The Divine: A Play for Sarah Bernhardt Experience Evan Yurick

The Divine: A Play for Sarah Bernhardt was a wonderful experience that opened my mind a lot. I am not one who would typically go to plays but this changed my opinion. There were so many different aspects about the theatre that were enjoyable. The spatial, social, cultural, and emotional experiences really made this experience an enjoyable one for me.

Spatial

The physical setting of the theatre helped me to look forward to the play. The entrance was very nice in my opinion which really helped me open up to the thought of going to a play. After you walk in the doors there were two directions you could have chosen to go. On either side were different artistic pieces and that made the theatre appealing to me. When I entered I felt excited and that grew as I walked to my seat. I was lucky enough to sit towards the front and that made my experience enjoyable because I could see the characters faces and expressions along with hearing them. When the lights dimmed I got excited because I was ready to see the talent we have at our school. I think the role place has in the good life can be significant. Where you are physically can have an effect on how good of bad you view your position in life. The Constants Theatre was very nice and that helped my change my opinion from not wanting to go, to being excited.

Social

I attended the play with my roommate who is actually one of my very good friends. Before the play we both did not really want to go but we kept an open mind and ended up really liking it. Attending it with him definitely enhanced my experience because after we were able to discuss our thoughts on the play. It was good to hear his opinion and it was good to share mine. We both were glad we went by the time it finished. My other friends left at the intermission but we were into the play and we stayed the whole time. Shared experiences have a significant role in the good life. Maybe not for everyone but friends and close ones are an important part of what I feel a good life is. Many times the best memories I have are shared experiences with other people. I am glad I was able to share this experience with my roommate because it opened both of our minds.

Cultural/Intellectual

The time frame the play was set in made me think about how different the culture was back in the older days. It was not that long ago and we as a society have made so many advancements and changes it is so crazy. There were many issues being presented in the play but the one that stuck out the most to me was the child labor. The kid dying at the end really hit me hard and I felt emotions of anger towards the owner of the factory. Before I knew child labor was a bad thing and I sort of knew they were not treated well but the kid dying really made the connection. I realized that death of children in factories was not an uncommon thing and the play helped me to make that connection.

Emotional

The Divine: A Play for Sarah Bernhardt provide us an opportunity for katharsis in many ways. The whole secret about the bishop who was raping his students was a really uncomfortable topic. That was not the whole message though. The meaning of that part of the story was to not keep secrets because they can come back to haunt you. Your secrets may not be as extreme as doing unspeakable things to children but it still connects. I think that was the katharsis presented in the play because a lot of time when you tell the truth instead of keeping secrets, that is you coming clean which is exactly what katharsis is. I am sure there were many other examples of katharsis in this play, this was the one that stood out to and resonated with me the most.

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