As a filmmaker, a storyteller, drama is a major constant in my life.  I seek it out, I work to understand it, to exploit and define it; but most of all I work to avoid it.  I am a senior high school English and Media Production teacher – I see and hear drama virtually every single day.  I am also a happily married father of two children in elementary school – drama is a daily occurrence.  My life experiences work their way into the stories that I tell and the way in which I tell them.  Drama, in story form, is constructed to test and grow characters through situations that need to be overcome.

The same could be said of real life, that we learn and grow from situations that need to be overcome in our lives – after all, art imitates life as life imitates art.  With that being said, let me reiterate that I work to avoid it.  That is to say that drama for the sake of drama, in storytelling or life, is hollow and ultimately a waste of time.  We’ve all seen a movie or TV show, read a book, played a video game, or whatever medium we choose to experience a story through, and felt cheated and unsatisfied from forced drama.

In the same way, whenever drama is manufactured in our lives there can be no satisfying outcome.  We are unlikely to finish a story with unfounded drama, so why do we often stick with it in our lives?  The solution seems easy enough – in the same way that we are inclined to walk away from a story that creates meaningless drama, so should we from situations in our lives that do the same.  Of course, it is our life; we are more invested and not prone to “give up” for fear of a perception of failure.  However, the resonating lack of truth still remains the same.

There can be no satisfying outcome when there is no rational relevance in the conflict.  As a practice, I strive to embrace drama through growth while working to avoid it in my life and my creative efforts.  Life is growth and growth is a dramatic endeavor that is a powerful, often painful experience.  Drama, conversely, is numbingly static and unwarranted.

Character growth, whether it be fictional or not, is the true essence of drama.