imagination

Being a Disney Princess at a birthday party really is a magical job. For an hour or two you create a world where dreams really do come true - and everyone surrounding you believes absolutely that you came to the party in a magic coach and that you will go home to Prince Charming. Little girls tell you how beautiful you are and how they want to be you when they grow up. They all want you to come and sleep over or see their new sofa or play with their dolls. If you tell them they are marvelous dancers they leap with joy. They all want to know you opinion of exactly how delicious the cake is, or what color sparkles they should wear, or what the best dancer pose is. The gasps you hear when you walk into the room - eyes filled with wonder and awe - CINDERELLA IS REAL! There is nothing like it!

To be a bit more profound about the whole ordeal, I have now moved onto a book about Peter Brook - called conversations with the birds - about his quixotic journey to Africa with a troupe of 11 actors to prove that make believe is essential for human existence - as essential he claims as "food or sex." His mission was to make theatre more than icing on the cake - he wanted to make it necessary to society - as "it once was and still is in some cultures." (For those of you who don't know who Peter Brook is - he would be one of the most acclaimed and revolutionary directors of the 20th centure - he was the first to break the "Olivier mould" of realism and explore "the empty space" in a new way - epitomized by his production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM performed in a white box, fairies in combat boots, with an aim of focusing on the text rather than the set or costumes. Ironically, the production is not remembered for text or brilliant character development but rather the set or costumes - or more precisely - lack od set and costumes.

At any rate, my job I feel is living proof that human crave and need make believe. Even the parents get swept up in the fun - laughing as they do the chicken dance and ask me questions about how hard it is to dance in glass slipper or what food do we mermaids eat under the sea. To the children - make believe is second nature - they want to believe and do believe. I am far from answering Peter Brook's question about WHY we need imagination - and I don't believe he ever succeeded in articulating an answer either - but I do know his intuition is correct - and I am thrilled that I get to help make magic happen for little girls for a few hours every weekend.