My wife and I collect masks. We try to buy at least one mask each time we visit a foreign country or get to know a new kind of people. We recently bought a mask in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The mask is colorful with peacock feathers, symbolizing the party, Carnaval, a festival that occurs in late February. I served my mission among the Brazilian people and I know that the mask we bought does not remind me of the Brazilian people I have come to love. It does, though, represent a people who drastically change their lifestyle to party for a week during Carnaval.
As I was reading about Greek theater a few things stood out. The first was their use of only male actors, playing all parts, male, female or otherwise. The second part that stood out to me was the way they use masks. In the assigned reading for tomorrow's class it said that "actors would simply change masks and could appear" as many different roles in the same play. Each mask is designed to give off a different impression. The mask served to transform the person wearing the mask into another character altogether. The face is by far the most recognizable part of the body and so when we change the face, the person changes altogether. Change to another part of the body, such as the foot would hardly go unnoticed. In fact, many tragedies outfitted their actors all with the same pair of boots, regardless of their roles. "Tragic actors also wore special boots called cothurni or "buskins" in English. These low boots were generic foot coverings and anciently had neither a right foot or a left foot." It is remarkable to think about how much we depend on the face to tell us about a person, what he or she is saying and how he or she is feeling. Through our faces we have the opportunity to communicate who we really are. We have the ability to accurately portray our thoughts and feelings. We also can use our face to disguise our true identity and create a new character altogether, the same as what happened over and over again in Greek tragedy.
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