The Connection

Another new insight I had into the project this year, was the closeness that I felt between us, the actors, and students in our audiences. Much more than last year, I was very aware of this unusually strong connection during our shows. This is likely in part because of the more familiar themes and characters of this year's production, and also in part because I was more attune to this engagement. During our post-show discussion, many of the questions focused on acting: How does one balance academics and acting? How did you get involved? Is there an audition process? What is your previous acting experience? What would you recommend to someone in my position thinking about acting? At first, I found the prevalence of these questions somewhat disappointing since I had hoped for more discussions about the themes; however, with time I realised that these questions were in fact a great sign of our success in achieving one of our objectives, and the best segue into accomplishing the second. If students were asking this type of questions, surely we managed to connect with them on a level intimate enough for them to see themselves in our place: we were showing them that they could be involved in this type of project, and, with certain cast members as evidence, I daresay inspiring them to do so. What could be a better way to promote theatre in education? Then, since every actor had a slightly different answer to their questions, we were subtly, but effectively, promoting the acceptance of diversity. Man we're good!