Why do we do it?
Mon, 9 June 2003, 05:35 pmWalter Plinge17 posts in thread
Why do we do it?
Mon, 9 June 2003, 05:35 pmWhat is that makes us want to have a career as an actor? Why do we need to act?
Personally it is the need to express myself fully through a character that interests me. The need to play and share that with someone else.
Then there is getting a chance to do things that you can't normally do in real life.
It's a chance to bring your creativity to life.
The journey you take as you explore these strange new worlds.
It's fun, it's challenging, it's interesting and it's an art where you never stop learning.
What about you?
Personally it is the need to express myself fully through a character that interests me. The need to play and share that with someone else.
Then there is getting a chance to do things that you can't normally do in real life.
It's a chance to bring your creativity to life.
The journey you take as you explore these strange new worlds.
It's fun, it's challenging, it's interesting and it's an art where you never stop learning.
What about you?
Re: Why do we do it?
Tue, 10 June 2003, 03:49 pmWalter Plinge
There is another theory appart from creative fulfilment, booze, applause or recognition. I'm probably betraying my BSSci (PolSci) roots here but it goes something like this;
With the breakdown of the traditional family unit, people are looking for somewhere to belong. They cannot create an "us" without creating a "them". In some cultures people are turning (unfortunately violently) to old religious and cultural alliances and old enemies to create this feeling of belonging.
But we do it in different ways, we in the affluant decadent west have other communities available to us. Theatre is the best way to create a "them". You face them on stage, you are in the light, they in the dark, the deliniation is clear. Everyone behind and above you is "one of us", everyone in front of you is the other, "one of them".
And our community comes not only with such a stark pysical definition of it's boarders, it also comes with an artificial and very intimate feeling of belonging, a togetherness and trust that need to exist between the whole of a cast and crew if a show is to work. SOmething completely seperate to the "real world". Even if the cast isn't getting along we still have the feeling of being "in this together".
We have signs and signals of our membership; a secret language, war stories, even to some extent a uniform. We recognise members of our ranks. We know people we live a long way from and that we only see within the confines of our community. We have stories and jokes that only fellow members of the community will understand. We have a common interest, a common goal and a common enemy, not in our case to be defeated, but to be won over.
I think this century will be marked by uncertainty, changes in social patterns and positions. Our expectations of our lives and ourselves, influenced by capitalism, materialism and the television, are too high for our resources to provide; I'm never going to look like Elle McPherson and I'm never going to own a Ferrari. We're not really coping with modern life. We need somewhere to belong, a home.
And we have the theatre.
That's what I think anyway.
Leah
With the breakdown of the traditional family unit, people are looking for somewhere to belong. They cannot create an "us" without creating a "them". In some cultures people are turning (unfortunately violently) to old religious and cultural alliances and old enemies to create this feeling of belonging.
But we do it in different ways, we in the affluant decadent west have other communities available to us. Theatre is the best way to create a "them". You face them on stage, you are in the light, they in the dark, the deliniation is clear. Everyone behind and above you is "one of us", everyone in front of you is the other, "one of them".
And our community comes not only with such a stark pysical definition of it's boarders, it also comes with an artificial and very intimate feeling of belonging, a togetherness and trust that need to exist between the whole of a cast and crew if a show is to work. SOmething completely seperate to the "real world". Even if the cast isn't getting along we still have the feeling of being "in this together".
We have signs and signals of our membership; a secret language, war stories, even to some extent a uniform. We recognise members of our ranks. We know people we live a long way from and that we only see within the confines of our community. We have stories and jokes that only fellow members of the community will understand. We have a common interest, a common goal and a common enemy, not in our case to be defeated, but to be won over.
I think this century will be marked by uncertainty, changes in social patterns and positions. Our expectations of our lives and ourselves, influenced by capitalism, materialism and the television, are too high for our resources to provide; I'm never going to look like Elle McPherson and I'm never going to own a Ferrari. We're not really coping with modern life. We need somewhere to belong, a home.
And we have the theatre.
That's what I think anyway.
Leah
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