Theater: A Ticket To Peace
By Michael Boyajian
The movies can be quite inspirational but in between great movies you see a lot of B movies that are not bad but just OK. And when you’re in a movie theater most of the people’s faces are blank and expressionless absorbing the shock which is screaming out at them in the form of hyper violent action movie trailers.
Now take live theater for contrast. Whenever I am seeing theater whether it’s Broadway, London or the Hudson Valley the first thing I notice is that the audience is jubilant before, during and after the show. There is no shock treatment blasting out at theater goers. Just rich drapes, velvet seats and glorious chandeliers and the anticipation of live performance. And the most inexpensive theater seat today costs around the same as a 3D movie ticket and the theater performance is in real 3D.
I remember being in London during the financial meltdown attending a Shakespeare performance at the Globe Theater and the entire audience was smiling and singing along with some musicians before curtain time. Everyone was so happy even with all the bad news and you could tell this was a healthy society.
Good theater is a good indicator of a healthy society. Golden Age Athens invented theater; Elizabethan England thrived during the age of Shakespeare and so on and so forth.
We send forth scientists, technicians and humanitarians in the Peace Corps. Perhaps we should send our theater. I believe a troupe of 20 actors on the boards can accomplish more in the way of peace than a thousand diplomats and a 100,000 soldiers. Actors are the ticket to coexistence. Make all the world a stage and watch jubilance break out and explode into peace.
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