January 31st

I have always admired the art of the actor. To be able to set oneself aside and play an entirely different character is quite an amazing thing to do. Of course, when it’s done well, it’s seamless. The audience has no idea that the character they seen on stage or screen is not the real person that is playing the role. What I never realized about actors, however, is that in many ways they truly do have to give part of themselves up to do their job.
I’m currently in my third play here with Theatre Kent, and I’m still getting used to giving up all my clothing in order to wear the fitting costume. That’s the most telling thing about what a good actor gives up while acting. For me it’s my clothes since I’m only playing small roles, and since many of those roles are featured only for a few moments, or are buried in with many other people playing many other roles, I’m not giving up too much. Not having to focus on just one major character for the whole length of a play means I still have lots of time to be me.
Lead actors, however, almost literally become another person. They set themselves aside so that the person they portray can come across as real, and alive. Sure, they add their own spin to the character, but they can’t do much more. The script is unchangeable, the word and plot set in stone, so the actors must give themselves over to the text so that it can become more than just a bunch of folks saying some clever or moving lines. In order for the script to take on depth and meaning, the actors have to become the characters created by the author, even to the point of giving up all their personal clothing and adopting clothes they would never wear in public.
Christ was in a similar position when He came to earth. In the inexplicable mystery that is God meeting us in human form, the great Divine being had to give up certain parts of His divinity in order to assume all of the traits of a human being. Yet unlike an actor, whose job is one of illusion and make-believe, God didn’t simply put on a human suit. In the shape of Jesus Christ, the divine was truly human. Not simply a ruse, the Son of God felt everything we do. Pain, joy, despair, hope, humiliation and pride (the good kind, mind you) Jesus didn’t just act like one of us, He was one of us.
That was an incredible act. God gave himself over to us through His son knowing full well that the script had a pretty tragic part. While the ending was pretty happy, getting there involved the ultimate giving up of oneself in the death of Jesus, the Messiah, God with us. It was, however, the only way that humanity could be saved from itself. Only by playing out this great drama of life, death and resurrection could God redeem and restore us. No single human, no church or religious organization could take on that part.
All God asks in return for that great sacrifice is a little acting. God wants us to act like His son, like loving neighbours, like His own children. And by act I don’t mean put on an unnatural role. I mean to behave according to the image in which we were made, to be a true and honest reflection of the God who acts so lovingly towards us. At least that’s the way I see it.