Relating Theater to Reading

Ever since I was a small child I can remember loving to read books. I would get so excited when my mom or my grandpa would take me to the downtown library or when it was “library day” at school. I started with reading picture books and slowly grew into reading longer, more complex, and pictureless chapter books. The idea of reading has always been fun to me and never a chore, as it is to some. Part of what makes reading so much fun to me is being able to picture the scene unfolding in my head. I love creating vivid images of places, characters, and events inside my mind. It can take you to a place you have never been before and maybe never go in your life. Certainly I will never enter the Wizarding World, like in my favorite series, Harry Potter. This is what makes reading so much like the art of theater. Reading a book is just like seeing a play but instead of a room full of spectators, you are the only viewer. It’s like an intimate show being put on just for you that takes you to another world. I feel that this is even more interesting than theater at times because you can control everything to your liking. You can create what the characters look like in your mind based off the description given. You can picture the house they live in, the car they’re driving, or the dragon being slain. This in a way almost makes you the director of the “play”. You are putting together all these elements that the playwright, or in this case the author, wrote down. Sure you may know the character is wearing a red shirt, but you can choose exactly what that red shirt looks like. As a reader, you are given details but only just enough. There is still so much that you can control. You have the lines and the dialogue, now what do you do with that? I think that this is a very interesting concept because every single time a different person picks up the same book they will have a different interpretation of that novel in their mind. The play will change and become a totally different experience for that reader. Therefore there are a million different versions of that single play floating around out there in our minds. As a reader you also pick when the intermissions are. This is simply when you choose to stop reading or take a break. Will there be one after each act or chapter? Or will you watch the play straight through and finish all at once? There are so many aspects to control, making the experience so much fun. Reading is truly a magical experience and one I feel truly passionate about. There is not better a art to relate it to than the art of theater because this is also such a wonderful experience. The two are extremely similar in many aspects.