Saturday I went to both Clemson vs. Furman at Death Valley, and South Carolina vs. SC State in Columbia.(Yep. I'm kind of a big college football fan.)
One thing that's always captured my attention in college football is the drama...the suspense. Not knowing what will happen next or if your team has what it takes to win.
As you know if you've taken my Drama I class, I see a whole lot of similarities between sports and theatre. (It's one of the reasons I prefer to be called, Coach.) Saturday, in Clemson and Columbia, I saw two really amazing shows.
The Clemson game happened just after midday. The sun was high in the sky and it was hot—breezy, but hot. The Tigers faced a much less powerful opponent in my alma mater, Furman University, and prevailed. The colors were orange and purple, but mostly green: green turf, green trees everywhere. The Clemson campus is beautiful, and the stadium in smack dab in the middle of it, next to the lake (Hartwell). There were thousands of fans there. Thousands. People everywhere. And you could smell barbecue grills everywhere you turned. Amazing tailgate spreads. And everyone seemed to be in a really good mood. Furman fans were being treated nicely by the Clemson fans...the whole thing had the feel of a big, family picnic.
We left at halftime and headed to Columbia. The moment I saw Williams-Brice stadium from I-77, a flood of memories came back. I grew up in Columbia, and have been attending USC football games since I was nine years old. It was dusk there (kick-off was at 7:05 PM), and traffic was slow. But...I soon found my trusty secret and FREE parking space, and we were on our way to the stadium. The area around Carolina's stadium is ugly. All warehouses and cracked pavement. Dusty, sandy, chain-link-fenced, awkward, flat. Still, people had their barbecues cooking just like at Clemson. The Gamecocks were playing the South Carolina State Bulldogs for the first time ever. So there were a lot of State fans tailgating, too. We got to our seats and experienced the amazing Gamecock team entrance to Richard Strauss' "Also sprach Zarathustra" (or "2001"). Chills. I do love the excitement of being at a game with so many people cheering for the same thing: our team to prevail.
Theatre is everywhere if you just take the time to notice it. Where have you noticed it lately?
2 comments:
High school life, man. It's a constant, struggle-driven production that usually fringes on ridiculous, is almost always frustrating, and also pretty fascinating...but I guess the same could be said of being a teenager in general. We make it so hard for ourselves!
Still, just being a teenager doesn't necessarily doesn't open you up to all of the dangers, opportunities and...well...drama that high school does; limits and boundaries are born just so you can test them and eventually, if you're so inclined, break them down, and the people you meet/interact with are more linked to the kind of person you'll be in the future than anybody can really know at the time. Character development! Huzzah!
Yeah, that's all I've got.
Wow, that was really deep ther Brandon. Well done! I applaud! *claps*
Ahaha, when you were describing the area around the Carolina stadium all I could think was "I WANNA HAVE A PHOTOSHOOT THERE." I am SO addicted to this cosplay stuff.
But to try and poorly link this offtopic-esque coment to the question....if you go to any kind of Convention (anime con specifically) the cosplayers put so much effort not only into their costumes, but many spend the entire day totally in character, and they make judgements and speak just like the character they are emulating. It's friggin incredible really. I can pull off my respective characters in the photoshoots, but I can't be in character for 24hrs. I'm waaay too happy for that XDDD [My main cosplays involve MALE characters that are hardcore (aka they kick peoples' butts for fun), and a little bit mean....a lot mean. Plus they are really friggin' cool. Times life multipled by KLAHA.]
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