All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts[...] W. Shakespeare (from As You Like It)

This quote, from one of Shakespeare's three main comedies, has been my constant companion since I was finishing high school, trying to figure out my future. Yes, Shakespeare was a timeless genius who composed countless texts of all varieties, and I absolutely adore him for that, but nothing from his or anyone else's work comes close to the relevance of this simple beginning of a monologue.

From the first time I stood on stage, I knew that it was the closest I could personally get to complete relaxation. It's the place where my entire being needs to work together to bring the author's or director's fantasy as close to reality as possible, for the people in front of me. And for me, that clarity takes away all the anxieties that follow me in my daily life. But when I looked at the bigger picture of my life, I knew that if I simply chose to follow that moment, I would never feel fully satisfied or complete.

That is why I turned to the meaning this Shakespeare quote holds for me: creating every moment in life as your own stage, using your whole being to attempt to bring your belief, your fantasy, to the people around you. The only thing one needs to follow that path, besides a love for acting, is a personal vision, a fantasy towards which you build your life.

Even though a big part of me wanted to follow my greatest passion and step onto a lifelong path of achieving greatness on stage, I realized that it would not be enough, and that making a living from it would slowly chip away at my love for theater. But due to my affinity for understanding the world and the people in it, the path of facilitation and work in policy- and politics-adjacent areas started to appear ahead of me. An extremely intense but rewarding first-hand experience with facilitation and project management in the European Youth Parliament, a good background-building academic life studying International Relations, and a great creative outlet in the biggest Slovene amateur theater proved to be the perfect combination to set me on my way.

I don't want to lose the thread of this blog by going into the details of that path, but rather use this as an opportunity to explore what makes acting and facilitating such a great combination. While I know the general premise I've laid out above is promising, I can't help but feel it carries a hint of fraud. A bit of a twist on "the ends justify the means" with a flavor of "pretend to be what you need to be to get it done." So, my informal question for this blog is: How can we be good actors in life — on stage or in facilitation — while staying true to ourselves?”

This first takes me to the most common misconception: acting is about becoming someone else. Of course, in extreme cases, actors play psychopaths, murderers, real historical figures, etc., and (usually) actors aren't actually psychopaths or share the DNA of some historical figures. Regardless, acting is, in my opinion, about finding as much of the role you're playing within yourself, and then filling in the missing parts with the help of acting techniques and experiences.

That is why, even when you look at Meryl Streep or Tom Hanks, who are extremely versatile in their abilities, you will always find something unique to them that travels with them throughout their roles. In this way, facilitating—or any other act of being an "actor" in real life— isn't, and shouldn't be, about pretending or lying about who you are to others. It's about versatility and flexibility: adapting to the situation and to the people around you.

But then it's also about knowing the limits. In theater, it's the story, the script, that shows you the boundaries of what your character will do. The author of the text decides what happens, and the director of the play helps you figure out how you'll do it. You just do it. If it says you deceive someone, that's what happens. If it says you fall in love, you're in love. But in real life, you have the dangerously fascinating combination of all these roles. And if you get sucked into ambition, desire, or any strong emotions, your inner author and director can make your actor start playing dangerously big roles, intended to manipulate or fool others. We all probably know people who are great actors in life and take their act a step too far. You can see in their eyes that every breath they take, every move they make, is calculated to manipulate, most of the time, not even intentionally.

In the end, I want to draw a direct comparison to the art of facilitation. Rule number one of facilitation is not to influence the content of your group's work. You help them become a good team, outline the path they will take, and help them retain as much of the new knowledge as possible, but you don't decide what they should do or change. And a good "actor in life" finds their limit right there: helping themselves feel more comfortable, seeing the world as a challenge of fitting slight variations of themselves to each situation, but not going too far and starting to manipulate those around them.

Don't be afraid to discover the many versions of yourself and to adapt to those around you—if your intentions are true, you'll never be a fraud, but rather a versatile actor in life.