As the clock nears 10 p.m., the already-compact audience has dwindled down to fewer than 20 people. The 12th performer of the night, Chapman Grace, makes her way onto the stage carrying a sleek white electric guitar, her dangling gold earrings shining in the blue-purple light. This isn’t her first open mic. She plugs in her guitar and addresses the sparse crowd with the same comfortable familiarity of the many musicians that performed before her. When she starts to play, the room’s stellar acoustics cradle the hazy, enchanting sound so dreamily you feel like you are inside of her guitar. Her hands leap across the fretboard, producing sounds I didn’t even know were possible — sounds as cathartic as stepping into a warm ocean. For such a beautiful performance, the size of the audience feels disgracefully small.
The Ark hosts these Open Stages relatively frequently, with four more currently planned through November. They’re free for students to attend, only a 10-minute walk from Central Campus and bursting at the seams with talent. Of the 12 performers I saw, each and every one of them played their instruments with a captivating level of skill. The two hours of music that make up each Open Stage are fueled by the musicians’ love of the craft, nothing more. They aren’t getting paid — in fact, virtually everyone who works there is a volunteer, from the emcees to the people behind the concession stand. These nights are powered by passion, and you can tell just from listening.
At the beginning of each show, every performer writes their name on a ticket, which is then drawn from a hat by the host. On Tuesday, Sept. 16, this host was Steve Johgart, a retiree who spends his free time volunteering at The Ark’s Open Stages. Only the first six performers are chosen at 7:55 p.m — the second half of the roster is picked out of the hat at 8:30 p.m.. This happens so that the artists who don’t get chosen to start off the night don’t leave right away, staying for at least the first half hour. Artists also receive an automatic slot on the list if they bring five non-performing friends to fill some seats. Even so, the intimate listening room usually ends up fairly sparse…