Random Pips

“I can’t even recall the faces of the soldiers I served with in Vietnam. Yet to this day, I still remember every single name and person I have performed with in plays.”

That was the epiphany an old gentleman voiced to me during breakfast this morning. We were both waiting for our orders to arrive and he noticed me poring over my script for The Tempest. He asked me about the play and from there, not surprisingly, the subject of our conversation turned to acting.

He got the “acting bug” when he was in North Dakota, U.S.A. It was just after the Vietnam War and he, like many of the veterans at the time, were desperately searching for a way to rebuild their lives again after the horrors they had undergone. Theatre was far from his mind then, but when a local theatre company asked him if he would be able to help them build their set for a play, he somehow assented. He was quite skilled in carpentry and before he knew it, he became a valuable resource for the theatre company.

After building the sets for several more plays, the director one day approached him and offered him a role in an upcoming play. He was hesitant at first, but he really could not refuse when a strange curiosity drove him to accept the role. The moment he first stepped out onto the stage, he knew that this is exactly what will anchor him for the rest of his life.

Our conversation, which spanned through our entire hour-long breakfast, finally ended with his epiphany that I mentioned above.

I found myself extremely humbled by the sheer truth in his reflection. Although he and his fellow soldiers struggled together through the closest resemblance to Hell than any civilian can ever imagine, the emotional connection between them were often thread-thin. They dared not connect too closely with one another for who knew whether they will wake up to see their new-found friends again the next day?

However, when one is performing in a play with others, forging a strong emotional connection with everyone is a necessity. It is the only way a play can truly come to life with rich, colourful characters. Otherwise, the play would be akin to a dry corpse making its motions of dully moving from part of the stage to the next. It is this very connection that imprints every single person’s name, face, and idiosyncrasies into one’s mind for a long time or, like in the case of this old gentleman, for the rest of one’s life.

I must say, the old gentleman’s epiphany rings true in me so far and I hope it will continue to do so. There is nothing more precious in this world than the moments you and another have caught a glimpse of each other’s souls.