Blue Like Jazz

Well, here I am at Youth Quake, sitting in my host family's home in my room, just before I go to bed. Lucky for me they have a wireless internet hub here, and I brought my laptop along so that I could check up on how the Olympics are going and such.

I just came from one of the coolest performances I have ever been to by an actor from Toronto, Jason Hildebrand. The performance was called Blue Like Jazz. It was an hour-long piece, that would most closely resemble a monologue, but that doesn't evoke the right images. Here is the official description in the YQ handbook:

"A solo theatrical multimedia performance based on the book by acclaimed post-modern author, Donald Miller. It is a raw, personal, humourous reflection on spirituality, God, and community and an honest and unexpected journey - a scrapbook of one man's life."

I had actually heard of this book a few months ago, and have wanted to have a look at it. After seeing Jason's performance of it (I believe he was quoting directly from the book the whole time), it has inspired to buy the book, and so I did tonight right after the performance. But back to the performance - I have never seen anything like this. It was a combination of monologue, music, projected images, and even the live character talking to himself as a projected image. It was fantastic, very funny, very sarcastic in just the right way, and very insightful. It was also way over any highschool student's head or experience (I heard many comments all around me of "this is so random", and "I don't get it"). But it was exactly where I am at. I certainly didn't want it to end.

Two of my favourite quotes from the performance:

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way. I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened."

And...the character speaking as his twelve-year-old self: "I had found something to live for - Naked Women!"

Good stuff in an unexpected place.

J

PS - Cindy Klassen is now the single greatest Olympian in the history of Canada! Go MB's!