Date of Award

Spring 2021

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Theatre and Dance

First Advisor

Steve Pearson

Abstract

While studying for my MFA in Theatre, with a concentration in acting at the University of South Carolina, I was asked to write a solo show. I wanted to write about all the lives inside of me. As a Turkish Muslim man who lives in the United States, I lived so many lives, I met many people and seen many places. It made me who I am today, and writing became part of me forever. Creating a solo show was the most eye-opening learning experience. It changed my perspective towards my art, theatre. It helped me spotlight people, philosophy and showed me a whole new way to love. With words, I became more expressive and expansive than ever. Without suffering, searching beneath the fate of judgment that our industry could put upon an artist to be successful, I was able to discover my voice. While using my poetic imagery, I learned to evoke myself merely as a human being. With everything that makes me who I am as a writer—leaving all the fears behind about not being enough as a student who flew here with a Turkish accent and lack of fluency in the English language, strength and delicacy are somehow both revealed in my writing process. I learned to listen without preloaded filters in my head. I could just look and experience and learn from the differences and move toward a place of coexistence with my culture and the new culture that lived in me. I wanted to learn everything I could and explore forgiveness from a place without resentment, grudges, and hate: the private internal kind and the kind society and the world breed in us. I learned how theatre is a living art with space and breath within a person, and writing is a big part of it. The liveliness of it was so loud that it saved my life.

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