Relate theater to your life

From what I have learned in this course about theatrical language, practice, and theory I think theater relates to many aspects of my life. I look at life as a stage that we humans perform on daily. When we interact with other people we engage in a form or art that can be later used in a theatrical production. In this blog I will explain how I believe theater is in my life in relation to family, friends, aspirations and life goals.

My passion is not any one simple thing, but enjoying the many simple things that life has to offer. When I am doing an activity like, going out to a party or something I think about theater. I think about how will the venue look like, what kind of people will be there, what will these people be wearing, and what will be served. These are the same questions one would ask them when going to see a live production of any sort. Another similarity is that the people you meet will have all kinds of different personalities and will have different attire that separates them from the rest giving each character a sense of self.

My family is from Nigerian and they are deeply rooted in their culture and there are many traditions in our family that can relate to theater. There are forms of celebrations that may occur for special occasion like weddings, birthdays and holidays. These events consist mainly of singing, acting and dancing, which is done mainly by the members of the church. From these events I see a relation to theater because what they are doing is considered a form of art, the only difference is that they are not actors, dancers, or singers but people who just happen to know how to act, dance and sing.

Other aspects of my life interact with theater as well, for example my work life, my social life as well and my day to day life in school. My co-workers love to laugh so all most of the time we tell jokes and imitate our favorite TV personalities. This is our form of acting, we incorporate what we see in our environment with our personalities and a performance is made.

Each day we encounter different people that trigger emotions we have inside of us. For example when at school we have to do many assignments and projects that require us to think or act as if we were in a certain profession. This gives us another opportunity to perform and use our imagination.

I would not consider my actions to be similar to an actor in a play inhabiting a part. Acting means putting on a show or changing into a character and in the world I live in, I don’t believe that changing is necessary. Although it may not be acting it is still theater. On this stage, in which my life is performed on, I often see an expansion of traits I already posses.

There is no effect or transformation on my identity, because all emotions and behaviors are incorporated into what makes me, me. I am a walking show, a show that does not go off. The people around me catch on quickly and contribute to the show. They react to my actions and a performance is made!