Cornelius was too young to know he was auditioning for the role. Or, being auditioned, you could say. How much control does an 8 year-old have over their life, anyways? But he once he got it, he started to catch onto the fact that his world was open to opportunities unimaginable to him before. He got to travel to all 7 continents, learn all kinds of skills and hobbies, meet experts in almost any area of human endeavor you could think of. All because he had become an actor.
The problem is- he's 34 now and trapped in a combination of all the roles he ever played. It's like one day he just forgot he was an actor. You might think, what's the big deal? He might be faking, or, 'hell snap out of it, eventually'. Well, it's been years and his family still hasn't seen that look in his eyes or the sound of his voice that tells him that their son, their brother, their friend, their partner is still in there. It seems odd to compare his condition to dementia or Alzheimer's, but in the most theatrical and dramatic of ways, it feels kind of the same.
"All the world's a stage and all of us but players" a certain Shakespeare wrote. For Cornelius, this was quite literal, as he was in constant performance of plot twists, character developments, climaxes; not to mention changes in accent and manner of walking and carrying himself, in general. He followed no script and if one were to document his dramatic life, it would hardly follow the schemes of theater or film that have been analyzed by critics and theorists for hundreds of years.
But oh, is he fun to be around.
For the vast majority of people living in this drab world of routine, desolation, redundance, and misery- for most of us, Cornelius throws us into a state of improvisation, where we are forced to contend with the possibility that maybe we've just been playing the wrong role, all this time, in our life.
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