The Grandmother of The Wang

 

Emilee Miller

 

 

1:50pm. 1:55pm. 2:00pm. 2:10pm. I was waiting for my grandmother at a high-top table inside Einstein’s Bagels, and I was growing antsy. She’d said she wanted to grab lunch because we hadn’t seen each other in a little over a month and I missed seeing her as well, so we decided to get lunch at 2:00pm on a Friday. She was already ten, no, fifteen minutes late now and I was getting worried because she’s never late for anything. As I reached in my pocket to call her, I heard this distinct, high pitched voice from the doors enthusiastically yell “YooooHoooooo! Emiiiiiiii!” I slightly cringed out of embarrassment and the use of my lovely nickname (she’s the only one I allow call me Emi), but I decided to face my grandmother with my usual embarrassed, happy smile. I wondered what piece of eccentric piece of clothing she had decided to throw on today and when I finally turned around and laid eyes on my grandmother, I wasn’t disappointed.

 

My grandmother, who is about eighty years old but looks as if she’s in her early sixties, had her waist-long black and grey hair tucked up in a bun like she always does and wore black sneakers, jeans, and a long sleeve shirt with a black trenchcoat. She’d topped off her subdued outfit (she usually wears about five different colors on her body at one time) with these bright purple velvet gloves and her famous huge, round, leopard printed glasses that cover most of her face. Everyone in Einstein's all turned to see where that high-pitched voice was coming from and who this weird lady was waving to. I waved back, embarrassed because all eyes were on me and my grandmother, but my grandmother was not shy at all. On the contrary, she loved the attention and soaked it all up. As she was making her way toward me, she whispered to everyone she passed, “Excuse me sir/ma'am, could you please move over a bit? I have to get over to my favorite granddaughter.” I couldn't help but laugh at how sweet and genuine she was because you don’t find those kind people everyday. Once she finally reached me, we embraced each other for a long time. I never wanted it to stop because I could feel how much she loved me; it warmed my whole body. When we finally let go of each other,I ordered the turkey chili while she ordered a turkey sandwich and then we sat back down at the table I had saved. Right when our butts hit the seats, we gorged on our lunch and tried to have a conversation in between chewing and swallowing our food. It sounded as if my grandmother and I were speaking a different language, but somehow we understood each other perfectly. We’ve always just understood each other. Once we finished speaking the language of “speaking between bites of food”, my grandmother started on her favorite topic to talk about and that was, as my grandmother says in her best theatrical voice, “the thear-taaaa”.

 

My grandmother has worked at the Wang Theater for over twenty years. The Wang Theater, opened since 1925, is located on Tremont Street and is one of the oldest theaters in Boston. My grandmother went to the Wang Theater a lot as a child and her love for it has never wavered since she set foot in there. “My first impression of the Wang Theater was that it was awesome. It was better than… I mean awesome is a very common phrase used today, but that theater is awesome.” Then, suddenly, she stopped talking. I wondered what had happened because I was too busy trying to transcribe what she was saying on my laptop to look up at her. When I finally looked up, my grandmother was leaned back in her chair as much as she could and had this look in her eye as if she were reliving her first experience all over again. Slowly, she lifted her face, looked me straight in the eyes and softly whispered, “It is the most magnificent place.” Her words held so much love and passion that I could feel it down to my very fingertips. I wanted to just soak up everything she was saying, so I decided to put away my laptop and to just listen to her talk about her one true love.

 

After I closed my laptop, I just watched her as she spoke about all of the people she was able to meet by working at the Wang. My grandmother is very animated when she talks, so watching her is like watching a performance at the Wang Theater. Her arms were all over the place making motions that mimicked the emotions she was feeling. It was as if her body was doing the speaking for her. If you can imagine a really energetic Italian trying to tell you a story, that’s how my grandmother looked. She started to go on and on about how thankful she was to work at the Wang Theater because without her job at the theater, she would have never met some of the people she calls her friends today. “Every race or culture there is will attend some point or another the theater.” This fact I know to be true because I have met most of my grandmother’s theater friends and they are all from different backgrounds and cultures. Theater is one of the only places where people from all different walks of life come together and creates this sort of bond with each other that never could’ve been possible before and that’s why theater is so spectacular.

 

Once she stopped going on and on about all the different friends and relationships she formed while working at the theater, I asked her what her favorite performance had been at the Wang. When I asked her this question, her whole body stilled. We just stared at each other for a couple of moments, but then out of nowhere she just started to laugh. Whenever my grandmother laughs, I can’t help but smile even when I was a baby. Her laugh can only be compared to the laugh a heavy, posh from the Victorian ages would make. To be clear, my grandmother looks nothing like a heavy, posh man; just her laugh is similar. It has this deep tone to that makes it almost seem as if a man is laughing, but at the same time, her laugh hold this elegance to it that shows how knowledgeable she is. As I have said before, my grandmother is a very beautiful woman. The only indications of her age are the lines around her eyes and the corners of her mouth from smiling so much in her life and the creases that form around her eyes when she laughs too much. When I see those creases around her eyes, that’s when I know she is genuinely laughing. Through her laughs, she kept repeating the phrase, “Oh my goodness!” and every time she repeated the phrase, her voice would become a little more excited each time. When my grandmother finally stopped laughing, she expressed to me in a very calm voice, “It wasn’t a show persay, but when Stephen Hawking came, that was when I was the most in awe of a presence on the stage when he addressed the audience. Now I know that’s not what you're looking for, but I don’t think I moved an inch when he was on during his entire lecture. I just didn’t move. Nothing moved in me except my brain.” Not only do great show like the Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserable play at the Wang Theater, but amazing talent from people such as Stephen Hawking, Lady Gaga and Whitney Houston have performed on that stage. The Wang theater isn’t just a place to see a show; it’s a place to appreciate talent at it’s best.

 

I realized after my grandmother told me about her favorite performance that we had been talking for a while, so I checked my phone quickly to see how long we had been talking. Three hours! I hadn’t even realized how much time had gone by, but no matter how long I talk to her, I always could stay a little longer just to hear her speak more. She has that effect on people when she speaks. It’s like you can’t help but be drawn to her. Unfortunately, I had somewhere to be somewhere at 5:30pm, so I started to tell her that I had to go, but she stopped me from leaving because she had one more thing to say about the theater before I left. I was very curious about what she was going to say because I thought she had run out of words to express her love for the theater, so I didn’t know what to expect. When my grandmother began to open her mouth to speak, I felt the air around me become very heavy as if what my grandmother was about to tell me held so much weight to it. And then, she started to speak.

 

“I really believe… I would like you to take this down because I’m in absolute awe of talent. Talent is the most amazing… I mean talent at it’s best... is the most amazing “blank” a person can have. I don’t know how to label talent. I don't know if you’re born with it or you achieve it, well I know you can achieve it, but some talent is so extraordinary that the people watching you or watching this talent can never get over it. There are just people that we are in awe of. And I’m not necessarily just talking about singing and dancing. It comes from… I don’t know where it comes from. If you ask me what awes me the most, I would have to say talent. It’s just amazing.”

 

I clung to each word she said as if it were the last words I was ever going to hear in my life. Each word rattled my bones because of the weight of love that my grandmother put into each one. She truly believes the theater is a beautiful place where people can witness how amazing we, as human beings, can be if we possess the drive to perfect our individual crafts. It’s like those people on the stage are making magic come alive by transporting audiences into this world of awe and amazement. I can’t say I am a true believer in the theater’s magic, but what I do believe in is my grandmother's undying love and devotion to the theater and that’s all that counts for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources

 

Aucoin, Don. "Theater Audiences Are Getting Older - The Boston Globe." BostonGlobe.com. Boston Globe, 17 June 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

 

 

"Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre." Yelp.com. Yelp.com, 2011-2015. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.

 

 

 

"CULTURAL FACILITIES FUND BACKS CITI PERFORMING ARTS CENTER WANG THEATRE UPGRADES." States News Service 24 Feb. 2014. General OneFile. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.

 

 

 

Hackel, Geri.  Personal interview.  20 March 2015.

 

 

"Theater History." Wang Theatre History. Citi Performing Arts Center, 2015. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bit about Emilee 

 

 

Emilee Miller is a first year Visual Media Arts student at Emerson College. She is an inspiring photographer and artist whose life experiences can be seen through her art. During her time at Emerson so far, Emilee has worked for 5 Cent Sound Magazine and has also worked on a short film titled The Mysteries of The Gender Neutral Bathroom as the cinematographer. When she leaves Emerson, Emilee hopes to fulfill her dreams of becoming a cinematographer, a sports photographer or a photographer for National Geographic. In her spare time, Emilee enjoys being active by playing Quidditch with her friends, walking around Boston, and watching a lot of Netflix.