“Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most insatiable source of magic.” This is the opening line of “Rememberall,” and the first thing the audience hears when introduced to the performance. No other line could have set a better tone for the performance than this one because the audience sat and watched the magic unfold on stage.
I am no ordinary audience member, however. As a writer for “Rememberall,” I spent three weeks with eight other colleagues crafting together the script that molded together artifacts from “Harry Potter” with real-life experiences. During these three weeks we laughed, we wrote, and we made magic with our words. The words that we wrote were powerful and showed that “Harry Potter” is something more than a fantasy world.
Seeing those words come to life was a magical experience; it was one that showed me that performance matters. I can write anything that I want and have it affect nobody except myself and the few people close to me that I allow to read it. However, when I write something and have it performed, it affects a wide variety of people who would never have had access to my writing prior. The same can be said about any person who writes in private.
Six of us writers sat in the audience (the other two were on stage performing) watching the magic on stage. We sat in awe of the work done on the Bayou Theater stage by the performers. They were taking our words and making them mean something to an audience full of Potterheads and muggles. The performers took us through the artifacts that we wrote on — the time turner, the marauder’s map, the howler and the sorting hat — weaving in the aspects of performance that bring forth emotional responses.
As I sat in the audience, I could not help but think back to those three weeks we spent writing. As the Remembrall scene came up, I waited anxiously to see how the characters on stage took our words and made them come to life. The Remembrall was the critical artifact for us as writers. I mean the show was titled after this specific artifact.
The work that we put in paid off as the performers ripped my heart out, and softly placed it back into my chest with their actions of the Remembrall scene. The performers took the writers’ words and brought them to life, walking us through our memories of our childhoods and asking us if we still remember it all. Why have I forgotten that childish wonder that “Harry Potter” initially brought me?
At the end of the performance, I was left in a proverbial puddle of emotions consisting of sadness, nostalgia and pride. I realized that my words had created an insatiable source of magic for the audience. The audience was able to journey through their childhoods and reflect on where they lost their sense of wonder. My colleagues and I could not be more proud of the work that the performers did to adapt our pieces. At the end of the day, we must remember all of our experiences and use them to keep us from losing our internal source of magic.
Click here to read Justin Murphy’s article about auditions for “Rememberall.”
