AES108 Performance & Words

Margaret Atwood once said “You’re never going to kill storytelling because it's built in the human plan. We come with it.” I think almost every aspect of human life is a performance, the way we speak, the way we walk, and even our salad dressing choices are puzzles to this great performance of life. Throughout history, there have been various ways to perform a story. It could be as simple as a reading, a theater performance, a musical, a movie, a short film, and so much more. I personally really enjoy stories, in whatever form it comes. For me, a good story is a story with depth and complexity just like how humans are. We are so complex, so confusing, and filled with layers, yet that's where the beauty comes from. 

I have an idea for a performance, I believe that a meaningful conversation can go a long way. A conversation is when two people or more change ideas and thoughts. Most act performance has some sort of dialog, but usually, the set and the act of movement is the center point. What if we can put two people and more to perform a dialog and just that? I have had such hurtful conversations in such a beautiful place or the most meaningful conversations in not the most conveniently aesthetic places. I think im a person that really has a way with words, I think sometimes people underestimate how powerful words can be. Words something that we use every day, can have so much depth and impact if used in a certain way. 

A place like Semi Palar is a place that holds so much meaning. Writer Joseph Conrad said, “My task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to make you see." If I could make a performance about Semi Palar, I would do it with words. Some words get forgotten and some words will be remembered forever. Some things that I’ve experienced in my life I could forget with a blink of an eye, but not in any way am I going to forget about Semi Palar. It’s always about how you do it.