To the editor,
We had the pleasure of seeing the recent Eldred Central School presentation of “The Music Man,” and congratulate the students and staff who took part. We respected the enthusiasm and professionalism of the cast, including the gratitude expressed after the final curtain to many people who helped make the production a success—from the construction of the wonderful sets, to the costume designs and the pit orchestra. This shows how people can work together to benefit a community.
The joy of musical theater can seem far away from the turmoil in the world now, yet we have learned from our study of the education Aesthetic Realism, founded by Eli Siegel, that acting, in its purpose and technique, can make the world kinder. He explained that art is the great opposition to the human desire for contempt, the “addition to self through the lessening of something else.” In a 1961 lecture he said: “Acting shows that you don’t have to be fettered to yourself. You can be other people. There is no limit to how much you can be other people!… [Acting] is a way of being somebody else for the purpose of coming back home immediately. You take a trip in order to find out who you are.”
And, in the journal The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, titled “Art: The Opponent of Contempt” editor Ellen Reiss writes: “People have acted and people have watched acting. But never before was it seen that when a person takes on a role, the biggest hope of everyone’s life is concerned: the hope to be ourselves through being so fair to the outside world that we become it.” (www.AestheticRealism.org)
Through the good and evil in Professor Harold Hill, and the way Marion shuttles from sternness to letting go, from aloofness to warmth, we can know ourselves and humanity better. We have learned that the conscious hope to feel what another person feels—to see him from within—is not only the purpose of acting but is justice itself. As husband and wife, we know how much this understanding is needed by people everywhere—in marriage and families, and by nations to ensure that there will be no more strife and wars in this world.
Jaime R. Torres
Donita Ellison-Torres
Yulan, NY