I've always believed in magic. I would play dress up and pirates and princess for hours as a child. I remember being pretty upset when the truth was revealed regarding Santa and the Tooth Fairy. Little bits of magic were removed from my life in those moments. This belief in magic is why I think I am so drawn to the theatre.
I'm not quite sure when my love of the theatre began. I remember being drawn to performance from an early age. I used to perform dance with Junior Jazzercise. I remember standing in front of the fireplace with my sister and performing songs and dance for my parents growing up. I remember writing a play about princesses before I even knew what a play looked like. I wrote each characters lines on separate pieces of paper so each person could take their lines home... then I couldn't remember what order they went in. I remember being in my 3rd grade production of Twas the Night Before Christmas. I was one of the children with sugar plums dancing in their heads. I remember talking the boys in my gifted program in elementary school into making our gifted elective drama so I could be in a play. For me it feels like theatre has been with me from the beginning of time.
When I was registering for my high school electives I was either going to take drama or photography. What a different place we'd be right now had drama been full. A lot of the kids in my class were taking drama because they thought it would be easy. I think I knew better. I was pretty much hooked from the first day of class.
I was extremely lucky to have such an amazing instructor with John Milholland. He understood that we were capable of understanding the nuances of theatre. I learned so much from him. Things that I teach the kids I work with to this day. I learned about beatwork, moments, Harold Pinter and the ...pause...! I learned how to build a flat and the Aristotle's definition of ART. He introduced us to the empty chair exercise and taught us how to BE onstage and how to STOP ACTING. Theatre was a safe haven for me in my teens. I think like a lot of other girls my age I felt incredibly insecure, unconfident, odd yet plain, and unattractive. Theatre felt like a family where people understood everything I was going through. They allowed me to be myself, but to also push beyond myself. I know without having theatre in my life I would be in a very different place right now. If not for theatre, I might not even be HERE right now. It saved me.
Most of the kids who graduated with me went on to college to study different things. I knew that I was going to major in theatre. It was never even a question of what else I wanted to be when I "grew up." I took lots of other classes in college. Minored in psychology. Loved my sociology and anthropology classes, but I loved my theatre classes and being in rehearsal most of all. It was the magic of the theatre that kept me there day after day.
Theatre is one of the few things in this world that allows everyone involved in the experience to be transported to somewhere else. It takes the actors, the audience, even the designers and technicians into the world of imagination where anything is possible. Theatre has a tendancy to rip down the walls that we've put up in our lives, show us things we are afraid of, push us into the unknown and come out more experienced, wiser, braver. It brings a large group of people together to experience something together. A shared experience with strangers doesn't happen every single day.
Being able to share this magic with youth is an amazing experience unto itself. Watching kids see other kids on stage is one of my favorite things. Watching a kid make a "BIG CHOICE" for the first time and seeing the results is such an awesome moment. When a teenager realizes the honesty in themselves and what a beautiful and pure and giving thing that is to show to others in a theatrical moment is moving to say the least.
I know I'm good at other things in this world. I'm a good listener and I get along well in offices. I understand office tasks and how to write a short story. I can face groceries in a store pretty dang well too. I also know how to direct a play, and act in a show. I know how to paint fake bricks and how to read something in such a way that it grabs a persons attention. These latter things are the things that I am passionate about. In the past when I've worked in offices, I've always felt like the life was being choked out of my heart. I know that life is so much more stable. You don't take work home with you when you have a 9-5. When I'm working on a show, particularly if I'm in a show, I take that character home with me. It is a difficult life to say the least.
I just cannot see myself doing anything different. It's my magic.
Much love,
KB
