“Life is made up of moments. Moments create days, days create months, months create years, years create life. Lose the moment and you lose life.”
Life in itself is a unique experience. You’re born into a world of mysteries, surrounded by infinite possibilities and paths to cross, and no two people walk the same path. Your life is a unique experience.
Have you ever had a moment where, no matter how hard you try, no matter what you do, nothing seems to be going right? How about a moment you’ve waited for your entire life, and nothing could ruin it’s perfection? It’s these moments that define you. When you’re at your lowest, you can look up and see hope for what the future holds, and when you’re at your highest, you can look down and see the struggles you’ve surpassed. It’s moments like these that shape your reality, your world.
Well, now it’s time to take a step into someone else’s world.
Based off of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, o me! o life! takes a real man’s words of pain and joy, and turns them into moments. Some moments are just “another day in the life;” going to the movies, or getting a (very) late night snack with a pal. Though, some moments are more monumental; reconnecting with someone from your past, or finding a way to protect your future. No matter how minuscule or insignificant you might deem a moment in time, every moment is important in its own way.
You may notice that every scene in o me! o life! was set (whether by script or by style) in a field. Well, how come?
The characters in this show each have to go through a moment, isolated to that time, that place, those people. Though the scenes are small, a field is anything but, showing how something so tiny can make an impact on something so vast. Through every scene, characters will make discoveries, about themselves and the world around them. But what good is knowledge without growth?
Think of life as a garden, and each moment as a seed. The more seeds you plant, the larger and fuller the garden gets. If you don’t take care of the garden, it withers and dies, leaving you with bramble and weeds. Without knowledge, there can be no growth, and with no growth, there can be no garden. The same goes for life: without growth, your life stays isolated and stagnant.
So, I leave you with this: the next time you have a moment, no matter what it may be, stop and take in every second. The sounds around you, the smells in the air, the beat of your heart. This moment is a part of who you are. This moment is a part of your life.
Go make some moments.
- Kai Barnes, Dramaturg
