The rise of social media has taught us something important: people need people.
We have come a long way since the day the internet only served as a huge database for documentation. Without the human factor, interaction, external confirmations that we exist, internet platforms as we know them today wouldn’t have flourished and instead be very exclusive to those equipped with industrial knowledge.
Social media offers us platforms to connect and express ourselves. We generate a piece of content almost every other day and interact with hundreds alike. We share what we know, what we newly approach, what we empathize with, hoping to impact one or many people. The essence of social media lies in how we as users utilize it - it is a virtual space to learn anything and be everything.
So what does all this have to do with theatre?
If you think about it, a theatrical production isn’t that far off from a social media platform–it’s where reality merges with a physically non-existing world.
We tend to be drawn to theatre naturally for entertainment, glittering creativity and simply a good time. We crave a new story through spectacular performances. And it is true, theatre is breathtaking and exciting - blink for a moment and you might miss it.
Beyond all that, we think the core value of anything we create on this planet, however, always goes back to ourselves. Theatre has thrived on dramatization and fantasy. We write stories about talking animals and pretend not to be “human”. But eventually, we are still telling stories about human society, the odds and ends, the good and bad. It’s complex, it’s emotional, it’s absurd, it’s cruel. We play pretend to escape from our own mundane and/or chaos, into a world where everything seems to have its designated place, its own explanation. Yet as we meticulously craft an imaginary world, it is the reality that we are trying to understand.
The value of a theatrical platform, social media alike, lies even further in its people, in the diversity that the collective offers, in the contribution that each member brings with them.
For us, a theatrical production is a hall where everyone has a place. A story in theatre is never just a single autobiography, it is a story told by the many people participating in its construction and then retold by any member of its audience interpreting it individually. Theatre is about sharing and interacting. The way a choreographer takes an inner conversation of a character and turns it into movement. The way a costume designer carefully picks the perfect textile to represent a lifestyle. The way musicians tuck in that one line in the opening number to depict an underlying issue to later be resolved. The way you watch a musical and then spend days trying to explain to yourself whats and whys. Theatre is as simple as us telling you a story and you identifying with it, and telling it again. Theatre is you watching you on stage.
At the end of the day, we are still broke students, lost, confused and addicted to social media. But along this journey of finding our places in the world, theatre offers us a space to be curious, brave and honest, to reflect and explore purposes beyond our own. And we hope it could also do you justice.