Dramaturgy.
"A genius is the person who can be most truly who they are."
-Thelonious Monk
Episode 37.
Hiatus from Series- Escape Through... will return to series #4 of 5 next week...
What if you walked into an elevator and stood with your back toward the doors? You just didn't turn around. Just didn't take a measly pivot to face the "right way". No big deal, right? Try it. People in the elevator will be freaked out. This tiny act for a 6-second vertical ride goes against the accepted story that how we stand in the elevator is facing the door.
This story can be called a 'dramaturgy'. It is a story based on both societal expectations and internal expectations; a playbook with actors in roles, with costumes and acts and curtain calls. In sociological concept, each one of us lives within and among our own dramaturgy. We act, interact, respond, behave, and recite according to this storyline. We unconsciously assign roles to the people in our lives. "Here, you put on this costume"..."Now, you enter stage left and interact with me in this way"... "And, you challenge me, but not too much"...
A breach of the playbook is very obvious to our internal director, and can threaten us at our core- and rightly so- this is "my story".
Our dramaturgy likes to maintain consistency with the same old story....until we decide to really take a look at that narrative.
I recently re-watched The Truman Show- now considered an "old" flick from 1998, with Jim Carrey. His character, Truman, is just living a normal life, in a quaint little town, doing it all "perfectly", without much of a care in the world. The plot follows Truman’s gradual realization that his entire world is an illusion. He recognizes strange happenings around him, which triggers him to start questioning his life, the people around him, and reality itself. This sends Truman on a spiral to the threshold of breakdown, where he discovers the truth – that he is actually not in control of his own life, but the star in the world’s most popular TV show.
Why the elevator example, and why the Truman Show? Well, because in this year of much disruption, we may all be questioning our reality a bit. We go through our hours and days and years in our humanness, wanting to believe that our story is solid, but in reality, letting go of our narrative can lead to freedom from some suffocating constraints and self-imposed limitations.
Our dramaturgy is not just an external-facing, societal manifestation, but a story we all act out for the audience of ourself. It is based on expectations, and bolsters our identity, even when nobody is around. We are participating in our dramaturgy in the way we think about things, rationalize things, even feel things. Our habits and patterns loop right in to reinforce the dialogue in our head. We are certain that we are certain about this dialogue, because we like to be right. It's not an ego thing- it's a human thing. Our primitive brain is constantly seeking to reassure and reaffirm our "rightness", to confirm that we are on the right track, that our belonging and safety are not threatened. So, it only makes sense that we unconsciously firm and solidify and edify the story that we believe is true for us.
We stand firm in our role, not stepping out of our storyline, because that would challenge our identity. And, to boot, we have an over-bearing self-judge inside us with the title, "movie director", to keep us in our story.
Do we need to conduct this radical self-inquiry? Must we examine our movie, or can we just keep it rolling? "Maybe I don't have a dramaturgy." "Do I really have to analyze the costumes and stage and set and narrative?"
Well, awareness can allow for investigation. And in this investigation, we may just recognize that we are much LARGER than our narrative.
The only way to make any significant change is to get out of our own way. The only way to shift is to open. Whether we choose to recognize it or not, we are somewhat imprisoned by our routinized patterns of our own thoughts and emotional reactivity, set up by the grand acts of our dramaturgy.
Our assigned roles have become identities, and might just be out of date. Our costumes are like prom dresses from the 80's. Our sets are like paper mache that we slathered with smelly glue in second grade. Our lines have been practiced and reiterated since arguing over a new toy with our sister. Our stage lights are dim, in need of new bulbs to illuminate our inner vibrance that has been kept obscured by our typewriter-keyed scripts.
Our current life today is the sum of the default we have been following for years. And that default likely needs some updating.
Update.
You update your phone- what about your narrative?
How?
Recognize the notification to align with your true self.
Simply slide to update- shift beyond the limits of your dramaturgy.
Be larger than your stage and broader than your script.
Move beyond the roles, feelings, and judgments.
You don't have to stand backwards in the elevator, but you can recognize the playing out of old narratives.
You can be open.
You can dissolve separateness.
You can be in the freedom where life flows.
Shifting.
Here.
Love, Jess
Do it all with Love. Nothing is promised. But everything is workable.
To get these weekly episodes of THE SHIFT in your inbox, free…. sign up here THE SHIFT NEWSLETTER
