Virginia Press - Journal Entry 14 - Kenosis

 Since reading through American Camino, I keep returning to the briefly touched topic of Kenosis. Professor Redick described Kenosis with Biblical comparison, being the process of emptying one's self the way Jesus did. It's essentially the state of being open and receptive to spiritual influence. 

I think it kind of touched me as an actor. It speaks so closely to the way I must approach a character, whether they be the imitation of a real person such as the Laramie Project or the invention of a stage writer. I must remove myself from myself and accept all the information the text is giving me. As performers, we have vocal and physical warm-ups that remind us of this empty state and return us to the spiritual being of the character which we find again and again. Despite our de-roling at the end of the night, enacting our rituals of costume and self-care which separate our self from the people we portray, it is such a common sentiment that we carry our characters and their revelations wherever we go. 

Where would I be without the joy and optimism of Audrey? Or the confidence and power of Ursula? We humans tell stories about heroes, Gods, and people. As actors, our job is to embody them all and connect them to our audience, our fellow man. You'll find the distinctions in primordial experience between the heroes, the Gods, and the people are all rather vague. Perhaps this is because of the vessel to which I am constrained, or perhaps it betrays the truth of the spiritual experience lying in the gaps of the human experience. If God made us in his image, so too can we only create that which resembles ourselves. Our constructs of higher powers, abstract characters, and places no one can go can only exist through human means and understandings. 

I don't know. I don't know if there's anything more that we can ever comprehend. But we keep trying to understand the world and each other. We keep telling stories. I think that's beautiful. That's worth it enough. 

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