parallel between theater and runnning

  The motivation and mental endurance behind running can be transferred to any part of life. For example, the same way getting up in the morning is not easy, getting myself to run after a long day of classes is not easy either. If motivation was derived from one’s current state of mind, however, people would not get anything done. Motivation comes by making decisions based on one’s goals and end results. My steps during my run are driven by the satisfaction I know I will achieve at the end of my run. This anticipated state of bliss that I feel as I am running is also perceived by many actors, and it is also one of the driving forces behind their performance. 

One of the primary forces that propels classical Asian theater is the chi. At the beginning of the semester I did not fully comprehend what the chi was. What I did not realize was that the chi is something I have been utilizing all my life, especially during my runs. Chi is an internal energy that is cultivated by one’s physical, emotional, and mental state of mind. Naturally, emotions control mentality, and mentality controls physicality. In theater and running, however, emotions must be completely separated from the persona one takes on. 

In order to separate emotions from mentality one has to concentrate really hard. The power of this concentration comes from thinking about a mantra. My mantra in running, for example, is thinking about the end result. The levels of concentration increase as one becomes more involved in the act. This concentration is an essential and culminating point because it is where the Chi comes in allowing one to detach oneself of immediate emotions and thus creating an equilibrium between physical, mental, and emotional in which no aspect has more control over the other, but instead they are all in harmony.

In running there are different plateaus that one enters. The irony of reaching these plateaus is that one always feels like giving up right before reaching the top. Once you reach the top, however, you have a lot more energy than you did when you were going up, and thus you enter a whole new level where your speed and energy increase despite the previous state of surrender. I felt these same plateaus in theater when I did my midterm performance. Thinking about the end result helped me overcome my stage fright. I felt my Chi as the students surrounding me became a blur and all I could see where my own hands moving in the air, and all I could hear were my thoughts telling me what moved to do. By the end of the performance I had gone through at least two plateaus in which I felt like I was about to forget a move and then all of a sudden I remembered it and thus rose to a whole new level of comfort. 

I have came to learn that theater is just like any other part of life, but having an audience is what gives it a whole new dimension. Although running outside has no audience, the chi still makes it a performance.