All The World's a Stage

"All the world's a stage" is the phrase that begins a monologue from William Shakespeare's As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques. The speech compares the world to a stage and life to a play. But it speaks specifically to the seven stages of a man’s life and my thoughts encompass all men and women.

All of us are born into a play, not of our writing. We are surrounded by actors; mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, family, all playing the roles they have come to accept. We all start life as improvisational players in an ongoing play and spend our life building our character, slowly learning and accepting our role in the great play that is our lives.

We revise our roles as we grow older, as we interact with new players; friends, teachers, bosses, using improvisation to make our part fit the larger stage. But the important thing is that everyone knows their part. If everyone knows how the other players will play their roles then the play is comfortable, the play can go on with little effort. Everyone plays their part. Small changes to the script can cause disruption, but everyone can revise their parts to adapt. Some actors even play different roles for different scenes, keeping each part alive separately from the other.

The problems come when an actor deviates widely from the norm. When one or more actors change their role drastically; they become very sick, or they break laws, drop out of school, divorce their spouse, or even die, the other actors must drastically adjust their roles to adapt. And when the change is unannounced and it surprises the other actors it can lead to the death of the play.

It is up to the individual players to react to changes, to decide how they will change their part to adapt. They can blindly follow the lead of others, including some who consider themselves as directors, or they can play their part the way they themselves see fit. The choice is clear, continue the role you are comfortable with or take on a whole new role.