“When artists give form to revelation, their art can advance, deepen and potentially transform the consciousness of their community.” ~ Alex Grey
Words that Nudged History
George Byatt was born in Scotland on April 30th, 1923. Not one of our most famous playwrights, I want to acknowledge him as someone whose work influenced and honored others in ways that ripple outward. Byatt ran a bookstore, wrote for television, and wrote eight plays for the stage—each an experiment in dramatic form. He was also a firm believer in the value of collaboration:
He believed that no one person could be the author of a dramatic work. One of his well-used phrases was “co-operative creativity''.1
I encourage you to read the entirety of Tim Conti’s tribute in The Herald, written on the occasion of Blyatt’s death in 1996. I believe Conti’s homage is proof that fame is not the measure of significance.
“Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.” -Terrence Mann
Dear Reader,
I’ve spent an hour trying to track down the context for this quote and attribution—with no luck. I think Terrence Mann was talking about an actor’s craft in this quote, but I honestly believe that theatre’s unique circumstances make us all “good” in other ways.
I’m very much an adherent of Jerzy Grotowski’s views on theater, and I love the delicious irony that he (being an example of the kind of hands-on directing that distinguishes “auteur” theater) said that the only essential in theater is the actor/audience relationship. I agree that, in the moment, the breathing actor (in character) and the audience can create a transformative space. But so much more goes into making it possible.
While I would say film and television collaborations are like exquisite corpses2 (the actors performing within a framework defined by a director, whose work is passed off to series of editors, etc.), the stage presents us with immediate life: Frankenstein’s ephemeral creature. There’s no polishing jagged edges: the good, the ugly, the human bits and pieces.
I’ve sometimes wondered if theatre has a tendency to show us more complex characters and more subtle stories, not because film audiences don’t want to see them, but because having a breathing body in the room naturally connects with our empathy for other living beings? The living being insists on our consideration of an unappealing point of view.
Isn’t this why it’s difficult to marry spectacle with the subtlety of an interior drama? A matter of being near enough to observe the breath? The life? Not limited to our senses of vision and hearing?
Grotowski moved the audience from their traditional seats, moving them to an elevated position, or uncomfortably close to the protagonist. He, and then the directors of the New York Avantgarde theaters, intentionally played with the audience’s proprioception—with relation to the room, in relationship to the actors/characters. In relationship with one another.
I’ve been on leave from teaching for a year now. The timing was frustrating. After two very difficult years, I was thrilled to be working with a class of students who were (are) uniquely inspiring in my decades of teaching. I like to think I have a lot to give my students, but the truth is, I always learn more from them than they learn from me. I’m still growing—though sometimes almost grudgingly—still making an embarrassing number of mistakes, still trying to turn each regret into a new signpost to pay attention to when the next class comes along.
So when I say I learned a lot from this class, it’s more than an admission of failure. It’s a good thing. Beckett entirely out of context: “Try again. Fail again. Fail Better.”
Yesterday I saw the students’ final production, and I was struck by how much I missed this year. The leaps they’ve made in terms of their professionalism, their skills, their collaborative results. I’ve been asking myself if I would have seen it as clearly had I been closer to them during their process? Is this a different kind of privilege—seeing from this vantage point in the stalls?
I celebrate the influence and the work their teachers have put in during my absence. The quality of the production doesn’t surprise me in the least. What surprises me, is that I haven’t learned any less from these students’ progress. And I’m grateful for this little epiphany.
I never thought I was indispensable, but I did think the privilege of learning/growing was tied to being a part of the process. But here was a piece of theater, and the people who made it, helping me—as an audience member—be a better person.
I don’t know if it’s true that all the world’s a stage, but it’s certain we’re all in the drama’s splash zone.
the final act without longing ... not because of anything
other than that the play was not written
skillfully ...
Chaos
as in the war days of those in despair, and an autobiography
of the spectators’ impulse. The actors were tearing up their scripts
and searching for the author among us, we the witnesses
sitting in our seats
I tell my neighbor the artist: Don’t draw your weapon,
and wait, unless you’re the author!
—No
Then he asks me: And you are you the author?
—No
So we sit scared. I say: Be a neutral
hero to escape from an obvious fate
He says: No hero dies revered in the second
scene. I will wait for the rest. Maybe I would
revise one of the acts. And maybe I would mend
what the iron has done to my brothers
So I say: It is you then?
He responds: You and I are two masked authors and two masked
witnesses
I say: How is this my concern? I’m a spectator
He says: No spectators at chasm’s door ... and no
one is neutral here. And you must choose
your part in the end
So I say: I’m missing the beginning, what’s the beginning?
(More) Theater
There’s a reason so many universities have changed the degree from Theatre to Performing Arts. Actually, I am sure there are many reasons, but one of the issues with “Theater” is that, by definition, it’s a primarily Western European and Eastern Asian phenomenon. (Feel free to correct me with references. I’ve been searching for references for Latin American and African theater predating colonisation for a long time.) Drama is not synonymous with Theater, which literally means the place from which to observe. Grotowski defined theater as (A) an actor, performing (B) a character for (C) an audience. (When Grotowski took away C, and eventually B, he called the resulting performances paratheater.)
Drama is the action observed by an audience. But so many rich, wonderful performance traditions have existed around the world, without designating a need for an “audience”: no one escapes drama entirely.
I have absolutely no expertise in this area, but believe that the way physical theater companies employ the body, often freeing the performance space from theatrical traditions as well, gives us a way to transcend language-barriers and open our personal borders. I believe it’s why the theater of the European continent is more physical than theater in the UK or US.
I’m unable to travel for a while yet, but would very much like to see the touring show “Rewind” by UK’s Ephemeral Ensemble:
If anyone gets the opportunity to see this, please send me little summary!
As always, I hope these sparked some ideas, and I welcome your thoughts.
Have a great week!
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“A game in which each participant takes turns writing or drawing on a sheet of paper, folding it to conceal his or her contribution, and then passing it to the next player for a further contribution.” https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/exquisite-corpse#:~:text=A%20game%20in%20which%20each,player%20for%20a%20further%20contribution.
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I agree that I learned more from my students than they learned from me. I love that Beckett quote even taken out of context.