What is TheaterThink?

What is TheaterThink?

Yeah. 

In short, TheaterThink is how I think. Or how I've trained myself to think. Acknowledging that I'm autistic, it's both and neither. It doesn't matter anyway. 

It's how I approach problems. And when I consult, how I've found myself solving problems. It's how I've contextualized what I do so I can explain it (and one day teach it) to others. I'll explain the basics here, and in response, I hope others will help me to refine my own approach even further. 

Enough exposition. Meet my four-fold mnemonic, the Four M's (or THEMs): Metaphor, Mechanism, Modality, and Muse. These are the four steps of how I TheaterThink. My process, if you will. The starting point. 

The first is Metaphor. Language is a metaphor. So is any artistic expression. Some people think life is a metaphor. I get that.  

I reposition the issue I'm facing using the language of theatre. Employees are actors. The company is a producer. The situation is a play with a plot, characters, and obstacles. The Metaphor isn't always professional theater, but it serves as this introduction.

Within this Metaphor, I see myself as a director or a coach of directors. Not because I was (am?) a professional stage director, but because directors wear many hats. When the show opens, the director finishes.

In other words, the show opens in NYC, and the director is on a plane to rehearsals in Seattle. A director works with actors to help the actors perform, with honesty, for others (an audience). The director also unifies the team around a style or culture in the production. Then the director moves on. 

If I could, I'd live in the Metaphor, but to live, you breathe, and breathing is a mechanism. Without one, you never get to the other. So enough Metaphor, onto the following "M" mechanism. 

Mechanisms are generally processes, systems, and structures. In the theater, we use them to consistently and truthfully bring a vision to life. Theatrical mechanisms are extensively studied, impossible to count, and globally practiced. 

I'm simplifying a lot here, so I'll go ahead and simplify more. 

Actors apply specific mechanisms to recreate human behavior on stage.

Dramatists use mechanisms to analyze a play. Directors deploy mechanisms to focus an audience's attention. These are some of the mechanisms of professional theater artists. For the most part, they expound on the work of Konstantin Stanislavsky. Stanislavsky developed an acting approach to mimic reality. If it sounds complicated, you understand why there are so few Meryl Streeps worldwide.

The mechanism isn't why you have a "she is SO good reaction" to Meryl Streep. The actual application of the mechanism in a situation in front of and for the benefit of others. That's what you experience. This moment is what I call modality.

Modality is the event itself. It is the experience in which the mechanism turns Metaphor into reality. It's the show. Sometimes the exhibit is in front of a paying audience. Sometimes it's a rehearsal or preview performance. Sometimes it's spontaneous. A performance elicits a reaction from the audience and affects the participants. 

In mathematics, the Mode is the most repeated number. In TheaterThink, the mode should be the most repeated (and in some ways the quickest, simplest) step. Modality is the performance. 

Finally, with every action comes a reaction. For TheaterThink, that reaction is the last "M," Muse. You could call this the "light bulb" moment, which makes it the most important and least definable step. It is like an Oracle from Greek myths--it's an event, but that doesn't mean it makes sense. The "muse" is the moment it makes sense, the moment of realization.

Muse is an inspiration.

Muse is the moment of motivation that creates learning and behavior change. 

There are the 4 M's (THEMs): Metaphor, Mechanism, Mode, and Muse. That's how I would explain my thought process. 

We're still not DOING anything yet, only talking about doing something. We've explored the TheaterThink Metaphor but haven't looked at "how we apply this?" To answer that, we'll need another post. Stay tuned...