ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some other perspectives to fuel actor's aspirations, whether they eventually want to become a professional actor or whether they simply enjoy performing as a part of human development. It looks at four socio-cultural identities: magician, storyteller, healer and social-changer. Early human beings could only imagine what the controlling forces of the universe might be. And the first way of fathoming those intangible forces was to manifest them in recognisably human form. Another way of making sense of the cosmos was to visualise the forces of nature as physicalised beings in their own rights. The Barong Dance of Bali is a masked fight between good and evil, accompanied by intensive drumming. Whether historical, autobiographical or fictional, solo storytelling is unlike any other kind of acting, and many famous actors have grasped the nettle – including Dario Fo in his own Mistero Buffo and Lily Tomlin in The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe.
