Esse quam videri

Esse quam videri: To be, not to seem. Cicero wrote this in his essay, "On Friendship," and it is the Berklee College of Music motto, emblazoned on visually stunning posters we have around. For a long time, I've pondered this phease's meaning, and mynthoughts have led me to more questions than answers. These questions formed the course I proposed for the National Endowment for the Humanities Enduring Questions grant, and now I invite you to explore what it means to be, what it means to be rather than seem in performance-- both on stage and in everyday life--and what being and seeming might mean in our age of media culture and increasing technological illusion. I also invite you to form your own questions, raised when you consider, "What Is Being?"