Student Blog: Theater is Knowledge and Knowledge is Power

Sophmore year of college! 

As a Dual Theater and English major my schedule looks exactly like whatever you are picturing in your head. I spend my days reading, and reading, and when I get bored of that, I read some more! In the literal sense I am currently taking: Grammar, Play Analysis for The Stage, Stagecraft, Bible as Literature, and Contemporary American Fiction. It may only be my 4th week back on campus but I am knee deep in script analyses, American literature, bible passages and linguistics mapping. Though it seems my classes couldn’t be more different than one another I’m finding it more and more obvious how my classes all connect to each other like a ginormous jigsaw puzzle (perhaps not Grammar..though I am trying to think outside the box on that one). 

The more I dive into the workload for this semester, the more I see how nothing in this world is too far from anything else. The Hamlet I'm reading in Play Analysis starts to make sense in the context of George Saunder's "Escape from Spiderhead," each work helping me make sense of the other. The more I read the more the characters mesh together into a rich landscape of matching themes and conjoining ideas, I start to wonder how in the world Shakespeare can connect to futuristic dystopia of all things. All this starts an avalanche of questions and more questions. The world around me starts to arrange itself in an intricate jigsaw puzzle. And somehow the thoughts get to such a scale that it makes me question how we as a population of people connect together as I try to screw together a box frame in Stagecraft. It's mind boggling how everything exists in the context of everything else. You really can’t remove one piece of the puzzle, or the whole thing isn't as defined as it should be, the picture isn't how its meant to look. You have to open your eyes and your mind as wide as you can to understand how life (the past, present, future, all of it) fits together. 

It’s hard to find your footing in higher education. Especially as someone in the fine arts and humanities. We are expected to have super complex thoughts about an industry where people think all we do is "play make believe." But I'd like to think we deal with reality all the time. Reality is our greatest weapon. As people in theater we have to understand the world around us if we are going to replicate it, and dramatize it for our audiences. We have to read our history books, study the sciences and even obtain a rudimentary understanding of mathematics (no matter how much we do not want to), because if we can’t properly see how it’s all put together, we’ll never create the authentic, creative and mind boggling performances that keep people entertained. 

So, with the larger part of Sophomore year still on the horizon, I’m giving myself grace. But I'm setting some ground rules. The greatest of adventures require a solid starting point. 

I will not limit my own understanding of the world around me by putting myself in a box that determines what knowledge I can, and cannot obtain. I will strive to learn all that I can so that I can create the meaningful types of theater that I want to create. I'll explore Oz to it's fullest and stray from the yellow brick road so that I can uncover all the magic the spaces I'm in have to offer. I will take the time to think a little harder, question everything just a bit, and ultimately find the joy to keep going. Even if that means learning some math.