{"id":474,"date":"2011-06-28T09:58:49","date_gmt":"2011-06-28T16:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/?p=474"},"modified":"2011-08-13T17:06:14","modified_gmt":"2011-08-14T00:06:14","slug":"the-theatre-illuminates-life-and-vice-versa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/the-theatre-illuminates-life-and-vice-versa\/","title":{"rendered":"The Theatre Illuminates Life and Vice Versa"},"content":{"rendered":"

My husband and I spent a glorious week in Toronto, visiting family and seeing four plays, all put on by Soulpepper Theatre Company<\/a>. What struck me was how much the theatre illuminates life and vice versa. The playwright draws from life to write his plays but his plays speak to us in ways that inspire, provoke, and stir our imaginations.<\/p>\n

As an actor, I could play with the text of screenplays when it came to working in film or television, but on stage the writer’s words are sacred. Perhaps it’s because many scripts for the media are thrown together in a relatively short time, whereas, the playwright workshops his play, sometimes many times, before his story ever hits the stage. And then, it’s his words that carry the audience along, not special effects or any other visual slight of hand.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So I was intrigued to see\u00a0Our Town<\/a> by Thornton Wilder. I had seen it twice before. This time, both my son-in-law and granddaughter were in it, which made my viewing all the more pleasurable. But it was Wilder’s examination of small town life that hit home. With our busy lives, crammed with technological marvels, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important. I came away with the thought of how little we really see what’s around us. How many of us can say we stop to take in the sound of a child’s voice, the sight of a small bird flitting across our lawns, or a bud opening up its petals? Or further, the man on the sidewalk begging or a neighbour’s anguished face. So much slides by.<\/p>\n

At the end of the play- which encompasses birth, daily living, and death-the actors, playing the deceased, say the living don’t understand. They’re stuck in boxes.<\/em> It’s an interesting about turn, as we, the living, tend to view the ones who’ve died as being in boxes. But maybe, it’s we who need to examine the boxes we’ve made to keep us from seeing.<\/p>\n

The other play that resonated was The Aleph<\/a>, based on a Juan Borges short story. It’s a one act tour de force, acted and co-written by my son-in-law, Diego Matamoros and his director, Daniel Brooks. \"\"<\/a>Wikipedia states that “in Borges’s story, the Aleph is a point in space that contains all other points. Anyone who gazes into it can see everything in the universe from every angle simultaneously, without distortion, overlapping or confusion” What a consideration! What if we could see all of that, would we make different choices?<\/p>\n

Diego, like Borges, uses the text as a jumping off point to incorporate some autobiographical details from his own life. The Aleph, which is also the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, speaks to love and loss, and our struggles to make sense of our lives.<\/p>\n

Different playwrights, but both left me thinking about life and my choices. There is nothing like the theatre to illuminate life and vice versa.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My husband and I spent a glorious week in Toronto, visiting family and seeing four plays, all put on by Soulpepper Theatre Company. What struck me was how much the… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[82,87,4],"tags":[59,60,62,61,58],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-2","category-theatre-2","category-writing","tag-borges","tag-our-town","tag-playwright","tag-soulpepper","tag-theatre"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-7E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1871,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2014\/uncategorized\/from-my-vantage-point-the-world-is-promising\/","url_meta":{"origin":474,"position":0},"title":"From My Vantage Point The World Is Promising","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"23 \u0413\u0440\u0443\u0434\u043d\u044f, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s almost year end. From my vantage point, I look back at what I've experienced but also look ahead and wish for what I\u2019d like to see happen. 2014 has been a wondrous year for our family, health-wise and travel-wise. Robert and I had a magical trip to Machu Picchu\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0417 2 \u043a\u043e\u043c\u0435\u043d\u0442\u0430\u0440\u044f\u043c\u0438","block_context":{"text":"\u0417 2 \u043a\u043e\u043c\u0435\u043d\u0442\u0430\u0440\u044f\u043c\u0438","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2014\/uncategorized\/from-my-vantage-point-the-world-is-promising\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"P1020986","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/P1020986-202x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2976,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2017\/uncategorized\/2017-out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new\/","url_meta":{"origin":474,"position":1},"title":"2017, Out With The Old, In With The New","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"2 \u0421\u0456\u0447\u043d\u044f, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A New Year With 2017, a new year here, we look back on 2016. It's been a tumultuous year, marked by a wild American election, Brexit, the Syrian refugee crisis and rising concerns about climate change. We also lost some well-loved celebrities. Because of all that and more, it wasn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"a new year","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/our_town.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3504,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2017\/uncategorized\/a-year-of-unexpected-delights-and-frustrations\/","url_meta":{"origin":474,"position":2},"title":"A Year of Unexpected Delights and Frustrations!","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"26 \u0413\u0440\u0443\u0434\u043d\u044f, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I love year-end reviews.\u00a0I look back at what I\u2019ve experienced, what I\u2019ve learned and what I\u2019m planning for the new year. The delights were many: travel, family visits, theatre, and writing, always writing. The frustrations had more to do with what happened outside our home: politics in the USA and\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"year-end review","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/IMG_0739.jpg?fit=1200%2C527&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/IMG_0739.jpg?fit=1200%2C527&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/IMG_0739.jpg?fit=1200%2C527&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/IMG_0739.jpg?fit=1200%2C527&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/IMG_0739.jpg?fit=1200%2C527&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":823,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2012\/writing\/what-is-it-about-the-troubled-artist\/","url_meta":{"origin":474,"position":3},"title":"What Is It About The Troubled Artist?","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"4 \u041b\u044e\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A few days ago, I went to see the play, RED, written by John Logan. 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To say that we were thrilled with our recent visit there would be putting it mildly. Rob and I have traveled\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Barkerville","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/IMG_6738.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/IMG_6738.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/IMG_6738.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/IMG_6738.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/IMG_6738.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4521,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2019\/writing\/roads-east-and-south\/","url_meta":{"origin":474,"position":5},"title":"Stories on Roads East and South","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"9 \u0412\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0441\u043d\u044f, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Taking roads east and south this summer gave me the opportunity to spend time with family, act in a feature film, and contemplate my next steps. 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