Week 11, Day 5 — Living It

I'm being immersed in theatre this weekend.  It's that first point in the year when the local colleges and drama schools start putting on productions with their final year students, and I've kindly had a ticket bought for me to see several of them (thanks Margaret!) over the next few days.

As I sat tonight in the auditorium I melted away into my own wee world—at least I assume it was my own, I might well have been sharing it with other members of the audience.  I love theatre.  I state this, obviously, just in case you've been reading my blog with your eyes closed!  I love the whole act of creation, I love watching strong performances, I love really observing other actors as they become believable characters, I love when excellent lighting and sound and staging and design come together to fashion delicious imagery you will never forget, and I love listening to the nuances of dialogue and text.  When I get in the zone, I'm not just loving it—I'm living it.  I am at my happiest and truest when I am locked in a space making or partaking in great theatre.

In this week's chapter Julia tells us that “creativity is oxygen for our souls”.  That totally rings true with me (even if I must naughtily confess I loved it so much that I said it out loud to savour it, but in my funny Scottish accent it sounded slightly rude and made me snigger as the alternative version is probably also true—I'll let you do the math and work it out!!).  Creativity IS my oxygen.  The inner cynic I carried with me at the beginning of this journey wouldn't have let me get away with saying something like that in the past.  I realise what a huge shift has taken place in my life that I now give myself permission to be true to myself.

I leave you with this thought from this week's chapter:-

“If you are happier writing than not writing, painting than not painting, singing than not singing, acting than not acting, directing than not directing, for God's sake (and I mean that literally) let yourself do it.”

K