Act I -  It Is You

The stage is set the moment you step on the tarmac. No, not the tarmac, but the vaguely threatening square frame that will take you from the airport to the baggage claim and eventually to the tarmac, where you hail a cab or board a bus or meet a familiar face and you are suddenly elated to be in the city. It is the conglomerate entity that everyone refers to as a singular mass although morphologically it is anything but that. You have already started to redefine yourself as urban, you have begun the process of slowly discarding any coat or aspect of identity that would betray your earlier life, especially something embarrassing like being from a less exciting, slower and by assumption drearier setting. And in that process of molting your layers, dear caterpillar, your performance has begun.

The cities of today, more than ever before, are about their publics. A New Yorker or a Londoner is as much a sampling of the city’s flavor as say the Empire State building or the Big Ben. The buildings of the past and present are merely props that the individual uses to brag about their personal stories. In fact, any one of them would attest to being present when that last brick was laid on that iconic structure. The one you have been dreaming of taking a selfie in front of all your life. Sure the ‘public’ seems theatrical now but you are on your way to becoming one of them. And the theoretical backing to your being cast in this role is sound and logical.