When I think of Halloween, I imagine children dressed in a wide variety of costume and prancing eagerly from house to house in the neighborhood asking for candy. This year, I was not able to witness that as I was working at YCPAC. What could draw almost 200 people to the theatre on Halloween night? How about The Phantom of the Opera? This, however, was far from the Phantom that most people imagine.
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| Publicity photo of Jonathan Best |
We showed the 1925 silent film starring Lon Chaney. It is a fantastic film that has such a wonderful believability to it even though it is black and white with nothing but a music soundtrack in it. No wonder so many people came to see it on the big screen once again.
There is a large twist that I have not yet mentioned. We turned off the soundtrack. Not to make it a truly silent film though. We placed our Steinway Grand Piano on the stage next to the screen and had a local piano professional play along with the film. What a grand (no pun intended) idea! Fun part was the pianist that we hired was Jonathan Best. He is a very talented man and did a great job, but what came out was not quite what I would have anticipated.
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| Pic from the lighting booth of the show. |
Along with the piano, he used a pair of what I assume were horse hooves, a small xylophone, and a few other things that I didn't recognize, not to mention his own voice at one point. He was described to me before I met him as a very odd and unpredictable individual. That was only too true as I witnessed a very strange cacophony of sounds that, while matching with the movie well, caught me by surprise. At times they were comical when I don't think they were intended to be, but they were well executed and made it an experience to remember. Like I said, it was very well performed and the audience really enjoyed it. They laughed at times and gave him a standing ovation in the end.
'Til Next Time,
Matthew
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