Thursday, February 20, 2014

Theater

I (kind of) recently got back from the CETA(California Educational Theater Association) festival. I met a lot of really cool people, saw some shows and scenes, and went to workshops. Overall it was an amazing weekend, and the focus was the importance of theater in our lives. There was a lot of money given out as scholarships for the arts, and that's such a cool thing that those people are one step closer to being able to follow their dreams. Not everyone there is going to go into theater (onstage, backstage, on-camera, etc), but all of us are involved now. All of us were a part of our schools production and worked with our casts and crews to make the best show we could. Theater really is a wonderful thing. It opens up so many new things to us and teaches us so much.
It teaches us to find new families. In the cast of our fall show, I found new best friends and became closer to old ones. We've all learned how to take a group of strangers and immediately become family. Doing a show with someone forces you to become close to that person because to be in theater you have to be open.
That's another thing it teaches us. To be open and bold. At CETA, you find a whole group of kids that aren't afraid to make funny faces and introduce themselves to people, to get close to someone they don't know in a workshop or scene. People will come up to you and compliment you because judgments are suspended. You can hold up a sign that says applause and everyone will stand up and cheer. It may just seem like an auditorium of weird kids, but it's more than that. It's nice kids, it's kids that are willing to let go and just have fun, at least for the duration of the theater event.
Now theater kids aren't always nice. We have our fair share of drama and gossip, but underneath it almost everyone loves everyone, and we all respect everyone else involved. Most theater kids know what it is to be an outcast, so it acts as a sanctuary to most.
It also teaches people to say goodbye. After a show, that cast can never all be together again in the same circumstances. A new show can start, but that comes with new experiences. People come and go, and it stays similar but never the same. Some people stay for a long time, some you remain friends with forever, some leave and come back again, and some you see only once. At the festival I met a lot of people, and some of them I wish I could be friends with, but it was just the weekend. ow we all get back to our lives. We've learned to say goodbye.
Because theater is love. It comes and it goes, but you can always hold those fond memories. You can't go back to an old love, you can only remember that it was good and be happy that it happened. You can't go back to that show. But you can always keep those experiences, and theater always lives on in our hearts. That's why we're all so passionate. Theater is love, and love is always the best teacher.

“The stage is a magic circle where only the most real things happen, a neutral territory outside the jurisdiction of Fate where stars may be crossed with impunity. A truer and more real place does not exist in all the universe.” 
― P.S. BaberCassie Draws the Universe

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