I have seen live performances before my recent engagements with the theatre. Most memorably I saw All That Jazz at a huge venue in LA sometime in the late 80's and The Phantom of the Opera at a similarly large stage in Norfolk, Virginia in the the late '90's.

I did not much enjoy either performance which led me to believe I didn't enjoy live shows on the whole. It turns out, though, what I didn't enjoy was watching small homunculi move around on a far away stage as I tried to figure out what they were doing and feeling.

My habit in the past was to go to shows late and cheap which tended to put me and my poor vision too far from the action to feel at all involved.

But now I have discovered the first three rows and center stage. For me, that's where the magic lives: effected by every detail of the actors and the scenery, being able to see emotions dance and war across faces, to hear all the whispers and sighs.

I want to be absorbed into a scene, so even if it's a bad play or performance, at its end I'll feel as though I've lived, and suffered, and rejoiced as someone else in a way which allows me to incorporate new experiences and ideas into myself.