My Experience with the Theatre

I like to look at my theatre experience as an expanding experience rather than one of evolution. I am constantly gaining new facets of theatre and I find each one fascinating and engaging to a different part of my creative self. With Asian theatre I have only had the barest beginnings of what it consisted of and how it could be portrayed. I find that with Asian theatre not much emphasis is put on the actual speaking acting but rather on the movement and the gestures. Seeing as this was one thing that I struggled with greatly when it came to western theatre, putting a focus on this has greatly improved my skills in this aspect.

Before I came to college my exposure to theatre was very limited. I found myself faced with the same types of plays/musicals that had repetitive dance moves and exhausting dialogue that brought about a highly listening based atmosphere. It was stagnant and unmoving, rehearsed and and sometimes disjointed. None of the emotions of the characters ever truly made their way into the show and it was all rather dull. Coming here I've seen shows that breathe life into the characters, explore new themes and ideas that I would have never thought could even be brought onto a stage and received with applause and have been treated to some of the most interesting styles of theatre that I would love to dabble in throughout the rest of my life.

To me, theatre should be an expression of yourself through another character. They always say become the character but I feel that if you leave yourself completely behind than all of the life that could be put behind your work is lost. Even though I am no where near the classification of an actor I find this to be true. Most of my talent lies and the productions of the shows, the artistic aspect of it, mainly painting. I have always been able to take what I want in my mind and put it on a canvas. The theatre provides and excellent opportunity for this. I think with Asian theatre the same could be said. Vibrant colors appear in the costume, the set, and the lights, even if most of the sets are very minimalist. I hope that with what we will learn in our second unit of Classical Asian Theatres will still reflect this amazing aspect of the genre.