Take on your role, play it up, and own it!
You are the director. Direct yourself!
The world is your stage, right here, right now.
Where are your feet? NO! Don't move them!
Let them be where they are!
Where is your head? Where are your shoulders?
Let them be, and thrive within them.
Do you find your legs tight? Then leave them alone.
Your role requires it, so play it!
How is your neck? Your spine? Your chest?
Are they compressed? Are they curved, or caved in?
However they are is how they need to be now,
To fulfill your unique role in this play.
So let yourself be uptight, and let yourself be down.
This is the character you are meant to play.
So put all of your energy into playing this role...
And own where you are, and enjoy it!
Enjoy yourself as you direct your body.
Wherever it is, whatever its shape,
In this moment it is according to script.
Relish the shape, relish the role,
and put your whole heart and soul in it.
Enjoy the role, enjoy the play!
And notice: are you breathing??
Maybe you can laugh at this comedy act.
Maybe it isn't a tragedy...?
Contort yourself more, exaggerate the acting...
See how the drama unfolds...
When you enjoy your part (even if it seems to be evil!),
You cannot help but breathe.
Now let the breath move your actor around.
What happens next? You decide!
Does the character change?
Or stay stuck and enslaved?
You're the director; you're the one who can choose!
Are you a puppet, a slave, or an idiot?
Or a human being endowed with free will?
If you believe that you're free, then become the part.
Your thoughts will transform who you are.
Jaques:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 139–143
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
