THE SPATIAL EXPERIENCE

A very small, yet important part of a theatre is how it is spaced. It can connect or disconnect an audience depending on its size and set up. The Constans Theatre was a large enough theatre to seat a lot of viewers, while still maintaining a size that creates a sense intimacy with the audience. My seat location did not have an effect on how I viewed the performance, but there were others who were seated in between the first section of seats and the second who interacted with the actors who spoke to them as they walked by. This would not have been possible in a larger theater where the actors could not get into the audience.

THE SOCIAL EXPERIENCE

While social experiences are very important, I felt as if it is not completely necessary to attend a theatre performance with other people. This, personally, creates a pressure to speak during the performance which is very disrespectful, so I chose to go alone. In addition to this, it made it possible to coordinate when to go based solely on my own schedule. To get ready for this performance, I had to get dressed and ready an hour before as I had class that did not end until 7. I attended my lecture with a notebook and my purse, as backpacks were not allowed in the theatre and I went straight from class to the theatre. While I did not attend the play with any one I knew, I was sat next to someone who quietly exclaimed things like "oh my gosh" and "dang" throughout the play. Not only was this funny to me, but it was also funny to the person on the other side of me, and all three of us shared a small experience. This small group shared laughs throughout the performance that seemed like the rest of the audience did not find funny, like when the character Michaud said "they're called writers," all of us giggled respectively in our seats. This made the show more relaxing because there was not an awkwardness with the people seated around me.

THE CULTURAL AND INTELLECTUAL EXPERIENCE

While I had not read about the play before watching it because I like to watch things with no background as to not create an spoilers or expectations of performances, I had thoroughly enjoyed and quickly grasped what the show was about. Even if I had read a synopsis beforehand, it would not have told me what the story was really about; social injustice. While the play had taken place long ago in Canada, it's had a very clear display of the social injustices that people are experiencing in America today. A line that resonated with me and gave a great example of the play's theme was "poverty breeds poverty" which I believe to be very true as it is very hard to break the cycle of poverty. While this does not effect my current life, it was a large part of my mother's life when she was younger as she had been living on her own for a large portion of her life, needing to support herself while trying to balance school. However, my mother was unable to finish her high school education and although she got her GED, this can be an example of how easy it is to fall into a cycle a poverty, as it has become increasingly difficult to obtain a job that pays above minimum wage without an education, but it is also hard to get an education while having to work full time in order to support yourself. This has become a large issue today as well because many law-makers and congressmen have never experienced what it is like to live in poverty, and believe that the current minimum wage is a living wage that can support not only one person, but possibly a family. The cycle of poverty is extremely hard to break, but if there was help from people who had the ability to make these changes it could make people's lives significantly better, and help stop poverty from creating more poverty.

THE EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE

The Divine: A Play For Sarah Bernhardt allows the audience to take a step back and realize how often times if you are not the person who is personally experiencing any sort of struggle or oppression, you do not view it as a problem. The play helped the audience look into how some people's privilege is different from other's, and not even knowing that you have this privilege is a direct way to know that you are privileged. The play does an amazing job with this by talking about the audience that attends the plays that the character Sarah was headlining. The members were described as people who needed to escape their own reality, and it points out how they love a "social drama" which was enjoyed because it allows an audience to see the plight of people who are different but not feel guilty about helping to make a change because it is not real life, and the play is always resolved by the end. Which is a direct parallel to how people often like to put up a front, like on social medias, and pretend to care about the people who experience struggles in their daily lives but that is as far as their worries go, as they do not actually fight for what they say they believe in. Overall, the play allows for us to 'come clean' as an audience and realize that it is possible to not even realize other's struggles when we are so caught up in our daily lives if they do not effect us directly, which will help more people open their eyes to helping and fighting for the rights of everyone.

THANK YOU!