All The Worlds A Stage

Again I have walked out of another acting class with a profound thought that affected my views on life. So tonight we had discussed the whole process of developing a character. Who is this person? What happened to them before the present? What are they doing now? What are their motivations? What does everyone think of them? How do these relationships affect the behavior of the individual? Why is that person in the certain setting and what is the outcome overall? How does this impact my life?

I started to look at myself from the outside. Who was I? What made me who I am now? What are the different aspects of life that brought me to this place and time? What is my purpose in this story of life and where is my story going to go? What things do I need to do in order to get my character to a good ending? How do I convey the appropriate actions to display the correct behavior to get the best outcomes?

All the world is a stage.

When I start analyzing myself as a character from the perspective of another person and I talk about things I need to be doing to get where I want . . . I'm not saying to go around acting or being fake. Quite the contrary, it’s like when you figure out what you want and where you want to be . . . all you have to do is the work to figure out how to get there. It’s like a simple mathetical equation, AX+B=C. Now there’s always going to be factors that are unaccounted for or unknown . . . So the variables of X are exponential. I.E., having children. The things you can change is how you handle the situations and decipher the appropriate actions you have to take in order to get you to the same outcome. It’s important, like an actor in the midst of figuring out their character, to be flexible to the idea of who this person (you) really is and the things that they would need to do to get to where they need to go. I.e., take a night class. What works for Bill may have taken him to the top and although you would like to do it too, his actions may not be a fit for you. Everyone has their own path. Unlike a play that is static in the pages of the script, life can go in any direction with endless possibilities. So the ending that you had your heart set on, may change one day. Or every other day for some people.

Sit down with yourself one day and think. Who are you? Why do you do the things you do? How are the different factors of life effecting you and why? Where do you want to go? How do you get yourself there?

And . . . . . . . ACTION!