Spill Ryan Murphy
On February 4th I had the privilege to attend the good life play "Spill" at the Constans Theatre at the University of Florida. I didn't know what to think about going to see this play at first however, you will shortly see that my experience was fantastic and I was very glad that I kept an open mind.
To be completely honest I was very skeptical walking into this play. I really didn't know what to think about it, because how good could a mandatory play be for good life? As I came in, however, the theatre really caught my eye. It wasn't too big or too small and as we approached our seats I noticed that the pictures on the screen kept switching. I requested for right up front so we could truly experience the play and not be distracted. Not too long later the lights began to dim and the performers came out; I was immediately intrigued by what they were saying. Being in the front row really helped with the experience because you could see the detail in their expression and when they spoke. I liked how it was a smaller theatre though, it made it seem like the actors were talking directly to us which was really cool.
I attended the performance with my good friends Nick Rizzo and Noah Bosco. In most cases, I feel like doing school activities like this with your friends can be very distracting and can definitely take away from the experience. I was incredibly glad I went with the people I went with because we were all so engulfed by the actors we didn't talk once until intermission. Being able o see it with my friends definitely enhanced the experience because we were able to have very good discussions during intermission and after the play abuot what went on and how we felt. I definitely think its good to experience things with other people because they can help you experience other things that you may have missed out on without them.
Coming into the performance I really didn't know much about the BP oil spill. The only things I knew were some things I caught on the news every once and awhile when my mom had the TV on. Seeing "Spill" really taught me a lot and allowed me to draw a personal connection to what happened. I feel like when watching the news it is so easy to just not really care about some things going on because we neither can experience nor understand the extent of what is going on. By seeing this play I was able to pick up on the emotion and devastation the actors conveyed to the audience and I think the actors did a great job in getting their point across. This was especially true when Shelley would talk about Jason. It made me draw a personal connection and actually made me feel bad about what had happened. After the play was done it actually inspired me to go and learn about the BP oil spill and all the detrimental things that happened and let me tell you it was very eye opening. I had no idea the extent of the devastation.
Like I said previously, it is so easy to not care about something that doesn't pertain to us and something that is on the news. It is just as easy to turn off the TV as it is to turn it on. When people become uncomfortable it is very natural for us to just shy away and not want to think about it. However, when seeing a play it forces us out of our comfort zone and lets the audience draw a parallel to what is actually going on. It is a much easier and personal way to learn about things that we as people might otherwise not really care about. Personally, six years ago I was 13 when the BP oil spill happened and I know that I didn't care. I knew it was a bad thing and all but I didn't truly understand the extent of what happened. But, when I saw the emotion on the actors faces during the play I could not help but think about all the people who were affected by this tragedy and the emotion they felt.
Citations
Hartogs, Jessica. Three Years after BP Oil Spill, Active Clean-up Ends in Three States. Digital image. Three Years after BP Oil Spill, Active Clean-up Ends in Three States. CBS News, 10 June 2013. Web. 7 Feb. 2016. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/three-years-after-bp-oil-spill-active-clean-up-ends-in-three-states/>.
Hiltzik, Michael. BP Gets Slick in Trying to Undermine Gulf Oil Spill Settlement. Digital image. BP Gets Slick in Trying to Undermine Gulf Oil Spill Settlement. Los Angeles Times, 23 Feb. 2014. Web. 7 Feb. 2016. <http://articles.latimes.com/2014/feb/23/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20140221>.