ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in this book. The book explicits what dramaturgs understand as an important connection between the artistic practice of the theatre and the loftiest ideals of humanist thought. When the theatre generates an appropriate affect, Lessing argued, the audience can be inspired to feelings and values that comprise the best aspects of the human experience. In Lessing's view, to be truly human is to be free to move intellectually as well as physically through the world in the pursuit of truth, and this perpetual quest generates deep empathy for fellow humans. As Lessing also argued, monsters in the theatre can, if used judiciously, amplify the capacity to draw empathy from the audience. Each person who dreams a monster ought to recognize both the other and the self within it, and thereby witness the self in the other, and the other in the self.
