Why Study Drama?

It was in grade six running around on the hot pavement at my elementary school when I first got the opportunity to do this weird thing called "theatre". I had seen a couple of plays near my hometown with my family but it always felt far away. When a few of my friends ran up to me excitedly exclaiming they were going to audition for the "musical", I was confused. I wanted to keep playing freeze tag and manhunt, but I realized that all of my friends were going to audition. So, like the old parent's adage, everyone was jumping off the bridge and I wasn't planning on missing the trip.

Before I started doing drama I was relatively shy, I wasn't great at expressing myself and public speaking was torture. Any book report, even talking casually in large groups, would have me shaking like a leaf. I am the youngest of four kids and often got lost in the shuffle. Also, like most kids my age and even more kids nowadays, video games played a big part of my childhood. Although I still love video games, as the youngest child growing up in virtual worlds, I wasn't well versed in expressing myself with my peers.

Snap back to Grade 6 Dan auditioning for the Grade Six musical, Clowns (creepy title, I know). Much to little Dan's surprise, I landed the role of "The Big Wheel", a giant talking Ferris Wheel that sends the Clowns on a magical journey and teaches them the moral of the story. There was one catch however, sweet little shy boy Dan had to sing a ... SOLO.

I was terrified. Singing was strange enough for my prepubescent voice, let alone singing alone in front of a crowd of what I was sure to be extremely judgemental parents and family members. It took me weeks of listening to my music teacher's recording of the solo, singing quietly to myself in my basement, and surprisingly few hours of rehearsal, but finally I made it to the show. The funny thing is I did the whole show while sitting in the equipment room of the gym with a microphone (remember, big talking Ferris Wheel). So while everyone was showing off their clown makeup, I was able to pump myself up for my solo. The moment came, and I let myself fly ...

As I emerged from the equipment room to took my bow, my hands and knees were still shaking. I gazed out over a crowd of hugely supportive parents and family members cheering their heads off. I was elated. My cheeks were burning from smiling so hard. I had faced a huge fear of mine and I had tried out a strange new thing, and it had all gone really well. I couldn't believe how good it felt.

Fast forward 12 years later, I am a graduate of a university program for theatre and have been a working professional actor for three years. I'm just getting started in my life in the arts and I can say with confidence that I am a better person because of it for these reasons:

Confidence

Getting up in front of a room of my peers to sing that solo was the first in my steps towards becoming a more confident person. Theatre and drama class taught me to be loud and proud of who I am. Even if I was nervous or unsure, I had to say the lines I learned so everyone in the room could hear them. Even if you don't feel it on the inside, there is something to be said for speaking clearly and loudly to show confidence on the outside. Then as we always say in "the bizz" (had to use it at least once), fake it 'till you make it!

Be Prepared

There is no substitute for this. When you arrive into any situation knowing that you have done all the required work beforehand you will feel better about yourself. This can be applied to any situation from a job interview to renting an apartment to purchasing your first laptop for school. Take the time to sit down and prepare. Make a list of possible scenarios that could occur and ask yourself what would I do in that scenario? This is no different than an actor learning their lines and their movements onstage, also known as blocking.

Improvise

Theatre is kind of like life because anything can happen, which means anything can go wrong! We like to look at things going wrong as opportunities, and they can be exciting. You will never see a room full of people listening and paying attention harder than an audience who knows something has gone wrong and is waiting for how its going to be fixed. This is why actors train in improvisation. We play games where we go onstage and make up stories on the spot to help our minds stay loose, flexible and creative. When you're playing these games you always say "yes!". If your partner starts a scene by saying, "man, it's raining so hard," you don't want to follow up by saying, "no its not." Say yes, and also add to the scene. This is what we call "yes, and..." and it makes the story come to life. So if my partner says, "man, it's raining so hard," I could say "for the last time I'm sorry I sold all our umbrellas and chose Scotland for our honeymoon, Jim!" Or something along those lines... Learning to improvise can help reduce your stress in situations because you'll know that even if your preparation goes wrong, you will think of something.

Empathize

A big part of working as an actor, and my favourite part, is creating a character. An actor will read the script of the play they have signed on for and they will try to see things entirely from the point of view of their character. Then they will see everyone else's point of view to see where their character fits. Example, oh my character loves chocolate, but in this town everyone thinks chocolate is evil so that tells me I am the antagonist to everyone in this story by holding my chocolate loving beliefs in this town. This was a silly example but the basic idea here is that reading all these scripts has really taught me to empathize with people and to see things from other points of view. In my opinion, if everyone could truly step into another person's shoes and see the world through their eyes, I think we would have a lot less theft, murder, war etc. Empathy helps you to become a more compassionate, understanding and generous person.

Listen

This may seem like an obvious one but you'd be surprised how hard it really is. For an audience to really be engaged in a play every actor onstage has to be completely living the story. Usually one actor at a time is speaking and to make things real, every other actor needs to listen. I bet you can remember one moment from your favourite TV show or movie when one actor is speaking and another reacts to that speaking in such a dramatic way but without saying a word. More often than not, that reaction was improvised and came from that actor listening so carefully that their reaction to what they were hearing erupted out of them, entirely organically. I'm not trying to say go break a toaster for dramatic effect, what I mean is take the time to really listen to people. Everyone deserves to be heard and people will notice when you give them your time and your ear.

And Finally, Just Breathe...

A lot of the education when it comes to acting, and this may sound strange, comes down to breathing. As actors, we take a lot of time out of our day to breath. To sit down, close our eyes, and just listen to our breath travelling in and out of our body. It helps us to stay calm, mentally and physically, and it helps us to stay connected to who we are, mentally and physically. When you are that connected to your breath you will be able to feel where your body is hurting or tense, or what has been really on your mind might appear very clearly to you. Whenever I have a big decision to make, I take at least 10 minutes to sit and breath. I don't stress my mind on the question or problem, I just sit there and breath. Your breath is your life force and it is basically what makes you, you. Being connected to that can never lead you astray.

And that's it! These are the ways that I have noticed my life improving just by being involved in theatre. Make no mistake, you don't have to be a professional actor to reap these benefits. I know many people who participate in community theatre and then return to their day jobs in accounting, real estate, computer science or anything! These are just some of the things you will pick up while having fun telling stories with the people around you, your community. Oh yea, one major one I left out was just that... have fun! It's called a Play for a reason.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article. I hope you will take some of what I learned to heart and maybe even apply it to your own life, or the life of your children if they ever waltz up to you and exclaim, "I want to be a giant talking ferris wheel!" (They haven't lost their mind, in fact, it just might make them better people).