Of all the countless ways we humans pass our idle time,
only theatre, live on stage,
“holds the mirror up to nature,” as the saying goes.
In short, it shows us human beings
using every aspect of themselves
to engage our collective imagination
in a wholly human exploration
of our one unarguable common bond.

All the other arts abstract the human. Performers act, sing, dance, play music; visual artists draw, paint, sculpt; writers work with words, composers with notes, architects with the laws of physics. Put them all together with directors, supervisors, carpenters, electricians, seamstresses, backstage workers, hairdressers and make-up artists, fundraisers, advertisers, ticket-sellers, and ushers, and you have the collaborative village we call Theatre.

As for all our other pastimes, in the main, their goal is to distract us from ourselves, divide us into sects, define us by what we look like, what we do, what side we’re on. Athletes glorify aggression; public speakers prey on minds—motion pictures are just that, for all their cgi-reality.  Only Theatre brings people together to affirm our common bond.