Eliza Knode, one of our Season 45 Resident Actors, recently shared with us her personal reflection on how the power of live theatre has impacted her life and has given her a sense of place and home. Here is in her own words below:
As the daughter of a diplomat, I had quite a unique childhood. I was born in Malaysia, then moved to Japan, Hungary, Long Island, and Brazil. This made the question, “Where are you from?” pretty complicated to answer, however, this upbringing allowed me to create wonderful alternate versions of home, such as the theatre.
My parents introduced me to theatre because I was a wild child that needed to release a lot of sporadic energy and because they loved the theatre as well. My dad was like Troy Bolton in High School Musical–he played basketball in the fall and performed musicals in the spring! My mom loved to sing and was led from the choir room to the stage. They met at university doing a show together, and while neither of them considered the arts professionally, their love for theatre is what brought them together.
Moving frequently to drastically different places as a child had its challenges. It was hard to uproot the relationships built in one place and have to start all over again, not to mention having to learn the social rules to engage with different cultures or attempting to learn new languages to try and communicate with people. But somehow, by some sort of magic, when I did theatre those struggles all faded away.
In order to put on a show you have to dive head first into working with other people. So when I moved somewhere new, I would do theatre so that I could immediately find community. Throughout the years I tried a couple of other activities, but I always found myself gravitating back to the theatre because of the people.
Theatre people are creative! We explore how to communicate using different mediums like song, dance, dialogue, etc. As a child It didn’t matter so much that I was surrounded by cultures that were foreign to me because I had learned how to communicate through communal things like music and movement. I found I was able to express myself and better understand others too.
Theatre people are empathetic! We spend our time immersed in others’ stories and living in various character’s shoes. We often have to embody people who are very different from ourselves. I’ve learned in order to do this, one has to start by finding the parallels between their life and their character’s life, and when things diverge, you imagine things from the character’s perspective given the context (whether provided by the script or via your imagination) of their life story. Theatre allows me to practice this in a fictional setting, but as a child it provided a beautiful lesson on how to connect with different people in my real life from different cultures.
I’m now addicted to collaborating with people and making stories together, and so that’s why I am here at Charleston Stage today. I am so grateful to have found another home at this theatre to create meaningful art with other passionate, creative, and empathetic theatre artists.
Eliza is a recent graduate of the University of Miami with a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre. Some of her previous credits include Into the Woods (Witch), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helena), and 9 to 5 (Roz). Eliza has lived in Malaysia, Japan, Hungary, Brazil, and is very excited to make Charleston her next home! She would like to extend gratitude to her teachers, friends, and family around the globe who support her. Website: https://elizadknode.wixsite.com/mysite / Instagram: @eliza.knode