A "Casual" Afternoon

I believe that an important part of going to college is trying new experiences. Spending four years cooped up in a dorm room every weekend is no way to enrich your life. So, a major goal of this semester for both Jillian and I is to try something new (and fun!) every weekend.

Despite spending a whole semester at Syracuse last year, most of the time was invested in getting to know the school and its people. We didn't try exploring the city of Syracuse (that seemed a world away from us) because taking a bus to get anywhere seemed like a hassle. After much internet research about "Things to do in Syracuse," we walked a mile off of campus to the Syracuse Stage where we watched a play called Two Trains Running!

The experience of attending this play seemed much different than that I had before. With my family, attending plays meant driving an hour to Los Angeles to watch big name musicals like The Lion King or Les Miserables for birthdays or company Christmas parties. They were never local productions chosen on a whim.

Watching a play in a casual environment was quite amusing... mostly because the people who went to plays at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon were old white folk, despite the play's black history/Civil Rights Movement theme. We were one of a few young people there by choice (no parents). It was also amusing to see how attending a theatrical production is a social event for a community. During the intermission, I walked around the lobby to stretch my legs, and I overheard people introducing people they know to their friends. For the older folks, attending these plays was means of getting to meet others!

To be honest, Two Trains Running was okay. While I loved portions of the dialogue and appreciated the historical background, the pacing was a bit slow at parts, and the play itself was very dialogue heavy. One has to pay careful attention to what characters are saying in order to understand the whole story. There were many subplots, but I could not identify one main plot line for the entire production. On a more positive note, the acting was phenomenal! The actors were invested into their roles the entire production and showed emotion effortlessly.

3/5 STAR RATING