Impossible Things Performed Live for You

posted Jul 7, 2013, 2:05 PM by Robert Schulz   [ updated Jul 7, 2013, 2:05 PM ]

From Sarah Saltwick, author of She Creatures:

There are different ways to turn someone into a seal. Or a dragon. Or a unicorn. There is the descriptive transformation, the tool of prose, where the change happens within the reader’s imagination. In film, there are literal transformations that rely on visuals to replace one shape with another.

But in the theater, transformation is visual, metaphor, and physical. The change takes place within the audience’s imagination and on the actor’s body. I think the theater has the power to stage the impossible. At least, I hope it does. I write plays to see impossible things happen not in my mind or in front of my eyes but both. She Creatures calls for magic. It demands it. It invites it. Not just from the performers but from the audience. A willingness to believe in impossible things.

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