ABSTRACT
The roots of Western acting track back 6,000 years, to the time when there were nomadic tribes following the herds in Mesopotamia. The shaman would put on a mask, maybe paint himself blue, draw a circle in the dirt, and the tribe would gather round. The point of the whole exercise was to give the members of the tribe hope, cohesiveness. We humans act to survive, and it is essential that we do not give up. We must get the next generation of humans into the pipeline, or we will go the way of dinosaurs. There were 10 tribes and they were no longer nomadic. Around 500 BCE, one of the members of the chorus stepped out, put on a mask and pretended to be the god. That person's name was Thespis, and that is where the English word "thespian" originates.
