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 the three main Shakespeare comedies, has been my constant companion since I was finishing high school, trying to figure out my future. Yes, Shakespeare was a timeless genius composing 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.

Since my first time standing on the stage, I knew that it was the closest I could personally get to complete relaxation. It is the place where my entire being needs to work together, to bring the author's director's fantasy as close to reality as possible, for the people in front of me. And to me, that clarity takes away all of my anxieties that follow me in my daily life. But when I would look at the big picture of my life, I knew that if I simply chose to follow that moment, I would never feel satisfied and complete. That is why I turned to the meaning that this Shakespeare's quote has for me – creating every moment in your life into your stage, using your whole being to attempt to bring your belief, your fantasy, to the people that surround you. The only thing one needs to follow that path, besides a love for acting, is your fantasy towards which you are building your life.

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

I don't want to lose my thread of this blog, going into the details of this path, but rather use this as an opportunity to discover within me what makes acting and facilitating such a great combination. While I know the general premise I set out above is promising, I can't help but feel it promotes fraud. A bit of a play on the "ends justify means" with a "pretend to be what you need to be, to get it done" flavour. 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, that acting is becoming someone else. Of course, in the extreme cases, actors play psychopaths, murderers, real people, etc., and (usually) actors aren't actual psychopaths or have the same DNA as some historic figure. Regardless, acting is, in my opinion, finding as much of the role you are playing within yourself and then filling 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, and travel with them throughout their roles. In this way, facilitating or any other act of being an actor in real life is not and should not be about pretending and lying about what you are to others. It is about versatility and flexibility, adapting to the situation and the people around you.

But then it is also about knowing the limits. In theatre, it is the story, the script, that shows you the limits of what your character will do. The author of the text decided what you will do and the director of the play helped you figure out how you will do it. You just do it. If it says you deceive someone, that's what happens. If it says you fall in love, you are in love. But in real life, you have the dangerously fascinating combination of all these roles. And if your get sucked into ambition, desire or any strong emotions, your author and director will 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. Where you can see in their eyes that every breath they take, every move they make, they do it to manipulate, most of the time, not even intentionally.

In the end, I want to make a direct comparison with the art of facilitation. Rule number one of facilitation is to not influence the content of your group's work. You help them become a good team, help them outline the path they will take, help them retain as much of the new knowledge they got, but you do not decide what they should do or change. And a good "actor in life" finds his limits exactly there. Helping himself feel more comfortable, sees the world as a challenge of fitting slight variations of himself to the situations, but not going too far and starting to manipulate those around you. Do not be afraid to discover the many versions of yourself and adapt to those around you—if your intentions are true, you will never be a fraud, but rather a versatile actor in life.