About Hat Day

Wear a hat on November 6th in honor of the life and work of Mark Hunter

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There are times, sitting in a darkened theatre, when my powers of perception, my very senses are heightened, and I feel myself expanding with a sense of possibility, a sudden alertness to that which is, to that which will-or might-be. I see. I hear. And my seeing and hearing are linked to my breathing-and to my awareness of the breath that charges me. Inhale. Oxygen bubbles ride my bloodstream to a synaptic fireworks display. Colors are more vivid, vibrating. Emotions seem full and fleshy. Vision is a paradoxical portal- broadening the field before me while refining the focus at the center of the darkness. My skin is alive, bristling, prepared. My fingers flex. I hear the insistent murmur of coded communications, full of nuance and the pleasures of subtlety. I hear the underscoring of ambient sound. Exhale. Astonishment fills the cavities left vacant by air expelled. Associations flash; connections link; juxtapositions jostle for attention and compete for primacy. I am immersed in complex layers of conjured collages, some burning brightly on the plate of memory, others effervescent, that will resist recall or replication. Neural pathways are bright with activity, and I glide on tiny ripples of rapture. I am on the edge of my seat. I watch and listen and breathe some more. For me, this is the experience of theatrical wonder. And while some of its physical manifestations may be peculiar to me, I believe it is an experience whose fundamental characteristics I share, at least on occasion, with other spectators.

I define theatrical wonder as the experience by a theatrical spectator, during a performance, of a sense of awe and aesthetic appreciation that is coupled with deep feeling and a sense of expanded possibility. It is a phenomenon that, for me at least, happens rarely, but is always accompanied by an acknowledgement that in the experience of it, I have engaged something profound and powerful beyond the confines of its temporal boundary.

(From 'Theatrical Wonder' by Mark Hunter, 2005)

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