We all have personality. We shape our personality to help the people we like to like us. Some sides of our personality we let people see. Some, we keep secret. Some parts of our personality are shaped by the stories we tell about our life experiences. Sometimes we pretend. When we pretend, our personalities change.
Theatre artists change their personalities when they pretend to be characters for a moment on the stage. Some choose to extend that moment. I have seen actors play roles and continue to carry aspects of these pretend selves after the show was over. They were reworking their personalities, because they realized that they could.
Anyone can rework the self. It takes imagination to become the ideal self you dream of being. The theatre offers us mere mortals a chance to shake off the shackles of our mundane existence as we try on the personalities of angels, princesses, genies, and adventurous, amorous beings. We are pretending, of course.
One of my directing mentors, Robert Benedetti, wrote an acting book called, “Seeming, Being, and Becoming”. He showed me that the process of pretending leads to reality. What could you pretend that would step-up your spontaneity? Would you try to act differently for fun, for kicks, for love? And then accept the challenge to “find your audience” before your show closes?
So, who would you pretend to be? I would say, you should pretend to be your ideal self. You can search yourself to find who you want to be. You might start with your dreams. You can breathe life into them. You have the amazing ability to create your own reality. This ability stems from your singular perspective. Can you pretend to be your dream self? And, if you can, even for a moment, you can extend that moment out across your own life’s horizon.
One other thought comes to mind when I think of pretense as reality: we might be making all this up! And if we are . . . let’s play nice, shall we? Some beautiful dreams are disturbed by real nightmares. Why must the Dalai Lama stay away from the once beautiful dream of Tibet? Why must our ancient mountains be blown up to make electricity when we can harness the energy of the sun, wind, water, and earth? These nightmares disturb our reality as well as our dreams.
Let’s pretend for a moment that our actions on the world stage have the power to dispel nightmare and bring back something good to the people.
Will you pretend with me? Will you pretend to be a dream warrior? If so, reality will be changed by our good dreams. And in your pretense, will you be strong? Because, my reality needs you to be strong, stronger than the scribbled notes of laws, money, history, and entitlements.
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Jeannie Cerulean. Theatre artist and Mountain Justice activist. Professor of Theatre and Speech at UTChattanooga. Artistic Director of "We Are Nature Lovers", festival production.
The Trenton Arts Council has invited people who are active in the arts to submit articles for this column. Discussion, reviews, or idea will be content of the articles. The column is about the arts, including writing, visual arts, music, dance, and photography. Different writers will convey differing perspectives and differing specialties.