My Rough Theater

When I was thinking of my own "rough theater" experiences, a few examples came to mind. One was a night in high school, with the Varsity soccer team. We were having a "bonding" night, and we all got together at one of their houses. The girl's parents had arranged a surprise for us, and so when it was around midnight, we were all called outside. They had set up a projector to shine on the side of their neighbor's white house, with a really scary movie all ready to go in the projector. There were folding chairs and blankets and benches set up all along the driveway, and the family even had one of those old fashioned huge popcorn makers churning out popcorn for us. It was a scary movie that I had seen before, but I had never seen it outside at like midnight. Every time a bat flew by or a car honked, everyone flew out of their seats, completely terrified. It was probably the coolest experience I've ever had watching a movie. The outdoor setup was perfect for the type of movie we were watching, and I enjoyed the movie so much more in that context. It was amazing that it was actually scarier in the dark outside, when I saw it originally in the dark movie theater.

Another example that I remembered pertained to music rather than film, but the same idea applied. I was at summer camp sitting on the beach around an enormous bonfire. Now, I have a firm belief that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is better around a fire. Food tastes better, conversation is better, and music sounds better. There were two guys there with guitars, and they ended up playing "The General" by Dispatch for us. I am a fan of Dispatch, so I have many of their albums, and I saw their reunion concert in Madison Square Garden a few years after this bonfire. As awesome as the concert was, I was shocked that my memory of hearing "the General" at the bonfire was better than this huge awesome performance at Madison Square Garden. I didn't think anything could top Madison Square Garden, but as it turned out, these two guys in their twenties sitting on logs at a campfire in Upstate New York did in fact top it in my mind. The acoustics weren't great, it wasn't played as perfectly as the band obviously, and they didn't even know all of the words, but the experience of it all with a fire cooked hot dog in my hand was immensely more powerful than hearing it in an arena with thousands of other people.