Theatre is an interaction between performers and observers (actors and an audience) in a shared physical space. In modern day usage, we can call this a “play”.
The best plays have actors that make the audience forget that they are acting. You actually believe that the person is “Othello” instead of Robert.
While this is most obvious when you look at theatre, we forget that every single day, we are acting too. In every interaction we are playing our predefined roles: “Father”, “Husband”, “Friend”, “Manager”, “Employee” etc.
The problem arises when we over-identify with our roles. We try so hard and take ourselves so seriously to convince our audience that our roles matter. That we have some worth. In essence, we play these roles so intensely to impress others.
But if we take the time out to think about it: No one really cares. Everyone is so caught up playing their own role, that they aren’t paying attention to you. There is no audience to care about your performance.
What are you going to do with this knowledge? Will you continue to play a role simply to impress others? Or will you choose the role that impresses yourself?
Because it’s all theatre. Life is all theatre. So you might as well pick the role that you actually want to play.
A New Source Code 