Kennedy Center. September 2021
The Group Leader
Sometimes I wonder how we lived in the pre-internet age.
One of the advantages of living in Washington, DC for university study was access to cultural events. In my Georgetown years, the Kennedy Center had a virtual monopoly on performance in the capital. I wanted to see a ballet. I THINK (not sure) I hoofed it down to the box office where I questioned them about all kinds of possible discounts (my poverty during university was painful) and found that a group ticket discount was the best option. I consulted friends MA and GDM about which ballet to choose - both of them insisted it be Coppelia with the National Ballet Theatre. Somehow I managed to get 20 people to agree to the performance and date, bought the tickets, and corralled everyone into our assigned seats at the Kennedy Center. My first formal cultural performance required so much extra work just for discounted tickets! Considering most of us took the bus there (dressed up nicely), the evening went off fairly well.
A few months later, "group leaders" were all invited to an appreciation luncheon at the Kennedy Center (perhaps in hopes of more group ticket sales) and I scored a free lunch seated at a huge table with a variety of people who bought group tickets for many more normal reasons than just being a poor college student. I probably went for the free food and for the ridiculousness of it all. That was my introduction to the Kennedy Center and I was so proud of attending a ballet and scoring cheap tickets for me and some fellow GU friends.
To be honest, I never EVER liked the Kennedy Center later in life. A white marble rectangle on the Potomac, it was about as architecturally appealing as a Nike shoe box. That "box" was repeated endlessly inside, too. The architect was adept at creating an infinity of rectangular boxes it seems. Yes, the chandeliers were gifts from some country and, yes, the auditoriums were acoustically perfect. The views from the roof over DC were amazing as well. That huge bust of Kennedy looked like so many wads of used chewing gum pushed together to approximate his likeness. 19 year old Matt was agog because he had never been to any venue for performing arts beyond a college auditorium back in Pennsylvania. My young self was easily impressed since I was as they say in Indonesian, "polos" (unwritten on).
Fast forward a decade or so. I now have attended theatre in New York City in some of its venerable theatres. Wow!! Culture can be enjoyed in something that is not so brutally utilitarian. Fast forward more and I have attended concerts in Europe in fantastic opera houses and theatres. I have seen ballet at the Bolshoi theatre in Moscow. Now I reflect on the Kennedy Center (originally intended for L'Enfant Plaza!!) and think how, other than the acoustics, it must be the most antiseptic concert venue I have ever been to. Perhaps its Zen lines encourage pure focus on the performance? As for me, there is something about the fabulousness of a Belle Époque theatre or concert hall that adds to a performance. Church service in a Gothic cathedral or an austere Amish barn? Great food in a beautiful restaurant or picnic tables under a pavilion? I have no explanation for my preference because the focus should be on the substance of the performance, yet the venue is important to me. Maybe I need that fantasy location detachment to truly lose myself in a performance?