Picture yourself after a long day, completely exhausted, stressed from your long day, wanting nothing more than to run away from your responsibilities and enter another world completely.

Meet my friend, musical theatre.

You're given a physical place to go: the theater.

Included in your ticket price is a comfortable, padded seat and a view of something truly spectacular. You can visit the African savanna, see into the mind of an anxious teenager, or travel to Canada and see what 9/11 was like from an outsider's point of view. All of that is brought to you through the power of lights, props, and one brilliantly talented set designer.

You get to experience the magic of storytelling.

We all have that voice in our head that narrates our life for us. Imagine that voice being set to music. That's how stories are told in musicals. Music is a universal language that ties us together, and the music in a show is no difference. Different characters allow their inner monologues to be heard through song, and sometimes, they can really hit home for an audience member.

The outside world slips away.

As the lights go down and the curtain goes out, the outside world seems light-years away. You have now entered a completely different world and you allow yourself to be so invested in the lives of people you haven't met. But the different between a performance and a book is that you don't have to make up what it looks like. And the difference between a performance and a movie is that you can touch the people; they're real, right before your eyes.

I've been on and off the stage. I've drifted away from the things I've learned after many years of toe-tapping, spacing, and music rehearsals time and again. But I always come back to it. Because nothing can touch you in a theater. You enter a world entirely your own, one you can craft how you want.

All you need is words on the page. The power to bring them to life is within you.