Theater

It was a good time to see a play tonight, with thoughts about drama swirling in my head because of Albert Camus. I've never acted in a play in my life. The thought never occurred for me to do it in high school, and my lack of experience and involvement in other interests has kept me away from this field.

One of my good friends was one of the leads in this play and portrayed the villain. At a few specific moments he did things and said things that gave me chills up my spine. The ugliness of his character came from a place inside of him that I'm sure he was tapping into. It came across as authentic and truly scary. The woman in the scene with him, had been acting through the entire play as though she were blind exceptionally well. It was believable that she was blind, and it was so strange after the play to walk up to her and shake her hand and notice how different she was when she wasn't acting blind and also how much shorter she looked up close than across on stage.

Going along with other forms of my favorite art- music, painting, literature... these things take you to another place, and that emotional content is so important. Regardless of whether I'm writing poetry or playing music, I like it the most when I'm able to really feel it. Even when feeling it comes from a dark place inside of me (it usually does, in all honesty) that release and connection creates such a good feeling that can last for a long time.

We need these releases, we need them to be connected to our inner-being, and it requires a large degree of vulnerability. I admire my friend for what he did tonight, because he had to take a leap of faith in himself to take on the role and a leap of trust to allow himself to go so far with his character.

It strikes me that Camus must have loved theater for this reason. You are given permission through acting to be yourself in ways that aren't acceptable socially in any other circumstance. Getting involved with drama allowed Camus to delve into himself in the solidarity of others, and no other facet of his life allowed him to do that.

In two weeks I'm going to be seeing five other plays, and I'll have more thoughts on this, for now I'm just going to appreciate my friend's performance and the medium of drama and how powerful it can be.