All the World’s A Stage

January 15, 2008 by Karen 

Years ago, when I was a working actor, I took a wonderful workshop by a man named Sam Christensen. His technique was created to help actors find their brand or, better put, their “story.” The premise is that all actors have a story to tell- their own personal mission to share through the roles they are meant to play.

These are the roles that feel like something extraordinary, that are easily obtained, that resonate deeply. Sam asks his students to dig deep within- and he has wonderful tools to help with this exercise- to find their unique story. For example, Kathy Bates’s story is the “Nurse…” If you look at the span of her work, in most of her best roles she plays a caregiver in search of her own enlightenment through caring for others. If you look deep enough into her great roles: Fried Green Tomatoes, Wag the Dog, Delores, Misery… she is telling basically the same story in different circumstances. Look at Robert DiNero- he is the “Urban Loner…” These are two wonderful examples Sam teaches in his workshops- the idea being if actors can discover what their STORY is, then they will focus on getting those roles, rather than swimming upstream, trying to get the roles that don’t resonate, that aren’t their roles to begin with. The lesson, I believe is that so often actors want desperately to play every role- for the challenge, for the recognition, for the money- when in reality, there are indeed roles one is “meant to play.”This work goes much deeper than I realized when I was enrolled. I was distracted and desperate to figure out how I could get my career off the ground and somehow missed the depth of these exercises. This is important personal growth work for all people and perhaps should be explored by a larger audience. It is a profound way of getting to the mission of LIFE that each of us agreed to so we can get right down to our LIFE’S WORK. Not just actors and storytellers. Everyone!

Now that I have a bit of distance, I can see quiet clearly what my “role” in the theatre was. Very often, I played the woman attempting to conform to conventionality against her spirit. And in the end of almost every great role I played, (Vivie Warren in Mrs Warren’s Profession, Nora in A Doll’s House… ) the women I portrayed walk away from all that is comfortable and conforming, as painful and difficult as it is, to finally live the life she was meant to live. These “women” don’t know they are missing out on life until extreme circumstances cause them to look at life in a new way, because they were trying so hard to conform to what they perceived other people wanted for them. They give their power away little by little, until something huge opens their mind and their heart and something changes deep within, and they know that they can no longer continue to live this way.

Well, I am beginning to see parallels in my own life, revealing to me that this is MY LIFE I have been playing out on stage. This is why I chose to be an actor for the first half of my life. To reveal for others, but most importantly to reveal to myself WHO I REALLY AM! And she is becoming clearer to me every day!

I am finally remembering WHO I AM! And I cannot wait to reveal that to everyone. I am almost ready. I still need to get a little braver. Put a few more pieces of the jigsaw into place. But that is what all this writing is about. That is what this “project” is becoming. I know that I have the makings of something big- a book? A movie? Both? And it is coming through me so easily now that I am ready to be true to who I am; To let my story unfold; To take my oars out of the water; To let God lead the way.

Today, the piece of the puzzle I snapped into its mate was:I was talking to one of my incredible spiritual teachers about this and other things. I laughed ironically saying to her, “Why did it take Cancer to figure this shit out?! And why in the heck did I chose this experience?” And she reminded me how much I LOVED playing the dramas in my stage work. I even begged for roles, auditioned my butt off, sometimes even worked for free because I so wanted to tell that story (written by Shaw or Shakespeare or Ibsen…) But THIS, this role I am playing in the experience of my LIFE is one that I asked for because I thought it would be great fun to work out! Just like the roles I unraveled onstage.

So what if we just pretend for a moment that we knew ahead of time what we were in for. What if each of us had an opportunity to chose if we wanted a human experience, and which human experience we wanted, knowing in our Divine state all the struggle, pain and suffering we would endure in this physical experience? What if we stood there in the Heavens holding God’s hand and said, “Yes, I’d like to try that. I will learn HOPE or FAITH or LOVE or TRUST (or whatever we chose to learn.) And I know that I will need to endure much to get me back to the place where I remember WHO I REALLY AM. And I will make agreements with others who will take human form as well and we will help each other remember by playing various roles in each other’s lives. Some of us will hurt one another- intentionally and unintentionally. But it will be a great and wonderful challenge to ACT out this great role.”

I believe that I chose this physical form of Karen Ann Puanani Kalena Garcia Stapleton von Schnier knowing that I would endure great suffering as well as great JOY. And my role in this physical experience is to remember who I am. And every day I find myself closer to remembering. This is where my JOY comes in. And I believe that passing along that JOY in the midst of the physical suffering I am enduring is a part of my gift back to the world. Because we ALL have gifts to give to one another. And what if we played out our roles until it became clear to us what our story is? What our gifts are?

Another part of the life role, as in my mirror roles I portrayed on stage, is to discover that I am NOT conventional and I need to break out and be truly who I am. And I am working through that as I write and meditate and pray and talk. So thank you for your part in my play- for reading and sharing and listening and walking your own walk, being true to who you really are and playing out your role to its completion. Because we are all a part of a wonderful play filled with adventure and drama and comedy and love! And we each have our roles to portray.

Sat Nam.
Kalena

All the world’s a stage,And all the men and women merely players.
- William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616), “As You Like It”, Act 2 scene 7

Prior to your birth, you were assigned a Sacred Contract, a symbolic life script that contains your life’s instructions. You are meant to meet certain people and you are meant to be provided with certain opportunities. The details of your Sacred Contract are written in the language of your soul – the language of archetypes.
- Carolyn Myss, Author of Sacred Contracts

Filed under: Living Journal

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