Mon, 06 May 2024 13:13:12 -0700WeeblyFri, 28 Dec 2018 04:18:56 GMThttp://springtheatre.org/blog/artistic-statementBY KATIE BALLARD

​I open my eyes. Bright sunshine fills my room from the window to the right of my bed. I drink my coffee, and begin to absorb the world around me. I look outside. I see it’s a sunny Saturday, with a clear blue sky to match. I text my boyfriend good morning with a smiley face. I walk down the hall. I see my dog roll around in her bed, playing with her yellow dog toy. I walk into my living room and I see my parents, listening to Pink Floyd on vinyl as they laugh over a shared joke. There is warmth and joy surrounding me. I am grateful that there is so much good in one house.
My house seems to be the exception, for today there is much unrest in the world. I turn on the news. I learn of another shooting, another bombing, another riot, another natural disaster. I learn this all within the span of 20 minutes. The world at times seems to be falling apart, hurting its inhabitants to a point of no return. People are falling into a state of despair and distrust. I see this with my own eyes. I see people ignoring the lady who just dropped her papers. I see people walking right past the homeless man and his dog. I see people refusing to look one another in the eyes. I see people screaming at each other in their cars as they drive in their separate directions.The current state of the world is draining people, rendering them powerless, as unrest takes control. I know I can not personally bring peace to the world, but I can do what is in my ability. I can spread happiness.
Happiness is a force unlike any other. It is full of sunshine, good, positivity, peace, light, and hope. While many people underestimate what the force of happiness can do, I am one of the lucky ones. I view happiness to be a power so strong in the world that it is not limited to the few, but a force for the masses. When humans let happiness in, their life expands, opening their minds to new ideas and allowing for their souls to dance. Happiness can radiate within a person with such might it eventually explodes out of them so that it may better the lives of thousands more. Happiness is contagious, spreading from person to person creating a chain reaction so strong it can be felt around the world.
Sometimes the world breaks the chain reaction of happiness causing distrust, and conflict to tear humans apart. Why can’t people put aside their hatred and instead learn to love? Why can we not trust one another again? Why can we no longer find the good in our lives? Why must the world destroy happiness? These questions have plagued society for longer than I have been here, and will most likely remain long after I am gone. I do not pretend that I can solve all of the worlds problems, but I will use my voice and work to create change.
My art allows my voice to be heard in the world. Acting is a storytelling platform. It spreads ideas and opens the minds of many. These stories being told on stage stick in our minds and reach far beyond the surface of which they were obtained. The stage creates for audiences the wonder of what is and what could be. The art of acting reaches out to people, building back some of the basic human joys the world can take from us. I work through acting, to bring an audience back to an unstripped version of themselves. People are impacted by theatre. They find a piece of themselves in a performance and follow it through to the end. Through watching a play an audience can learn - learn to trust, learn to live, learn to breathe, and learn, once again, to be happy. Watching people leave a theatre, with light in their eyes as they discuss what just came to life before them, makes me feel like the story that my castmates and I just told brought happiness back into the lives of those who choose to watch our story unfold.
However, acting does not just impact an audience. My art is a piece of me. When I am acting I feel every sense in my body turn on. I am tuned into my surroundings, allowing for a part of me to flow free as I create onstage in front of an audience. Yet, when I first started acting, it was not this simple. I was in middle school. I was afraid to extend beyond that of what my peers saw as average. I was afraid to make a fool of myself. I was not as willing to let a piece of myself go so freely. I began on stage very closed off. This was a limiting factor for me. I was not able to let myself go and let anything in. I would not allow myself to feel.
Around this time in my life, high school hit. There was a ton of negative energy around me. I could not stand it. I became extremely positive to counteract my surroundings. I found the power of happiness. I did what I loved with no apologies. The joy that acting brought me was a huge part of my positivity. Once I let that take over I was no longer worried about what others thought, I just jumped right in. I found the insight needed to see that when I was onstage it was not as myself, but someone else.
This was an entire challenge all in itself. In my mind a character on stage meant fake. I was an extreme emoter, through my face and motions. I was the equivalent of a Disney princess on steroids in Magic Kingdom. That is not a character, but rather a shell of a person who happens to be onstage.  I was not able to grow beyond that. My drama teacher sat me down my sophomore year. He told me that the stories we were telling were real. These characters had something to share with an audience, and it was our job to share. Through acting our goal is not to create a false moment, but rather a realness brought to life in front of an audience.
I realized how true his words were. I realized how they applied not just to my acting, but to my life. I realized the happiness I consciously chose to share was real. The happiness I feel in my life is real. I choose happiness, yet it was no ruse for positivity, but a real factor in my life. I found real happiness. I found that happiness was a defining part of who I am. I found who I still see myself as. I let it in.
Through this renewed sense of self and of acting I found the realness on stage. I work hard to become the characters, step into their shoes and view the world as they do and I learn. I learn of the wonder of each story I take a part in telling, I learn about the world through the eyes of each character and I learn of myself. Each character teaches me something about myself, something I have yet to discover. No two characters are alike and no two performances are the same. The nuances of each day come out in my work, projecting a piece of myself onto the stage.  A piece of my happiness I now know I can let go of to share with the world.
So I will spread the happiness in my soul with others. I will help those who are feeling down. I will promote peace, not war. I will spread positivity and encourage a narrative exploring individuals’ deepest thoughts in order to promote happiness through conversation. By searching for these answers on an individual level I will work to create change in the world, for good. Every idea starts small, like a seed planted in the brain of an individual. It is through their determination and hope that this seed grows into the beautiful flower of a movement for the world. I will pursue happiness in order to find the answers so long desired by man. I will let the sunshine into my room in the mornings, and I will open my eyes.

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