Spatial Experience: As I walked into the theatre, I immediately saw a long line of students waiting to see the play. This led me to feel somewhat anxious for the story I was about to see unfold. When I got inside, I was fortunate enough to be seated pretty close to the stage. This allowed me to feel more immersed within the show. Once the lights dimmed and the audience quieted, the play opened up with a scene of characters running across the stage and through the audience all the way to the other end of the theatre. I loved feeling involved in the story. The size of the auditorium, not too big and not too small, made it feel more connected amongst the students in the audience. The role of place in the Good Life is important because the scenery around you greatly impacts how you feel in the moment experiencing things.
Social Experience: I attended the play alone. If I were to attend it with friends, I feel like I would have enjoyed my experience a lot better. Before the play, I was eating in the dining hall with friends. I found my time conversing with friends very enjoyable and wish I would have been able to experience the play with others as well, besides the strangers I was surrounded by in the theatre. The road of shared experiences in the Good Life is very important because people greatly impact your experiences from a day to day basis. The different perspectives among people make every outcome more interesting.
Cultural and Intellectual Experience: The performance helped me develop a new way of seeing and understanding our own culture because the scene was very different from my every day life. The central issue addressed in the performance was around the idea of different social classes. Although this is apparent in modern day life, my every day life view of this was not as dramatically apparent as seen in the play. I did not know much about the play before the performance other than the fact that it was mainly about a character named Sarah Bernhardt. The performance made me realize how important it is to not only recognize that there are different social classes present in society, but to also be grateful for the opportunities that come my way. The subject matter does not necessarily have a relationship to something in my life, but it does make me realize how fortunate I am to finish my schooling all the way through college.
Emotional Experience: The Divine: A Play for Sarah Bernhardt provides us with an opportunity for catharsis because theatre allows its listeners with the opportunity to discuss and think about topics that are sometimes thought of as uncomfortable to bring up. This play brought up the idea of different social classes and the hardships that can come along with it. Theatre is a fortune to all considering it is able to do such a thing because without it, it would be much harder to discuss such topics.