Masks

Masks and Theatre

I think I was sick for this first period for masks, but from what I've seen/read, masks seem to be a way in-which one has the excuse to change into someone who they aren't. The way I see it, masks are keys into where people are allowed to escape into a different world. There can be two ways that a person can look at a mask. They can look at it as an excuse to change, or an excuse to die. Change, you think of change that you think of things evolving, ultimately making the finished product different from what it had been originally. But, with masks, I think that nothing really changes apart from how the wearer perceives the mask to be. Through the perception of the mask, the wearer is allowed to use that same vision, and show it through their bodies. In other words, the only the change that takes place is the change of understanding of the mask. It's the ultimate sacrifice, I think. The mask(s) don't have the ability to speak and show what they are like, yet we can. So let the mask see you for what you are, and when you finally wear it, use those images of you imbedded into the masks eyes help you feel out what the mask's 'spirit' (shall I say?) really is.
Now, for the excuse for one to die with a mask on is my other point. For the more shy people, masks could be looked upon as shelter away from the eyes. What they might not realize is the fact that if the wearer finds shelter under the mask, the mask's 'spirit' die away. The person isn't using the mask for what it really is and what it might actually be feeling. It's sadistic really, as the mask has no say in the whole act, and it's just you. The mask takes the attention of the audience true, but in the end it's the wearer that eventually dies away. Who knows, the mask could be looking at you as well. The way in-which the perspective of what the mask sees can change in an instant. It's you that the mask is on, therefore it also knows what you are feeling, seeing, everything... When you wear the mask, it's not you anymore, it shouldn't be you, or the mask won't have a lifeline. You take that lifeline away, the mask dies, and when a part of a whole dies away, the whole isn't a whole anymore, yet it crumbles down.