Of Stages and Silence
1 In the beginning, the people gathered where voices could be heard without permission.
2 The stage was bare, and the soul was not.
3 Actors bled safely, so the crowd could heal honestly.
4 No screen stood between the watcher and the wound.
5 The poor sat beside the rich, and grief did not check purses at the door.
6 Laughter rang without algorithm, and tears fell without shame.
7 This was not distraction, but rehearsal for being human.
8 Then convenience was crowned king.
9 Stories were flattened, bottled, sold, and replayed until they meant nothing.
10 The witness was replaced with the spectator.
11 The risk was removed, and with it, the transformation.
12 Theatre became elite, not because it rose but because the people were pushed out.
13 Rent rose. Time vanished. Joy was scheduled and priced.
14 The poor were told it was not for them.
15 The brave were told it was embarrassing.
16 The sincere were told it was obsolete.
17 And so the people forgot how to sit together in the dark and feel without armor.
18 Yet the hunger remains.
19 Every crowd still longs for a voice that dares to tremble in public.
20 Wherever one person speaks truth aloud and another listens fully, the stage returns.