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A.3.b Skills enhancement.
Have you ever wondered why people find “putting on plays” to
be so attractive and personally significant, so much fun? And if it isn’t, why are you involved with
it? Certainly not everyone you know
thinks so or they’d all be doing it.
Something special about the process attracts you, something which
sometimes seems embarrassingly trivial to admit. “What do you do?” “I do plays.”
“Oh...?” (turning to another) “And
what do you do?” “Well, I’m studying to
be a brain surgeon.” “Oh!”
Probably your need to do theatre derives from the manner in
which you find your personality satisfied by the process. It seems to play to all those elements of
your intuition (that which you have been becoming) and your abilities. Without conscious analysis, the process
appeals to your list of admired skills, probably those for which you have
experienced personal success. And the product
fulfills some notion you have about others and emotions and significance and servanthood
and self-expression.
Here’s a partial listing of the skills a student of theatre must acquire. You can probably add many more from your own
experience.
•
thinking through the
viability of alternatives in critical decision making
•
applying dynamic imagination
in projecting a decision into action
•
augmenting life’s experiences
through empathetic analysis of others
•
synthesizing all human
experience in the analysis of human actions
•
identifying and clarifying personal values
•
collaborating with others in
working toward a common goal
•
investigating self and goal
setting within introspective parameters
•
discovering and practicing
meaningful self-discipline
•
risking oneself before others
•
communicating concisely and
cleverly
•
employing distinctive
artistic means of analysis and expression
•
managing time, strength, and
abilities
•
handling self and tools to
create a concise and coherent expressive product
Obviously, these skills are of enormous importance in
enabling you to function as a fulfilled human being, an expression of God’s
plan. But they are also skills of great significance for any number of
careers, especially those in the service industries, the fastest growing
job market in our radically changing society.
These are the jobs in which people are the object rather than the
manufacture of goods: teaching, social work, transportation, sales, the clergy,
office positions of all kinds, entertainment, the list goes on and on. Just use your imagination, and you can see
how you could profit hugely from including that listing on any job application.
So, you see, you can
work at nearly any career you choose, and still pursue your love and drive
toward theatre on the side.
Next
Section: A3c:
Career Possibilities
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