE ART"
Perhaps what we mean is
WILL YOU ALLOW
THE LIVE ARTS
TO SUPPORT
YOU ?
I DO think we could all afford
Myself included
To be challenged
To be The Ones
((((WHO WERE THERE)))