For your original thread post choose ONE of the following prompts to respond to:

PROMPT 1:

One of this week's topics is empathy, the ability to understand and/or identify with the feelings and experiences of another human being.

For this response, discuss a fictional character who is very different than you and in what ways you were able to empathized with this character. This character does not have to be from the stage. It can be from literature, film, or TV.

Using specific examples, explain how you and this character are different but also how you achieved an empathetic connection with this character.

Did you learn anything new through this experience of empathy?

How your sense of empathy affected your involvement with the story?

What is the use or benefit of human empathy?

PROMPT 2:

This week you also read about acting and actor training, and we have talked about everyday social performances. In The Bacchae, Dionysus plays (or performs) the role of a human man so that he may get close to Pentheus. Eventually Dionysus convinces Pentheus to disguise himself as a woman (another "performance" in the play) in order to spy on the meanads.

For this response, discuss an occasion where you consciously "performed" in an everyday, social situation. What part did you play? What were the given circumstances of the situation? What was your goal in your performance? (What did you want?) How did you go about achieving your goal?

What obstacles stood in your way of achieving your goal? Where you successful in achieving your goal? What trained you for this performance?

(Do not discuss a time when you were employed as an actor and played a character in a play.)