THIS IS STORYBOX

“I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged”

-          Peter Brook, The Empty Space

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players,
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts…”

-          William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Arguably two of the most quoted (and possibly misquoted) statements from the world of theatre. But I wonder how often people link the two, and in what ways.

How about this? Do you consciously recognize the times you’ve got an audience – your boss, your partner, your parents, your children, the cashier, the tourists across the subway platform? And do you consciously recognize that you’re playing a role for that audience?

I venture to guess that more often than not we forget that we choose how we act in certain situations, that we choose our interactions with certain ‘scene partners’, that we choose how we want to be perceived by our audience.

THIS IS STORYBOX is our attempt to make people aware that we’re not locked into the roles we impersonate. We have the choice to change our actions and reactions from what we consider our norms.

The great plays aren’t about the challenges and obstacles. They’re about how characters respond to them. So how will you choose to play in, and out of, the box?

-Shea