Mirando, Mark Bance 15 February 2017 / Reflection Paper 4

Eng 11 / Theatre Arts / 2013-00862 Prof. Lalaine Yanilla Aquino

True Love, Perhaps?

As a young director, I feel timid about interrupting actors at work. I am afraid to be

decisive about any specific blocking or staging, anxious that my intervention would destroy the

fresh, spontaneous life that seems to be happening so naturally without my contribution; I keep

quiet. I ask myself, perhaps, love is like an act of theatre? You let it grow in you as you repeat it

and you breathe life into it. You let it bloom. You introspect and reflect. You realize, act upon it

and you articulate--- Perhaps?

Perhaps, like ancient dramas and narratives, love stands through time? In Bradburys A

Story of Love and Joaquins May Day Eve, both protagonists elicit tales of love across time.

Bobs love for Ann Taylor remained after 10 years and Don Badoys love to Dona Agueda stood

still even after she died. Perhaps, like any classic drama, love is a book waiting to be opened and

inside the book is a spore: a sleeping question waiting for our attention.

As a director, my biggest contribution to a production, and the only real gift I can offer to

an actor, is my attention. What counts most is the quality of my attention. Attention is a tension.

Attention is a tension between an object and the observer or a tension between people. It is a

listening. Attention is a tension over time. Perhaps, love is also a tension over time a careful

observation of a beautiful creature, like Leons attention towards his wife in Arguillas tale.

Perhaps, theatre really is an act of love. If theatre were to be described it would be memory,

attention and introspection, same thing with love--- Perhaps?