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It's All Theater
Since I was a child, I have taken the clichéd message, “ you fake it till you make it” to heart. Also, from the idea that I could either be an extra in somebody else’s movie or a star in my own, I have crafted not only my professional vocation but discovered my deepest spiritual path. Indeed, since I have discovered that I make most of it up anyway, I might as well write a script where I win instead of lose...
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Acting Out The Wound
Truthful acting out oftentimes demands concrete embodiment of that which we find most abject, embarrassing, or terrifying. It can consist of a direct confrontation with shadow sides of ourselves we would rather forget-- like dirty underwear buried at the back of the closet. Engaging the wound—both private and cultural-- requires courage, humility, ruthless honesty, and humor...
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THE SERIOUS BUSINESS OF BEING A FUNNY WOMAN
Comedy is the lubricant of the soul. Comedy is about surviving. It’s healing and restorative. It’s the cheapest and the safest medicine we can get over or under the counter. It helps us wipe the slate clean. We can laugh today because we already did our crying yesterday. When we take ourselves too seriously we inflate our problems like zeppelins; laughter blows them away. It promotes lateral thinking and fresh perceptions...
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THE ARTISTIC CREATION AS GIFT
As a theatrical artist I see my craft as a gift to the world. The artist/therapist is the person who has drawn inspiration from the realm of psyche and brought that forward into life experience. She moves freely between inner and outer realms...
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THE ROLE OF SPONTANEITY
We enact a myriad of roles daily. Most of these roles are so familiar and habitual that they have become unconscious. We mistake these masks and personae for who we are. We have become trapped in the delusion that the drama of our lives constitutes our real existence. Expanding our role repertoire through play and heightened embodied expression loosens our false identifications and relaxes emotional rigidity. By changing our attitude from one of dogma to experimentation, we learn to live spontaneous lives...
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THE SACRED ACTOR
Like the tribal shaman, healer, or magician, the dedicated conscious actor can serve a sacred function. In indigenous society such figures, David Abram points out, usually live on the spatial periphery of the village, not only to ensure privacy but to foster the role of intermediary. Likewise, the sacred actor lives at the edge of culture mediating between realms—the human community and the non-human...
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