How Theater Leads to a Healthy Human Psyche

From the beginning of civilization, theatre has helped people discover themselves and understand their relationship to the world and other people.  It has always been a life affirming force.  Throughout the ages, drama has opened portrayals to real-life situations that no lecture or book could, and has been more closely allied, than any other art, to the exploration of the deepest thoughts concerning human nature and destiny.

Public education trivializes the arts, including theatre.  This is unfortunate, because a healthy human psyche needs to explore and comprehend its surrounding environment, and then express the discovery.  When we deny our need to explore our world and express our discoveries in healthy ways, our personal growth is stunted.

Through the theater, people have the opportunity to vicariously experience various life situations.  The theatre allows the audience to look through the bakery window, to smell the sweet aroma of the baked goods, without having to purchase anything they may not want.

A great practitioner of the dramatic arts- whether through acting, writing, or directing- can do far more to develop a healthy, mature human psyche than any shelf of self-help books.

Tale of Two Spaccarellis

There is little doubt that Allie Spaccarelli has some of the best acting chops in the Broadway Knights Theatre Academy.  Her ability to express emotion on cue is second to none.  Which is why Yoda was still laughing himself silly several hours after Tuesday morning's Enrichment when he thought of Allie's unparalleled performance of Green Lantern.

For the uninitiated- and we can be fairly certain that Allie is one- Green Lantern is a superhero created by Bill Finger and Martin Nodell in All-American Comics #16 in 1940.  The green lantern was actually a reference to a magical ring, considered one of the most powerful, and most dangerous weapons in the universe.

"Surprised, I was, when Jedi Spaccarelli, on stage, did hunch, carrying a lantern."  Yoda said through gales of laughter.  "Thought, a superhero, she was supposed to be.  Diogenes, expect, I did not!"

But perhaps Allie's performance was no accident.  Perhaps, her provocative behaviour was an educational stunt, like Diogenes', and carrying a lamp onto the stage was a metaphor, suggesting that she was looking for an honest actor.

But we doubt it.  Because later, when assigned the character Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Allie got on her knees and claimed to have no knowledge of him either!

Get Real

Why do so many people like movies like A Walk to Remember so much?  Because it gives them the opportunity to experience emotions and life situations vicariously; emotions that they feel boiling deep inside themselves, but fear to express, because they don't want to be mocked by their friends or family. 

Great actors are shepherds of emotion.  They understand that real emotion comes from the inside out, not the outside in.  Therefore, they begin by removing their everyday masks and costumes and explore their inner selves.  From the platform of reality, they provide emotions and life situations convincing enough to move not just themselves, but their audience.

When you get right down to it, acting is the least mysterious of all crafts.  Whenever we want something from somebody, or when we want to hide something from somebody, or when we pretend that we're somebody we're not, we're acting.  Most people do it all day, every day, without ever stepping on a stage.  Acting is easy.  Being real in front of an audience, is not.

"Proud, I am, of the Jedis and Padawan Learners, for making an effort," Yoda told Mrs. Erskine.  "Painful, for some, it was.  Behind a mask, most of them live.  If learn, they do, their true selves to expose, better actors and, more importantly, better people, will they be."

Can Means Will

Memorizing lines is easy.  Acting is hard.  Improv is harder.  Doing an entire half-hour of improv in a chaotic environment, created by Yoda, is nearly impossible.  And that's why the Broadway Knights Theatre Academy is learning to do it!

In Act 2, scene 7 of As You Like It, Shakespeare rightly observes, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts."  What Shakespeare fails to mention in Jaques' speech, is that real life is not scripted.  It's mostly improvised.

When a Delaware student takes the DCAS, the only persons who know whether she passes or fails is the student, her parents, her teachers, and her administrators.  When Jedis or Padawan Learners are acting, and they pass or fail their test, hundreds of people sitting in the audience know it.  Instantly!  And audiences don't grade on a curve.

Smart people learn from their mistakes, intelligent people learn from others' mistakes.  Super-intelligent people want to learn and learn and learn.  They want to know everything they can about a subject they really care about.  Yoda calls that hunger for knowledge, "passion".

"The Jedi, to whom much is given, is expected, much, to do," Yoda said about his Jedis, when contemplating their frustration.  "Better, the Jedis are, than they think.  If, continue to learn, they do, great actors, and better people on life's stage, they will be!"

Why Be So Hard on Yourself?

Nobody's perfect!  As hard as it is for some Jedis and Padawan Learners to believe, the only way to learn anything, including in the theater, is to make mistakes.

Missing the mark is not a sign of weakness, it's an opportunity to learn . . . an opportunity to be better.  A Jedi's willingness to acknowledge gaps in knowledge is the best way to become the smartest person- the best actor, writer, or director- in the room.  It is only the over-ambitious, unteachable Jedi that is in danger of giving into the Dark Side, risking a fall into outer Darth-ness!

Why mention it?  Because in theater there is no DCAS.  There's only an actor, an audience, and the actor's ability to create a reality the audience can believe in.  "Do, or do not, there is no try!  And if fail, you do, better, you'll do, the next time."

Send in the Clown

Oh, Jedi Spaccarelli!  Who knew, in those salad days of sixth grade, that she would be able to cry on cue?  "Feel many leads, I do, in Jedi Spaccarelli's future," Yoda said, enjoying the glitter of a real tear on her cheek.  "Learn well, the young one has.  Proud, of her growth, she should be."  Here's how she got there . . .

While many of her peers were busy doing other things, Yoda noted Allie's commitment to acting in the background of Tinsel without a defined role.  He decided she deserved more.  Why not a clown?  A melodramatic mime?  Doesn't every farce need one?  But did she have issues, he asked?  Well . . . not exactly . . . but . . . maybe a little.  And with that fearful commitment, a clown was born.

After contacting a professional clown to instruct Jedi Spaccarelli in make-up and movement, Yoda announced the exciting news to the Broadway Knights.  "There's really such a thing as a clown college?" Jedi Rogers asked, excited.  "Forget about college.  I want to go there!"

"Have a feeling, I do, that Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, my neck, is going to break!" Yoda exclaimed.  And so it goes.

Now You Know

"How do you do this . . . everyday?  How do you put up with [us]?" Jedi Shinn asked Yoda, after she and Jedi Rogers worked with the Broadway Knights Theatre Academy in a peer-teach exercise.  "Proud, the young ones should be," Yoda later said of Matt and Joanie.  "Good work, they did.  Know, now, they do, why certain things, I do."

And.  Who knew that Kirby Wilson had it in him to sing "Dream On" like Neil Patrick Harris?  Could it be that the BKTA may have just discovered its own diminutive Doogie Howser?  Given the anger he and Rebecca Wilson made during their performance, one can only imagine what must go on in their house when these siblings have a difference of opinion.

"Have it in themselves, the young ones do, to accomplish much," Yoda opined, following Saturday school.  "Too hard, they are, on themselves . . . especially Jedis Shinn and Rogers.  Learn, they will not, if right, they have to be, always."

The Walls Have Ears

School should be fun as well as educational, don't you think?  So.  On the heels of such a successful GMS-TV broadcast, this morning- Alyson and Ciara really sold that April Fools script . . . Yoda had a visit from a certain soccer coach who informed him the he is NOT skeered!- let's talk Saturday school.

Rumor has it that some of the BKTA Jedis were talking about having a Cabaret.  What a great idea!  "A special script, I wrote, to teach the Padawans and Jedis, a musical, how to put together," Yoda told the informant, who shall henceforth be known as Mrs. Stoolie E.  "Time, it is, for the young ones to learn, their own show, how to produce and cast."

So.  What good is sitting alone in your room?  Come hear the music play.  Life is a Cabaret, young ones, come to the Cabaret.  Put down your homework, your books and the broom.  Time for a holiday.  Life is a Cabaret, young ones, come to the Cabaret.  Come taste the stage.  Come hear the band.  Come blow your horn, start celebrating, right this way your show's awaiting.  No use permitting some prophet of doom to wipe every smile away.  Life is a Cabaret, young ones, come to the Cabaret.