There's this thing I love about theatre...no matter how many times I rationalize that I'm actually a better writer than I am performer so what's the point of walking down the road of theatre argument in my head, every time I experience theatre, I'm drawn in. It's that moment of eye to eye being in a world made of multiple imaginations that I get giddy about. Being able to exist in the imagination and not in the present. I like the fantastical more than the realistic. Or at least I like to see the fantastical emerge from the realistic. (So maybe I should just try to be a fantasy writer...eh eh like George MacDonald?)
These second graders have rekindled a kind of crackle thirst for teaching/being part of theatre. My favorite part of leading gymnastics camp (and I think this might be their favorite part) is when we go on an imaginary adventure before stretching. I didn't even intend to incorporate theatre into stretching, but I just wanted to get them jogging and it seemed to be more exciting if we could imagine passing trees (and then I just kept going...) Today, this kid asked me, "Are we gonna jog again?" They are so excited about it! And I love that! They had so so so many ideas about where we should go! Almost all of them wanted to offer a suggestion, and I didn't have to pull it out of them, nor did I try. They just wanted to! Today one girl wanted to go to California, another wanted to go to the Panama Canal, another wanted to scuba dive to a cave, another wanted to find a diamond, another wanted a forest (they always want the forest), a boy wanted to be chased by lions, and another boy wanted to go to the jungle. I only had enough mental energy to take us from California to the Panama Canal to a cave to find a diamond. The boys were upset that we didn't go to the jungle to be chased by lions so I told them we'll do that tomorrow. But what I am amazed by, what is an incredible GIFT from God to me, is to see how these kids live in the drama. Oh they are there swimming through the ocean in scuba suits down into a cave searching for diamonds swimming back up away from an octopus then a pack of sharks then onto the boat then holding their diamond in the sun to watch it shimmer! They follow my movements and even go about it their own way, spinning, turning, moving out of place (which makes things chaotic but really whatever). The best moment today was when we got onto the dock in San Francisco (which apparently has no beach but I didn't know...this is what happens when I try to imagine somewhere I've never been!) and I told them to hear the sounds of the other boats. All the kids started making the sounds of boats! I can't even describe it because if you asked me to make the sound of boats, I'm not sure what I'd do. Maybe the sound of a bell. But the kids just made noise and it kinda sounded like a dock! It was so cool. I felt like we were all there together ready to step out onto a huge sailboat and sail to the Panama Canal. And then I told them to imagine the sound of sailors and they started making pirate sounds. It was just this moment of being in one physical space but all together being in a totally different mental world. I'm struggling to describe how magical this felt. The closest experience I've had to this is when I read a book and am aware that I am in one physical space, sitting in a chair, hearing the background noise, but my mind is off somewhere else---journeying with Frodo to Rivendell. It is in this space of creation that I feel most alive...isn't that odd to be most invigorated in the imaginary? But yet that space holds incredible potential to do, be, say anything! And I love when people take me to an imaginary place--in a play, in a story, in a movie even. And really, what I was craving when I went off to school in Chicago, was to find other people who also love the imaginary. The possible.
I don't know what the point of sharing this is, but if you also love the imaginary, I'm thankful that other people like this exist! Probably one of the hardest things for me is to relate to people who cannot delve into the imaginary. Who are "too cool" for it. Well people like that are awesome too, but I have to say, seeing how these second graders invite the imagination has made me think that maybe just maybe everyone loves the imagination. So that's why I love theatre and theatre people. Because they bring out my imagination. Invite it. Nourish it. Demand it. Push me into it! So I'm thankful. Thankful to Henry Godinez : ) Thankful to Spectrum. Thankful to Performance Studies. Thankful to the Northwestern Theatre and Interpretation Department. Thankful to Chicago. Steppenwolf. White Elephant. Shannon Oliver O'Neil. The Women's Center. Michael Rohd. StuCO. Betsy Quinn. AATE. Suzan Zeder. The Edge of Peace. I am thankful for you Northwestern, that you support our imaginations, as one of the most innovative, energized, open, welcoming, encouraging, nurturing theatre environments I know of. Thank you for allowing me to participate, to learn, to try, to fail, to grow, to seek, to see, to understand, to realize, to question, to connect in your spaces and in nontraditional spaces. And I'm thankful to God for bringing me to Kodiak, AK to teach gymnastics to a group of second graders and to discover HOW MUCH I have to be thankful for about the past four years.
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