In stage shows, at the end of a performance when the performers return to be recognized by the audience for what is called a curtain call. One by one, actors, dancers, musicians and backstage artists assemble on stage to receive their rightful applause from an appreciative audience. However, the tradition is not restricted only to stage performances. In sports contests, sportspersons who perform well return to the field of play after a big play or at the conclusion of the game for recognition. In movies, the curtain call showcases the film's end credits through clips, stills, or outtakes of the various players.
The concept of a curtain call came to mind after hearing of the shocking news came of a friend who died last weekend. Some spoke, some wrote about the tragedy of a youth dying young; about his achievements and the legacy of a life cut short. But sadly death permits no curtain call. The one who is dead cannot bask in the warm appreciation or even affectionate criticism by the ones who miss him.
Hence it is important that we give performers the benefit of appreciation through a curtain call, while they are alive. What we speak or write in their memory has meaning only for the family, friends and community and others, not for the one who is dead! Hence it is necessary that appreciation of a worthy effort or achievement is immediate.
However curtain calls are not about lavish felicitations or eloquent tributes or awards. As any stage performer would tell you, curtain calls are about unadulterated appreciation. Nothing more. Nothing less. Hence it would be better if the deserving get called for the curtain call as often as they perform!
May the curtain call happen every time it is deserved…
Let’s BE BETTER at appreciating before life is severed!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
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