The Girl on Stage

In ancient Greece, people turned to tragedies. In the colonies, Shakespearean plays brought communities together. Today, we have access to all of them—each reminding us that theater has always been a way to step outside of daily life, to be entertained, and to return with new reflections. Plays are a snapshot of history, showing that storytelling in performance is as vital now as it was centuries ago.
My piece inspired by “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a celebration of this tradition, but also deeply personal. In the middle is a portrait of me in acrylic paint practicing vocal warm ups, I’m not a singer but I love to perform and pronounce my voice. In the background is the set I performed upon, Titania’s fairy forest, and in the front are the numerous costumes I wore within the play: purple tulle skirts, lilies, and leaf garlands. Lastly, in the front I utilized music sheets of music from the play, each decorated with scenes of the play and characters using color pencil. In their worlds, magic and humor coexist with questions of love and transformation—questions that mirror my own. When I paint scenes from theater, I am not only recreating the story on canvas, but also honoring the timeless power of plays to move us, to make us laugh, and to make us think.
From Greek tragedies to Shakespeare to my own interpretations, plays remind me that stories transcend time: they remind me to imagine.