— छह हज़ार एक सौ तीन —
This was an unusually big deal of a weekend, or at least specifically Sunday, when Shobhit had the opening performances of
The Jury Experience - Death on the Port Side, in which he played the judge.
The first thing I feel compelled to say is that, although it did have a couple of hitches, it still went really well, and it was
really fun. I had never experienced this type of interactive live theater before, in which the audience stands in for the jury, and multiple times during the show votes on what direction the trial will go—it's basically a live theater, courtroom version of Choose Your Own Adventure. And Shobhit did so well that, while I was with him for a few minutes in the lobby after the show, three or four different other audience members complimented him on his performance. One person even said, "You were the best!"
I was so happy to hear that, especially after his horrible experience with
The Foreigner earlier this year, which he was never able to actually perform. Getting a gig like this has got to be very effective at boosting his confidence again.
Now, one of the minor hitches was that he was not 100% off-book, which is really not a good look. But! People forget their lines even when they are off-book, and Shobhit had his binder on the desk with him, which worked because a judge would presumably have paperwork anyway. The same was the case with the two actors playing the lawyers. All three of them stumbled a little with lines at least once, and I got the sense that this audience was forgiving since they were quite invested in the process itself anyway: they were clearly having a great time "deliberating" and voting on which way the trial should go. They really got into it, and I somewhat regretted not having anyone to see the show with yesterday as I thus had no one to discuss the case with as it went along.
This was a relatively interactive show, albeit almost exclusively in that audiences would scan a QR code on a screen behind the judge and lawyers (and defendant, and one other witness). But, unlike a real trial in which jury outbursts would never be tolerated, a couple of times audience members shouted things out—a woman right in the row in front of mine (I sat in the sixth) was more egregious about it than most. Several people around me were absolutely convinced of the defendant's guilt very early on, and when the defendant was finally called to the witness stand and walked up to it with a limp, this same woman shouted, "Fake limp!" It was a little inappropriate but still pretty funny.
There was another outburst, and I can't remember what was said—I really wish I could—but it cracked Shobhit up, so when he had to hammer his gavel and shout, "Order! Order!" he did it while suppressing giggles. Honestly that only made the show more fun.
There was a surprising lot that we saw on the screen, actually. Later during the performance, it featured a lot of images and diagrams as part of the "evidence." There were no fewer than three different video vignettes of different sorts before the live theater portion of the show began, including a sort of commercial / introduction to
The Jury Experience and how it works. One of them, though, was also an explainer on how to use the QR codes to vote during the show, in an old-school animation style with talking animals (so poorly animated that their mouths never synced with the dialogue). Near the end of this explainer they said, "And if you still can't figure it out, just ask a younger person in your row to help you!" This got a big laugh.
I can't remember how many times we voted on things, maybe four or five? After rehearsing Shobhit's lines with him so many times, I was surprised how often it seemed to happen. And even with my deep familiarity with Shobhit's lines, I never had read the rest of the script, so the overall show experience still felt very new to me. I was particularly struck by the landslide decisions with each vote, which included but was not limited to deciding between two different pieces of evidence to be allowed for submission. The first time that happened, the audience was unhappy: "I want both!" shouted one person—maybe that same woman in the row ahead of me. Still, the percent majorities (we'd get like a minute with a timer on the screen, then a guy would walk down the side aisle and hand Shobhit a printed paper with the result) tended to be in the 85%-92% percent rage, give or take a few percentage points. So I was pretty surprised when the final verdict that came down was not nearly as great a majority: the verdict was by a 58% majority.
I look forward to going back again with Alexia when the next performances happen, in a month, on November 8, and seeing how different it might be. Maybe it won't be much different, though: I was at the 4 p.m. show yesterday, and I later asked Shobhit what the final verdict was at the 7 p.m. show: it was the same verdict, and by a 57% majority. Only 1% difference! That was fascinating to me, as was the very idea of how this gets presented, because presumably they don't want the earlier votes to be by such huge landslides, but they don't know what it'll be until they actually perform with audiences. Side note, I overheard people in the row behind me, and at least one guy had been to a different
The Jury Experience "trial" (whether in Seattle or one of the
many cities and countries in which they've done this, I don't know). He said the votes at the other show/trial he had been to were not nearly such landslide results.
Shobhit texted me yesterday morning around 9 a.m. that the 4 p.m. show had sold 250 seats and the 7 p.m. show had sold 170. That meant the first show was at about 66% capacity. The second show, 45%. I don't know how many more were purchased throughout the same day after that, but in retrospect it makes sense the second show should be so much less—you don't often schedule evening shows on Sundays, which are usually the day for just matinee performances. Granted, big shows often do both even on Sundays, but
The Jury Experience only has these four performances scheduled, on two different Sundays.
In any case, I was a little taken aback by the passion with which much of the 4 p.m. audience threw themselves into this. When the final verdict was read, the audience erupted—and you could clearly hear a mix of people both elated and disappointed. Based on conversations I overheard, clearly a lot of people voted based on nothing more than their conviction that the defendant was guilty. I, on the other hand, took the voting seriously in that I voted as I would be expected to in an actual trial (even though an actual jury would never vote a bunch of times). This means there were two key considerations for me: first, the specific charge of
murder with intent; and second, the American ideal of
innocent until proven guilty. This trial was packed with what basically amounted to circumstantial evidence, strong as it seemed, and none of it proved shit. So, I had to vote the defendant Not Guilty.
I got just three photos while I was there, as they only allowed photography at the very end of the show; before I even got there, someone had taken a photo of Shobhit prepping at his judge's desk which I really loved, and he texted that to me too. So right now, I have
just a five-shot photo album for this show, but hope to add a few more after the show I attend on November 8 (and, very slight chance at this point, maybe also Danielle?). I'm hoping they take some cast photos that Shobhit can also pass on to me.
Anyway, I had a great time, and I so wanted this to go well for Shobhit. He was giddy with excitement when he came out into the lobby after the show, fielding all those compliments. I asked him how the 7:00 show went later, and he made it sound like it was basically the same.
— छह हज़ार एक सौ तीन —
— छह हज़ार एक सौ तीन —
As for the rest of my weekend, I took myself to see two movies:
The History of Concrete on Friday, which proved in the end to be weirdly pointless fun (and I could not tell you why it was playing exclusively at SIFF Cinema Downtown, formerly Cinerama); and
The Social Reckoning on Saturday, which was not great, but fine.
I also watched a bunch of TV; Shobhit and I watched the first few episodes of the latest season of
Silo on Apple TV, and on the same streamer yesterday while I was home without Shobhit I watched all but two episodes of the first (and so far only) season of
Margo's Got Money Troubles, which I'm really enjoying.
I have my quarterly doctor's appointment today, and will need to straighed out some complications with my prescriptions and where I get them from, after it took way too much time and effort to get an advanced refill for our trip to Amsterdam, resulting in a switch from CVS Specialty Pharmacy to in-person pickup at Walgreens—where they provided me with three months supply, rather than the one month CVS ever sends me. So, CVS kept calling me and leaving messages that I needed to renew, which I ignored because I had three months' supply; but now I'm almost out and only managed to renew on the CVS website over the weekend, and they have a delivery date of the 19th. I need to call them.
I did go into Walgreens and get my flu shot yesterday morning at 10:30 a.m. though. This was my third vaccine shot in two months, with a fourth still to come next month: shingles vaccine shot #1 on September 4; covid booster on September 20; flu shot October 4; I have a pneumonia vaccine now recommended for anyone over 50 scheduled for November 15; and then I get a break before I return for my second and final shingles shot, which will likely affect me worst of all of them, on January 15. I had forgotten about the pneumonia one, and was thinking I was done until January
yesterday. Nope!
I hate getting all these shots, but am kind of getting used to them. I actually really appreciated the guy yesterday, who wasted no time: I barely sat down before he was sticking the needle in my arm; it startled me a bit but then we were done and I was on my way. I kind of wish they were all like that. I have to get my STD screenings done this afternoon, so I've got yet more needle poking to endure. As long as I don't see the needles I'm fine.
— छह हज़ार एक सौ तीन —
I was supposed to have my biweekly Zoom lunch with Karen today, rescheduled from Friday and truncated to half an hour because of my doctor's appointment—but, Karen texted me at 11:47 a.m. to tell me she needed to cancel. She had
her flu shot on Friday before driving up to the Tulalip house, and she "promptly got too sick to drive home yesterday." She's only driving back to Seattle today and no longer had time to fit me in.
I really looked forward to telling her about Shobhit's show, but still, it's fine. I really seem to luck out with vaccines, which knock a lot of people out for a day or two. Not me, and especially never the flu shot. I was in a bit of a funk for a day after my shingles shot, which is apparently notorious for
really knocking people on their ass. I'd love for this resiliance in the face of vaccines to continue for me for as long as I live. That would be nice. I'm sorry other people don't fare as well.
— छह हज़ार एक सौ तीन —
[posted 12:22pm]
