Theater is an exercise in being human.

 

When we make theater, we tell stories. We construct realities. We deconstruct realities. We create a perspective, and the audience looks through it at what we want them to see.

 

When we situate characters in the audience’s perspective, we allow the audience to relate to them — to share their experiences, to understand their motivations, to feel their emotions. To empathize.

 

As theatermakers, we practice empathy when we decide how best to bring a character to life. We put ourselves in their shoes — literally and figuratively. As audience members, we practice empathy when we see the characters onstage, their lives and their experiences, and we feel with them.

 

I believe empathy is essential to our humanity. Empathy allows us to connect with each other, to interact with each other, to share with each other. Individually, it makes us human. Together, it makes us humankind.

 

Theater cultivates empathy, and because it does, theater is an exercise in being human. Theater is the practice, the expression, the ongoing affirmation of our fundamental humanity.

 

That’s why I love it. That’s why I make theater — to participate in this affirmation of our humanity. I want to tell stories. With bodies, sound, movement, light; with emptiness, silence, stillness, darkness — I want to bring people to life onstage. I want the audience to see them, to feel for them and with them. I want to cultivate empathy because when I do so, I can connect — with fellow theatermakers and audience members; with people who love theater and people who say they hate it; with people I know and people I’ve never met; and with myself. 

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– Kyra Lewis Gee