Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Blessing Blackburn Musical ~ Installment 5


“Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him – for this is his lot.” (Ecclesiastes 5:18)

Guest Blogger ~ Marie Sheahan Brown

Tuesday, 3/27/12
7:30 pm at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

We have entered kairos time.

Of course, I am not actually typing away on my laptop during the world premier opening night performance of The Susan Boyle Musical, I Dreamed A Dream. But the experience is surreal enough that it’s hard to tell chronos from kairos time. They are sharing space at the beautifully renovated Theatre Royal in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Lead actress Elaine C. Smith employs “fairy dust” and finger snaps to move simple scenes, actors, and audience from the present to the memories in Susan Boyle’s early and recent life. What I feel most surreally is the awareness that we audience members who have actively supported Susan since April 11, 2009, are genuinely a part of the story unfolding on stage.

Many of the very same people are with Susan in both times and places at once. We were there in 2009. We are on stage or operating behind the scenes. We are in the plush maroon seats laughing, crying, cheering, fishing Kleenex out of our pockets.

We are here on opening night – either in person or eagerly awaiting reports launched into cyberspace.

We are here on opening night – and, as Elaine C. Smith dons a beautiful long red coat symbolizing “Susan now,” many of us wear red crocheted roses of support.

We are here on opening night – and at least one of us sits in the Happy Valley with his father when Susan “stops the room” nearly 30 years ago with her first-ever public karaoke performance.

We are here on opening night – and the April 11, 2009, audition fills our and millions of other computer screens as, one after another, we discover and send this must-see YouTube link to our friends and family.

We are here on opening night – and we find and post links to television news reports projected on the creative TV-screen stage backdrop.

We are here on opening night – and, horrified by the unconscionable conduct of some media, we arise in verbal protest in the comment sections of the online bully-press.

We are here on opening night – and we huddle around our computer monitors watching the heartbreaking finals of Britain’s Got Talent.

We are here on opening night – and we are on stage as the helpful souls during Susan’s dark few days at The Priory who tell her how much she means to us, how she has unwittingly soothed our own sorrows and rekindled the God-given passions of our lives.

We are here on opening night – and we are among the millions who treasure the albums featuring some of the musical’s songs.

We are here on opening night – and we are the awaiting adoring crowd at Rockefeller Plaza on that crucial crisp dark morning when, according to the play, Susan chooses to embrace the startling new life that has come upon her.

We are here on opening night – and the real Susan Boyle takes the stage to greet the real people who are part of her story.


“Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work – this is a gift of God.” (Ecclesiastes 5:19)

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