Theatresports as Life

Theatre exterior on a very gray day

On Sunday night I went to a show at Circa Theatre, on the Wellington Waterfront. It wasn't technically a "show" though, but rather, Theatresports Freestyle, which was a comedy competition between two teams of improv actors. My response to the evening's entertainment: it was really awesome! Marvelous, even. Lots of laughs and great audience participation - we got to choose the winning team!

The two teams were just splendid to watch, with great interaction and character interplay. They responded to each other really well and were very quick on the uptake (most of the time!) to each others' new ideas and new characters. Theatresports is where acting is literally reacting.

It got me thinking: this is how real life should be! People should approach life with a comical (or at the very least good-humored) nature and try to respond positively to other people's ideas, with the idea of adding to and enhancing their value rather than dismissing or putting them down.

Even though not all of us are trained to be actors, we are all our own characters in the story of the world. We have the power to change how our character reacts, what our character does, and how our character approaches new situations. Even though we don't have a sit-down audience, we have the audience of our peers, colleagues, friends, family, and everyone we know. Let's put on a good show.

(P.S. If you're reading this in Wellington, NZ, there are still 7 more weeks of Theatresports Freestyle shows that you can - and should - attend!)