steve-wang-broadway-show [Designing Service]

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====== Steve Elderly Broadway Show ======
On the beautiful day of 29 October 2022, I had the not so beautiful plan to go to watch old people dance. The title was roughly translated to searching for immortality. It was about a bunch of old people dancing to all kinds of music. That place was disappointing but I said that last in my last essay so, this time I will just say that the organizers and script writing put in as much effort as I do when I vacuum the classroom floor. I have split this essay into three parts. The first part will be the nonexistent storyline. The second part will be attempting to make sense of the very complicated and poetic plot. The third part will be my very important thoughts on this very important show.

The story started with one boy and one girl. They met in a jungle where they talked about life and death. I thought that they died because suddenly there were a bunch of old people jumping about and dancing to songs that used the Taiwanese aboriginal language. Then, they teleported to Africa for some odd reason. They then took part in some old people ritual which involved dancing to pop songs while doing what looked like a human sacrifice. After sacrificing human life, they appeared in Egypt where they met an Egyptian god with the head of a dog. They laughed at him for a bit and they looked like they had breathed in poisonous gas and died. Then, there were a bunch of people dressed like ancient Egyptians and dancing to Chinese pop songs and celebrating their death. Next, they came back to life and teleported to Iceland to see the Northern lights. Then, you guessed it, old people started dancing. However, this time, they chose English pop songs that were at least 10 years old. Next, I lost track of what was going on because they looked like they died and came back to life many times. Each time awaking with some sort of magical power. Somehow, they ended up in Korea and met an old Chinese guy who existed a few hundred years ago. Where old people appeared and started dancing to Korean music. Next, they magically appeared somewhere in the mountains where the guy got wasted while the girl drank with another woman. Then, they started dancing to English and Chinese music. Lastly, they appeared in ancient China. There, they met the emperor. Not Palpatine but the one with the funny hat and red robes. Then, fake Palpatine had old people dance for him. After they did all that, some weird woman who was clearly drunk, came up to them and talked about life and death. Just when I thought I could go home, someone Google said was a Taiwanese singer came up to the stage and sang.

After watching that weird show, I thought that the weird teleporting did not make sense. So, I tried to research if all of the places had something to do with immortality. It turns out, the ancient Egyptians believed that death was only a gateway to another, eternal life, and the desire to ensure immortality was woven into their daily rituals (1). The ancient African believed that it does not end with death, but continues in another realm (2). The Vikings, who lived in Iceland in ancient times, believed in an afterlife. From here I began to spot a pattern. All the places they went to, the people at some point then believed in an afterlife. To make sure I was right, I looked at the rest and I was correct. Even though I found what I believed was the correct answer, I still think this reason is pretty stupid because nearly all ancient cultures believed or are related to some sort of afterlife (3). After a bit more research, I accepted this reasoning but I think they should have explained connections and what was going on more clearly instead of making the audience think hard to look for connections.

I may not be an expert at storytelling, history, dancing, or music. However, as an audience of the show, I feel like I did not enjoy the show for a number of reasons. From my seat, I could not see very well, the story is loosely tied together, the format of the show is repetitive and predictable and the transitions did not make sense. I understand the point of this show is to allow old people to have a chance to perform and have fun but, they could at least try to care a little more about the audience's experience. The repetitive format quickly lost my interest after the first few segments. According to this article by Throughline (4), if the topic is interesting to the audience and the presentation is good, the audience can focus on the presentation for 7 to 10 minutes. If the topic is not interesting or the presentation is boring, it is possible to tune out in seconds instead of minutes. My support and empathy for old people only goes so far. I tuned out in the first 30 seconds and took out my phone to write this essay. That being said, I can see the old people putting in the effort, there were even one or two people in wheelchairs who tried to participate. Other than that, I could not see anything else because I was too far to see the specifics.

All in all, the show was fresh at the start but the repetitive formatting probably got old. It was probably just as boring as the summary of the show because I tried to stick as closely to the original source as I could. After writing about the show, finding the connections in it, and discussing the plot. I think it is really stupid. The old people looked like they tried while the scriptwriters or organizers just cared as much as I do when I vacuum the floor at school. There were a lot of edges that could have been smoothed out to make the whole show cleaner and more enjoyable. From this show I also could see that old people should not be dancing because clearly their bodies are not equipped to deal with it anymore. In the future, if I want to support old people, I will find other ways to do so. I advise those who are considering supporting old people in this way to reconsider their options too.


Citation:

1.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-exhibitions-egypt-idUSTRE5BL0MC20091222

2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5072226/

3. https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/how-we-know-ancient-humans-believed-in-the-afterlife

4. https://www.throughlinegroup.com/2012/08/23/how-many-minutes-is-the-audiences-attention-span/#:~:text=If%20the%20topic%20is%20of,7%20seconds%20instead%20of%20minutes.