(Sunday In the Park With George is based off of the relationships that the character's in this painting have with George Seurat the painter. Celeste #2, the character I played is the young girl sitting down and holding flowers while looking down.)
Last spring I got the honor of playing Celeste #2 in the show( a role that I had far to much fun with... from having to orgasm on stage with a fishing pole to singing with a cardboard soldier... yeah I bet you are all rushing to look this up on youtube now, and you should!) and sang those lines with Celeste #1 as we sat on stage gossiping to our hearts content. Sometimes when I sit around listening to my friends gossip about someone I actually start singing this song in my head. As much of a lunatic as that makes me, I can't get that rhythm of banter out of my head It's mind blowing! It's a completely different sound when people gossip, honestly, listen sometime. The tone changes and the pace quickens and people get cautious and people get so emotionally worked up and it becomes unsettling for me and it feels just like a scene from a musical. Which, if you haven't realized by now, I tend to compare everything in my life to something from a musical or a musical in general, apologies! But the reason behind that is a story for another day.
Now, I am not trying to prove myself high and mighty because just like everyone in this world I am guilty of gossip of the petty and more serious variety. But I try very hard to stop myself and focus on the fact that their is a story behind what is happening, more than what we know.
For example, the other day I listened closely to a room full of girls talk about how one of their close friends was "insane." Their friend had been at fault many times definitely- she had rudely "hooked up" with boys that were interested in her other friends just because she craved that attention and the feeling of winning over others. I am in no way condoning what their friend did, but to me, as I sat there listening to the 45 minute conversation on this... that was only broke up because their friend happened to walk in... I felt so awful for this girl. Her closest friends were in a room wallowing in their frustration together instead of realizing that there was probably a reason why she was doing this beyond she is just "insane."
Whenever I see someone who does something a bit off or a bit extreme my mind immediately goes to frustration just as anyones does, I am not different than any other human. But, I then always think about that story behind it. There has to be a reason that people do what they do- we just never see that part. I think that if we all want to get along and be tolerant we have got to start realizing that their is always an action that has caused this reaction. There is always a background story that we don't know. And as humans we tend to make things about ourselves. In this situation the girls could have realized that this was actually a problem of the girls that needed to be worked on and figured out, instead of making the situation about the "suffering" they were going through by being her friend. Ugh, I get really frustrated sometimes at just how plain mean we can be to each others... friends or foes.
How abusrd that we can sit in a room judging someone for their fault instead of talking to them about what's wrong, or even realizing that something is wrong. That's what's really insane! We have to start realizing what is really the issue at hand if we are ever going to solve problems in this world. We can't be blind to everything else that is going on just because our feelings got hurt. And I know that is easier said than done, I know that it is hard, it is in no way a breeze for me to do. But the facts are- we have got to do it.
We have got to start caring for each other better and understand there is more than we know to every situation, because don't we want the courtesy of knowing that other's aren't gossiping about us? The Celeste's are fun characters to watch on stage and play on stage- but in real life- no one wants to be a Celeste... well except maybe the part where she gets to orgasm with a fishing rod... oh dear... I am completely kidding!
But how about it? How about we stop gossiping? I don't know about you, but I sure don't want to be Celeste in real life.
1 comments:
Yeah I think its important to not have a knee jerk reaction to peoples behaviour without exploring the reasons behind the behaviour. People often recoil in disapproval without considering the nuances of the persons psychology, background etc. However I think there may be actions where we would still think the person wrong whatever reasons are given for the behaviour are given. There seem to be some transgressions where we should be proud of our simple mindedness. In one way im very interested in the reasons as to why child torture happens,but this doesnt mean im reaching out to the perpetrators, throwing them a lifeline or whatever. Thats an extreme example but perhaps it could translate to some transgressive behaviour in the social world?
Ed
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