As a countdown to my 30th birthday on March 18, I’ve committed to offering 30 people, things and experiences I want to celebrate from the last 30 years. Grab a piece of cake and enjoy reading!
If my mother was to say I was born in the dirt, my father might be likely to say I was born on the stage. I’ve performed in Shakespeare and Brecht, Wilder and Moliere, Jones and Inge.
My dad, who’s been teaching theatre at the same university for almost as long as I am old, first started including me in his productions when I was barely five. I went on to perform in my high school productions and a little in college, but outside of “the platform,” as they say in the professional speaking world, my last curtain call occurred three years ago when my dad needed a pinch hitter for Tartuffe and I was available.
(In Godspell when I was 16.)
Theatre is easy to celebrate because it’s almost always centered around some kind of story and humans love story. More to the point, I love story. It’s also easy to celebrate because it’s like music and painting – it’s art and everyone loves art in some form or another.
I’m celebrating my own history of theatre these first 30 years, however, because it has helped me understand my own identity and my own story. For example, I vividly remember the day a college director pushed me and pushed me in a role to get angry. I’d never allowed myself to feel so angry or express it so openly. Suffice it to say I never had trouble after that; the experience of playing someone else opened me up to a whole new part of myself.
Theatre has done something else important in my life. It has helped me understand the maleability of my own identity and my own story. In other words, through acting I began to see that how I show up in the world is, to some degree, no different than trying on different characters. Jung called it “persona” and it comes in pretty handy when embarking on new adventures in life.
So today I bow down to Dionysus for the joy and revelry and truth-telling that occurs on a stage. And I give thanks to all the muses who have helped me identify, create and re-create the person I am and the life I live.
