if . . .

the invisible actor

2012-02-01T03:14:00.002-06:00

There once was a woman who spent a long time backstage. She had no reason for doing this, other than she was weary, and sadly she was even more weary backstage, which is dark and consists mainly of scenic flats and props made to look real but are illusions.

One day she noticed a spotlight in the corner and decided to plug it in. A beam of gold light shot across the stage. A group of actors flinched and shielded their eyes, a director shouted, a stage manager came running and stage hands appeared as if from nowhere thrashing about in the dark as if a fire alarm had sounded and they were seeking the exit. All stopped in front of the light.

Dust particles danced in the beam and a moth wildly fluttered trapped eventually exploding nearing the heat of the light. Someone pulled the plug and backstage returned to its weary dark illusions.

She thought about crying or maybe screaming but was too weary and besides she found herself onstage only no one could see her. It was as if she were a ghost. No, not a ghost because some people claim to see ghosts and she was invisible.

She had always known that things backstage were expected to be invisible until they were on stage when they were expected to visibly perform their function. Now she was onstage and she concluded her function was to be invisible.

She crossed upstage to downstage. She liked being invisible. I mean wouldn't you if you could have the chance, at least for a short time. She began to follow an actor. A particularly older person who had no lines and was silently involved in the scene. This actor was inaudible and she was invisible. She was the invisible actor and she thought, " Now what?"

In any event she was no longer weary.

:: Note :: ...

after anti-acting

2012-01-24T01:37:00.001-06:00

"After Stanislavsky, acting was changed; after Meyerhold, directing; after Brecht, playwriting. But after Grotowski?" - Richard Schechner

Life is acting. Do we understand that? Do we want to understand that.

But what, in us, questions life is acting? What disputes that, despite everything?

That we think thought is life. The most important thing is that our experiences reveal we are acting all the time. That when we feel we do not act we do not live. That we want nothing more than to live.

We act. But we do not know that we act. We do not live. But we do not know that we do not live.

Actors train to act. Actors keep the life of wanting to act. Of wanting to be in the living action.

But how do we act? And why do we care about acting?

Somehow, we have a real relationship to questions on acting, of living. Somehow, those questions mean something to all of us.

We do not know what acting means.We experience not acting but the impossibility of acting. Not living, but the impossibility of living. We experience acting in the possibility of the experience of the impossibility of the living action. Not living, but the impossibility of the experience of the impossibility of non living.

:: Note :: ... what is that ...

occupy anti-acting

2012-01-21T13:38:00.000-06:00

There once was an actor who was different from all other actors. Unlike them, there wasn't a consciousness of acting. The character thing-in-itself was as unknowable on stage as it was unknowable in the phenomenal world.

The moment other actors entered the contours of a character it was as though they would test a possession and leave the limits of empirical knowing. Then when they exited they would return to a state of self consciousness as though they were who they lived to occupy.

But this particular actor had no awareness of a playing self-possession, no awareness of a living presence, of exiting and entering and Instead would play each and every moment in a single life occupying stream.

So for a long time when entering the character everything would simply move in a stronger current, and then, in what seemed like the next moment, would return to a slower flow with little idea of what had happened other than this intense sense of dispossession and unknowing because of course there was no way of knowing what was an actor, and who could act, and what was an action, and that this was how the self=thing-in-itself which had come to be what it was: a naturalist assuming the posture of being the spirit and “carrier” of culture who is nothing but “represents” almost everything, playing and “substituting”.

:: Note :: ... just too much fun in making non sense ... as always there is a template ... check out helicopter by Michael Barrish who i am so glad is blogging again ...

North of Sleep

2012-01-07T01:23:00.000-06:00

North of Sleep

At night,

my body is a compass
swinging to every direction:

past borderlands,

the ruins of unknown,

empty streets

en route

to elsewhere,

slipping into rooms

where bearings

jolt me to a

wakefulness of frigid air

and dormant train tracks

wait to halt traffic

twice a day.

By morning,

I approach nausea,
relentless calls

to speak some truth,
a light with no shadow

but a heaviness.

The howl, dragged

from northern lights
I couldn’t even understand.

I stop, let my soul

go on ahead.

Show me.

(Shouting now.)

Show me.

(Frightened now.)

The flaked ceiling points

to a bitten fingernail scratch

throwing grief across the back

as a one perfect window

diffuses time.

Noodles & coffee:

in a fractal tell a

haunting dirty knot

of restless

grime & eyes

bleeding in dreams

of forest.

Rise blind.

Reset automatically

to metabolism

& panic.

A syncopated

hallucination.

:: Note :: ... watched lightening over water ... wondered on krapps last tape ... wanted to remember lear ... was the face of my mother ... 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 ... the year of the black dragon ... canada post stamp ...

epiphany

2012-01-06T01:28:00.000-06:00

:: Note :: ... anniversery ...

Jim Thompson

2012-01-04T14:53:00.000-06:00

:: Note :: ... a gentle soul was my uncle ... a thoughtful, caring individual who seemed to always be of service to the other ... my last image was of him talking to my son on a visit to Ottawa ... he had discovered Stefan's passion for history and listened to this teenager with attentiveness and respect ... before we left he gifted a book from his library ... other than his intense compassion & devotion to his family this was his deepest love - books: reading, researching, contemplating, collecting, challenging & most importantly sharing ... he was a bit of what I imagined 'a man of letters' and wrote letters to my mother which she treasured more than any jewlery ... she will miss those words in meticulous handwriting ... we will miss his gentle caring soul ... in our thoughts we will receive his letters as he writes them from another place than the place of actuality ...

tired

2011-12-11T00:13:00.001-06:00

Voices scramble thoughts all over the forehead

Like a kool aid rash from hair dying.

What can you tell from fallen locks

Collected and wrapped in prayer flags

Storied at the feet of marriage storks?

Will they take on some meaning?

The silly looks, smiles and smirks reveal nothing.

A black toque hides,

The altar carefully kept to honor

Nothing less than a life of sand and ash.

I am tired, beloved, of opening my heart

To the want of eyes,

Vibrating fully into empty space

Marking time.

I rub the darkness alone, here, under

the cracking plaster of the cold.

:: Note :: ... tired ...

four recurring dreams

2011-12-10T22:48:00.001-06:00

I am lost in a foreign city. Usually the city is in a state of ruin. Though I meet people from my long ago past am unable to find my way & never make it to the airport. The panic wakes me up.

My university degree is revoked as it is discovered I neglected to hand in a required essay.

My car is broken into and ransacked.

I'm mortally sick unable to die.

:: Note :: ... after a four year absence Oblivio: Stories and such by Michael Barrish returns ... in the early days of blogging before twitter & facebook and the whole notion of social media he was a favourite ... his quirky humour & wit, clean & minimal look with what I believed to be a deeper sense of purpose inspired me ... the reason I love a good rss reader is a subscription may lie dormant for years & suddenly come to life ... as in the past Four Recurring Dreams inspired this post of mine ... I missed you Michael ... much like the etymology of Oblivio & much like Forgetfulness from Idiotic Hat: Tales told by an Idiot ...

The Hollow Men

2011-11-11T20:36:00.001-06:00

:: Note :: ... have always been fascinated with T. S. Eliot & Apocalypse Now ... thanks VorthosForum ...

How tundra came.

2011-10-19T22:24:00.000-06:00

A wintastery
Rice paper lanterns float
on cascading milky ways.

Thoughts stand frozen

like star prints
in the meridian.

On the glacier
under the snow – the bones
were crackling with the wind.

Memories drift from
the gauze of moonbeams –
like a veiled volcano.

Sleeping in the sparkling.
There, I buried –
forgotten in the frostline.

Sharp claws of black

scratch the surface –

a curious rejection.

Roused from dream.

I met an immense shadow

in a pair of eyes.

These meetings

set out under ice

flows inside out.

You see me
I see you
another no other.

III

Go quiet as breath,

toward the density.

Troubles are a search.

I hear the lament -

the ballad of yesteryear.

The red rhythm beats

La neige blues meet

We all fall down.

I have been there -

lying in times past

gradient back traces.

The ice fields open

and he doesn't see me.

This shimmer.

Something has happened.

The moon lights up the sky.

We knew about it.

Hear the silence.

I hum a secret, to reach

all the way in there.

A vibration of the heart

What a strange calm -

the inner pulse.

:: Note :: ... describing the birth of a work in ways of associology ...

For the You & Tundra

2011-10-18T22:47:00.000-06:00

Poster by Lindsey Rewuski

:: Note :: ... a training turned performance ... performed by Kristen Holfeuer & Jules Mercier | Music by Matt Voyno | Directioned by Raymon Montalbetti ... YouTube montage of For the You ... FaceBook Event Page ...

Associology

2011-10-16T00:53:00.000-06:00

Drama of Associology

a statement

Associology is not a discipline. It is the evidence of a drama.

Drama is a relationship. The relationship is ongoing. Associology is an act of devotion in the relationship.

I want to believe that in associology the act of drama is its own reward.

I want to believe the drama, when one devotes oneself to it, extends beyond the boundaries of drama.

I want to believe associology values inquiry over conclusion.

To attempt to be conclusive is to attempt to make dramas that are, in effect, statements.

Attempting to make a statement with associology undermines the idea that drama is a relationship.

These words are a statement and they are not associology.

:: Note :: ... statement heavily influenced by Douglas Witmer ... the idea of Associology came from supervalentthought :

A poetics of associology whose noise world sits me down in disbelief at the rare freedom of other people’s minds. Not because attention gets things right (any more than attachment guarantees love), and not because there’s always in operation productive energy that can never be tamed but because—in these poems, and for me–revolt requires curiosity, a tipping over on a verge.

Why write songs

2011-10-08T19:19:00.000-06:00

"What is it that makes you want to write songs? In a way you want to stretch yourself into other people's hearts. You want to plant yourself there, or a at least get a resonance, where other people become a bigger instrument than the one you're playing. It becomes almost an obsession to touch other people. To write a song that is remembered and taken to heart is a connection, a touching of bases. A thread that runs through all of us. A stab to the heart. Sometimes I think songwriting is about tightening the heartstrings as much as possible without bringing on a heart attack."

- (Life - Keith Richards)

:: Note :: ... seems like a good answer to What makes you want to create theatre? ... i enjoy reading musicians writing about themselves ....

Beginning Notes

2011-10-05T11:45:00.000-06:00

... reaching for a perception founded on the unexpressed emotion within an image ... moments of open beauty, solid emotional tones, symbolic substance, and inherent abstraction ...

“I prefer winter and fall, when you can feel the bone structure in the landscape---the lonliness of it---the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it---the whole story dosen't show.” ― Andrew Wyeth

:: Note :: ... working title Tundra ... joy of playing with Jules & Kristen ...

A Process

2011-09-08T21:36:00.001-06:00

The practice begins with the creation of personal material by freely improvising physical movements and vocal sounds until a clear physical and emotional association is established. A series of associations are then created. These associations are then individually refined to become as exact and repeatable as any structured movement. Once the association is refined it is called a Glyph. An aspect of Glyphs are they keep their improvised quality being immediate and may seem to the spectator to be created on the spot, but in fact are highly scored.

Upon creating a series of Glyphs, they are then put together in a larger sequence called a Petroglyph. The Petroglyph is a montage of physical and vocal scores (Glyphs) combined in such a way as to create an action. Shaping the Petroglyphs through pacing, duration, tempo and dynamics allows dramatic arcs to be rendered. The Petroglyphs are then aligned and rendered again into a piece with a rhythmic coherence. For the You is made up of four Petroglyphs.

The sequence of Glyphs & Petroglyphs, artifacts & environment help cultivate meaning. Ultimately the experience is completely objective. Like viewers of surrealist paintings meaning is created in disparate images presented by the artist.

The experience is, in part, fed by what is not given to the spectator. An important aspect of the work is the presence of the absence. Other characters, relationships, and outside forces are implied but never shown. A creature in a horror film is never shown but is made real by the imagination of the movie audience. The way I move or use voice or place the un-shown person/object in space with my eyes all create the presence of something that is actually absent. The beauty is we (performer & spectator) imagine something different: an objective experience, collectively. During the piece, the spectator’s imaginations fill in the blanks carefully crafted by the artist to create their own, individual stories. The spectator is a creative collaborator.

Text is used as a foothold throughout the piece as moments the audience can relax and receive apparent meaning so they are not relentlessly forced to create.

Humans naturally want to make sense of the world around them, to create reasons for actions and justify moments of seeming randomness. Association drama allows the spectator to create and removes the ego from the performer by displacing the act of telling the audience exactly how it should be. - Kristen

A path through the drama is an immersion and connection. What's it about? Where is it? These are not exactly the right questions. An entering deeply into relationship is a way of following. Surrounded by actions, associations all around touch and shape the territory. That's where you watch, isn't it? That's how and where you wonder? Everything you've seen you've seen from within the nature of the drama.
At every instance you expect what is hidden everywhere.
You know it because you are the story.
- raymon

:: Note :: ... this document was created from notes during the working process of For the You ... it was included on the back of the program ...

Temple Theatre

2011-09-07T00:24:00.009-06:00

Kristen Holfeuer / For the You / ᕦ
What happens when we remember?
What happens when we delve into the memories of others?

Are we entitled to the knowledge contained in the memories of those who came before us?

I don’t feel like this piece was created so much as remembered. If process, form, and content all inform one another, it is only right a piece about memory should be created by remembering and then shaped like memories floating (or sometimes hiding) in the brain.
- Kristen

... engages the ancestor, lets her speak giving back her voice. Tells a story to the ancestor in ourselves. For the lives of others to truly matter the ancestor must be encountered to open the present.

... Walter Benjamin in 'The Storyteller', "less an answer to a question than a proposal concerning the continuation of a story which is just unfolding."

... enlists the ancestor to an attentiveness that lives & moves from breath to breath, body to mouth, sound to word singing the world we carry. - Raymon

AeRan Jeong / Sori (Sound)
Pansori / Chunhyangga: story of love between Chunhyang, the daughter of a kisaeng, legally an entertainer of the government, required to perform various functions for the state and Yi Mongryong, the son of a magistrate.
Dongbaek taryong (Camellia Call): Minyo (Folk Song)
Pansori / Heungbuga: A story of Heungbu who was a poor but good man with many children.
Pahrongsae (Bluebird)
Pansori: The term pansori is derived from pan (판, meaning "a place where many people gather"), and sori (소리, meaning "sound").

Raymon Montalbetti / Delights
... meeting & meanderings in the cultural stream ... a tone poem following Grass Jelly, part one of meeting & meanderings ... a little bit like putting body memory back into cultural memory and likewise archiving the cultural memory back in the body - both of which tickle a bit.

Text: from The Story of the Mount Potala Delights verse 139, 140 & 141.
A Visionary Journey - Longchenpa
Translated and annotated by Herbert V. Guenther

We hope you enjoy.

:: Note :: ... All photos from a Rehearsal Shoot by b. proudlove ... presented on the evenings of Aug. 14 & Sept. 5.

drama path

2011-09-01T20:31:00.002-06:00

A path through the drama
is merely where the words aren't:
an immersion and connection.
What's it about? Where is it?
These are not exactly the right questions;
It is an entering deeply into relationship
that is the way of following.
It is surrounded by actions;
if it had a nature, it would be
the associations all around that touch
and shape the territory within it.
That's where you watch, isn't it?
That's how and where you wonder.
Everything you've seen you've seen from it.
At every instance you expect
what is hidden everywhere.
You know it because you are the story.

:: Note :: ...... apologies to Samuel Menashe Reeds Rise From Water & Crispin Sartwell (The Green door Issue 4 Here / Now / Here ...) ...

training

2011-08-02T22:52:00.008-06:00

" Training has always given me, to this day, a satisfaction - as if it appeased that part of my nervous system which has to do with rhythms. It's as if the rhythm of what they do and the way they do it, appeases, satisfies meets with the needs of that part of me which I call the animal, the nervous system: this has nothing to do with the creative force of a performance, in which the associative element is of paramount importance.

This training for me: a sort of symphony of similar tensions and I can immediately spot if these tensions are like gymnastics - if I see it and it doesn't speak to me, or if on the contrary it starts to arouse a part of my nervous system, is the only way I can explain it to myself.

All this was also an apprenticeship to a form of self discipline, being rigourous with oneself: don't settle for the first results, you have to continue and see what is beyond and when you meet a second result, you still have to go further ... it is a way of thinking which you can explain in words but that people can learn only when they are put in the condition to apply it for long, long months and years, only then it becomes an unconditional reflex." - Eugenio Barba

:: Note :: ... Eugenio Barba at minute five of the interview shares the above thoughts on training ... the entire interview is extremely worthwhile ... I love the ending ...

visionary journey

2011-07-31T23:37:00.007-06:00

Like a dream during your sleep at night,
At once understand as a certainty
That all the sundry notions you have are your own mind
Arisen from the sleep of ingrained tendencies.

Like clouds in the sky dissolving into the source from which
they have come,
At once understand as a certainty
That your ill-considered actions and emotions, your feelings
of happiness and sorrow,
Will submerge into the source from which they have
emerged.

Like a reflection appearing in a clear lake,
At once understand as a certainty
That all the sundry concrete things, although they appear so,
have no substantiality about them
But are the gigantic reflection of a nothingness that has and
is everything.

(from The Story of the Mount Potala Delights verse 139, 140 & 141.
A Visionary Journey - Longchenpa
Translated and annotated by Herbert V. Guenther
Shambhala Publications, Inc. 1989)

:: Note :: ... text for tone poem ... Part II of meetings & meanderings on the culture stream ...

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

2011-07-26T15:08:00.006-06:00

Then all i have to do is
recognize her, lifting

her voice in pansori with an
upward swing on the drum or

listen to murmurs of dictee
behind a seamless white scrim.

The endless culturation following
the gentle curve of the Han, a way

of grace to what is other
beyond measure. Reaching for

saskatoonberries little orchid,
maintain the heavenly blossoms.

Wholeness lost and wholeness regained.

:: Note :: ... "the perception of beauty is a moral test" sentence is a quote from Henry David Thoreau ...

Like the moon up there

2011-07-22T23:59:00.007-06:00

Early in the afternoon they were playing in the temple
They were looking forward to further dancingness and singingness.
They could find the presence of absence in the action of memory.
They might find timescapes to share.
Just beyond the industrial area they passed fire trucks and sirens,
gas stations, a car wash and a truck stop sprouting rubber hoses everywhere.
A girl carried an empty chair searching for the porch.
Feathers fell wavering to the carpet green.
The land was flat and ordered.
The streets were empty.
They sat against a wall of old Korean script beside the family of ten.
At the table behind a man wore a shirt calling for a revolution.
The rain fell off and on washing the earth never quite clean enough.
They returned home turning on the soft lights.
The closeness, the warmth, the silence of intimacy.
The sound of a drum, pansori and minyo.
Rich layers of traditional love chants.
Discordant harsh play lines recited from memory stacked over the carpet green.
The fullness and flowering would not leave.
Just before deep darkness
the ancestors rolled into the dreamtime with memories of sky flowers.

:: Note :: ... the years roll by ...

Falling, Slowing, Flying

2011-07-17T23:59:00.022-06:00

                                                           Today
all was usual                a hot July afternoon
there were streams of poplar seeds on side streets
he had been thinking about what she had said
                       What is not spoken is unspoken often

Cutting for more precision          on the index finger
the splinter                 could not be removed

He showed her in the shade to see her
reaction to what he had been thinking          the sun
against the cloudless sky
                      neither of them resting just yet

In the small park
it felt as if the earth opened for them
as they passed into the sky          he had to ask her
                     if this were flying or

Always having seen her walk
which set her to song          her voice as haunting
as her shining black hair               his gait as heavy

                                              The statue poised
the inscription          readable though weathered illegible away
the trees majestic         silent waiting on the edge
restless perpetrators        the heat        unwilling to relinquish

                                     Locked in world time zones
they talked and then fought and then talked
and fought and it was like that    relentless    rehearsed

She would appear central in his thoughts         then go off
on her own            meanwhile            everyone but themselves
continued planning                   cities far away

Eating ice cream            with plastic spoons
he had no idea             how to die             kept living
                        turning away from the air

I don't care            he lied            I know you do
she insisted         listen         just listen    yes and no
to change    it does matter into what

The longer one lived        the less it matters

A young family intruded             the baby
betrayed his eyes        he thought more about after
when a stenciled girl held a red helium heart
                 on the portal of hospice

They wore the scent of Paris burning

He drove         He said nothing         She in the backseat
He glanced between the houses catching the river

It was still         the canopy of foliage
forced him to look down
           he dared not share the tunnel of love

Her bags zipped shut full of yesterday's possessions
held the young child's question
                       How do you become a butterfly

When you want to fly so much you stop being a caterpillar

like hearing your name called in a place you had long forgotten

2011-07-14T21:57:00.003-06:00

The morning the gum surgery was scheduled
we waded through fields of mosquitoes & walked
the flats in rubber jackets & hiking boots mud heavy
with soaked & sloshed foot trodden soles.
From the lookout we saw glorious sandbars &
followed paths to whitecap along the Saskatchewan
while the silence healed the previous months hurt.
Eyes bathed in the bright yellow canola summoning
brilliance while the hay rolled under the power lines
acknowledging our own steady fault lines.
I saw the goldfinch flitting ahead his body a trace
against the sky, the heavy overcast clouds dispersed
bringing an even heavier drowsiness.
I have read the world to which this man really belongs
is far away through the fissures of dream
& I have climbed steps down to rivers and oceans
feeling winded & humbled and been glad of the green.

In every sense have I felt on good terms with a clod of
soil, an unknown song, the smell of sage.
I have been cordial to the grasslands windswept face
and the patience of horizons, though I have worn
the river on my back like a memory.
Lover be not acquiescent of your smile
expressing the depth of happiness and
expel the demons that haunt this plain.

having darkness

2011-07-09T22:58:00.019-06:00

No not a shadow.
Like having midday darkness at your back you can feel
but you can't see.

As if it were boring into your skull,
the shape of a recently vanished figure.
He is not living where he really lives.

The door leads into a hallway
and up the stairs with a sharp corner.

It's not that they shared the place long
but the cigarette smell stopped lingering.

There was only one door and it was magnificently quiet.

Looking behind requires no effort.

Came another with a feeling of dissonance,
almost as troublesome.

Not of being absent but building belonging.

They were drying the air shifting possessions
from one place to another.

They moved along nailing and staining
without agreements.

He desired to make an invisible room.

He left cans and crumbs scattered throughout.
There was his black cat jumping to the window sill
watching every move. Broke through the screen to escape,
returning when called.

A scheduled group came drifting in with stomps and grunts.

If this took place anywhere near an institution
it would be clearly terrifying.

This could be the reason he has started to scowl wanting to howl.

:: Note :: ... peace will come soon ...

Re: Survival, in pursuit thereof

2011-07-09T00:12:00.000-06:00

It is 2011, just before the thunderstorm.
Here I am, repairing, and I am bleeding.
I am located at the corner of alphabet village
at the bottom of the hill. I need your help. You will find me
surrounded by apartments, where the trees
tower especially silent during the day,
where shouts and cursing rubs the back alley.
We roam to make one another suspicious;
to fend from eyes that bring disease. We
are running on borrowed time, recycled filth in the
last cycle. Mouths open/shut.
We would be criminals to one another
stealing or scavenging. We would be sticky,
dirty and in vengeful stench. We would be lost or,
at least, struggling. Be hurt. Invisible
except to the most callous observer.
We will be sewer water. Potash tailings
of bleach. Collapsed lungs. No,
we must first collect. Be reused. Be taken apart.
Be lightning.

:: Note :: ... hovering before rising & falling ...

Re: Survival, in pursuit thereof

2011-07-09T00:07:00.004-06:00

condo ritual

2011-07-05T11:49:00.012-06:00

... one of my ritual summerl activities used to be gardening but ever since Mom sold the house it's been a simple condo balcony flower display ... have tried herbs but they don't seem to take ... the tomato plant she still receives from old neighbour Peterson thrives ... we'll see how things grow this season ...

... sure miss the raspberry bushes & the horseradish which was totally out of control ... oh yes & we always had to be careful with the zucchini or it would rule every spare space ... Mom loved the potatoes & beets ... she would go out daily for her lettuce, onion, chives & tomato salads ... mixed results with beans & peas ... we did well with carrots havesting them in the fall ... we got a couple of pumpkins for halloween ... tulips in the front were the first sign of spring & they were the first bulbs Stefan planted ...

... the honeysuckle climbed the fence ...

... we had these huge petunias, iris plants taken from Nana's place in Coleman, Alta. & of course the roses ... haven't passed through the Crowsnest Pass for a long time now seems it's time to ...

... still digging at the Temple ... only not gardens just trenches for weeping tile to prevent further basement flooding ... the Temple upkeep is relentless ... the roof is now fixed with no more leaking ... windows need some repair ... paint at the back ... new back door required ... ahhh ...

:: Note :: ... ... re-using forgotten (collective) memory-spaces ...

Kafka

2011-07-03T13:03:00.008-06:00

Kafka has a dear place in my history ...

... Metamophosis, read at age 13, was the first work of fiction that made sense of the nonsense I felt around me ... after reading decided to spend a whole day as a worm at the high school ... arms entwined, squiggling from class to class ... great fun ...

... an adaptation by Steven Berkoff of The Trial was the first mainstage university production I directed (Nov. - Dec. 1989) ... an exhilarating experience ... the students were thrown into a process of me sorting through my European studies ... the retiring stage designer for that show was cleaning up his office when he found the original Trial maquette offered it to me which i gladly accepted despite wishing to unload rather than collect stuff ... photo to the left is from Emry's Dreams: Greystone Theatre in Photographs and Words taken by David Maneville ...

... Kafka resides in the deep recesses of my memory haunting as he haunted the 20th century ... await his latest incarnation ...

:: Note :: ... this piece A Message from the Emperor in the N.Y. Review of Books loosened these memories ... Mark Harman in translators notes: "I was mindful of the fact that Kafka often read his stories aloud with the 'rhythmic sweep, dramatic fire, and a spontaneity such as no actor achieves' " (Max Brod) ... would have loved to have heard him read ...

Last Day

2011-07-01T10:36:00.009-06:00

... well as school concluded & report cards handed out in front of the school ...

... did I mention the whole basement flooded & my office, all costumes, props, sets, scripts, computers, filing cabinents with 25 years of teaching material were lost as well as the boiler room and all electricity ... apparently it flooded to a height of six feet busting through doors ... we're not allowed back into the school until mid-August ...

... well as school concluded so did a precious working relationship draw to a close ... for the last five years principal Chad has guided us through many a storm ... transformation from a mainstream high school of over 1,400 students to a inner city abode for just over 300 has been dramatic & challenging ...

... i met her when i was in grade 11 & she a grade 9 student ... our paths though varied have crossed often during the span of 42 years ... she retires today ... one of the best ... one of the extraordinary ... her last act was to give each of the staff a card of thanks ... each received their own message ... i quote mine ...

Well old friend, I wish you well. Working with you these past five years has been a highlight of my career.

You truly understand and see the goodness in kids. The world needs more of you!

I hope the next few years continue to bring you happiness.

God Bless you!

... i can only return the sentiments & double them ...

:: Note :: ... too much more to say which words fail to express ... we have all been "chaded" ...

Journey Pouch

2011-06-29T10:57:00.003-06:00

Blessings for the Journey

It has long been said that life is a journey. There are many different roads on this journey and today marks the end of one road and the beginning of another for all our graduates.

Their path through high school, which for most began at E.D. Feehan Catholic High School four years, is being celebrated today with the diploma that they proudly hold in their hands.

And now they step out into the big, bright, promising world ready to achieve their goals, hopes, and dreams for the future, knowing that all can be realized with God's help.

There is an ancient tradition in many cultures to gift a family member who is about to begin a new journey with a travel pouch containing items that they might need on the way.

At the Grade 12 retreat, these graduates received and decorated their very own travel pouches. They are marked with their name and adorned with symbols of their connection to the Feehan Family.

Today as we celebrate, these pouches will be presented to the graduates full of all the well wishes, prayers, and pride of the Feehan Family, who send them on their way.

Remember, you will always be a member of the Feehan Family. God Bless you all!

:: Note :: ... message to Grads of 2011 found on back of program ...

ᕦTHA ...

2011-06-25T11:38:00.006-06:00

ᕦ ᓳᐓ ᖡ - ᙔᕱᕆᒩ ᗛᔴᗐᖲᔕᗧᗨ ᙂ ᐤ ᕦ

ᕦTHA engages the ancestor, how to talk with her, how to let her speak or give her back speech in an act of counseling. Tell the story to the ancestor in ourselves. For the lives of others to truly matter the force of the ancestor must be encountered in ways that open the past wisdom of experience.

ᕦTHA is, in the words of Walter Benjamin in his essay 'The Storyteller', "less an answer to a question than a proposal concerning the continuation of a story which is just unfolding."

ᕦTHA enlists the ancestor to share identities of remembrance. An attentiveness that lives & moves from breath to breath, mouth to mouth, body to body, word to word & back again in the world which you carry.

... ᕦTHA

ᕦ ᓳᐓ ᖡ - ᙔᕱᕆᒩ ᗛᔴᗐᖲᔕᗧᗨ ᙂ ᐤ ᕦ

:: Note :: ... the above is my concluding statement to this past months wondrous actor's training quietly happening at the Temple ... a practice by a dedicated Kristen Holfeuer ... her search culminated in a sharing evening with a couple of trusting souls ... although many sources seemed to surround the search the spirit of Zygmunt Molik was omnipresent ... i dedicate this time to my mentor ... the markings are Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics which i used to document the body/voice/text "work" ... the question remains: what is this 'something' we share with? ... photo ...

Sisters

2011-06-17T18:43:00.005-06:00

Took Mom to the airport. She will be attending her sisters funeral in Ottawa. By the time I received the message & booked her ticket she was calm & collected. The voice mail message was tearful & hysterical.

Mom remarked on the peaceful beauty of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery. To rest in peace and have a place of natural beauty where family may take joyful remembrance is important.

Aunt Shirley, born New York, New York Thursday the 24th day of November 1927, had been a tragic figure in the family folklore. The last time I saw her she was in the hospital. Her concerned sons were suggesting nursing home care which she was resisting tooth & nail. I had expected to visit a disoriented and weak women instead was greeted with a huge smile and loads of spunk.

Despite her trials & tribulations I'm sure that's how she faced the world in her good times with smiles & spunk. She bears the name Theresa - also my sister's name & she too had a tragic path & she too faced the world with smiles & spunk. Names seem to carry the past into the present.

Mom is quiet and somewhat oblique regarding her family. She loves them dearly but is quite content to be independently loving them from afar. It's a trait I've inherited. Reflecting now I believe I've inherited many of Mom's traits. I watch her age gracefully and elegantly & wonder if I will go softly into the good night.

The family is fiecely proud of their Irish ancestory & the following was on the Funeral Card.

Remembered Joy

Don 't grieve for me, for now I'm free!
I follow the plan God laid for me..
I saw his face, I heard his call,
I took his hand and left it all...
I could not stay another day,
To love, to laugh, to work, or play;
Tasks left undone must stay that way.
And if my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joy.
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss...
Ah yes, these things I, too, shall miss.
My life's been full, I've savoured much;
Good times, good friends, a loved-one's touch.
Pehaps my time seemed all too brief-
Don't shorten yours with undue grief.
Be not burdened with tears of sorrow,
Enjoy the sunshine of the morrow.

~ Irish Wisdom ~

AeRan & Stan

2011-06-17T11:28:00.001-06:00

Panel “Art and Archaeology”
Chair and discussant – Denis Samsonov (St. Petersburg State University)

1. Steven CHUNG (Princeton University): Cinema, Nationality, Archive
2. JEONG Ae Ran (Université Paris): Performance aesthetic and identity issues of Kumgangsan Gagukdan (금강산가극단), a professional arts troupe founded by Koreans in Japan
3. Nelly Georgieva-Russ (Academy of Korean Studies): Paintings of Immortals from the Mid-Chosŏn Period: An Album by Cho Sae-gŏl (1636-1706)
4. Maya STILLER (UCLA): "Masterpieces of Korean art" - A critical analysis of collecting and exhibiting Korean culture in Germany

:: Note :: ... AeRan in Moscow ... presenting at the 2011 AKSE conference at the Moscow State University Institute of Asian and African Studies June 17 - 20 ... there she found a monument to Stanislavski ... she claimed she was wanting to touch his precious hand ... i see her trying to pick his pocket ... she is simply amazing in her dedication & drive ... i am in awe ...

negotiations

2011-06-15T19:11:00.003-06:00

Dueck shares her disappointment regarding mediation process

In perhaps her most frank comments to date during this protracted round of negotiations, Dueck implored teachers to remember that this has come to the point where it’s about much more than just the monetary issues. “We want to make sure our actions are not hurtful to teachers and the education system. This is bigger than about your pocket book– what we are also doing is trying to ensure that public education has a strong future, that it’s not destroyed in this province.” Saskatchewan Bulletin Vol 77 Number 10

:: Note :: ... negotiations by teachers with the breakdown of mediation talks seem headed towards ... well based on recent government actions ... not pleasant ... heart-rendering to advocate for education in a culture that revolves around an ill-conceived & short-sighted business agenda, a period of the privatisation of education ... but teaching itself is still fulfilling ...

Pau Miró’s Buffalos

2011-06-05T01:00:00.014-06:00

(Photograph by: Submitted photo, courtesy Arthur Despins)

“What I’m interested in is creating a relationship with an audience where we all say, ‘We don’t know,’” says Bentley-Fisher. “I find theatre often excruciatingly boring, because we all go there and celebrate what we know, and I find that really tedious — I want to go with people to where we don’t know, where we all take that chance. It’s not that we don’t care — we all want to know very, very badly — but it’s being willing to take that chance of not knowing. And colluding with an audience, saying, ‘This is well worth it, let’s all discover, let’s all try to find it out.’
“So, we’re very ambitious. We’re trying to get to the heart and the truth of something. That’s where our ambitions lie.” (Planet S | From Catalonia With Love | May 19-June 1 Vol.9 Issue. 19)

"Buffalos by Pau Miró dealt with the repercussions of an unstable family life, the physical abuse and the abandonment of a group of siblings who will have to fight for their survival and will develop very distinct mechanisms of dealing with the reality outside the four walls of their house. The fable core of the play transports us to a continent full of wild life, buffalos, lions, elephants and giraffes." (The Catalan Connection)

"Pau Miró’s Buffalos tells the story of five siblings who run the laundry & a quarter of the city and must confront the disappearance of a sixth brother. Aggressiveness, loneliness and survival are some of the background themes of the work ... a tragicomic trilogy with absurdist overtones are "set in the Raval neighborhood, which inspires playwright & director Pau Miró's work with its “charged urban cocktail” of hipness and seediness." (The Director: Pau Miró)

"Within one year Miró has initiated three plays and has completed the trilogy that takes place in a laundry in the district of Raval where the characters identify with wild animals. The play is set in the fifties and deals with the limitations of the Franquismo. It shows how the characters turn to a silent fantasy to get over their frustration. (Pau Miró)

"Jirafas, the grandparents. In Lleons, parents. And Búfals, children." (The secrets of giraffes)

"But whether it relieves or agitates, whether it darkens or illuminates, it is never limited to a mere description of reality. Its function always consists in appealing to the whole man, in permitting the “I” to identify itself with someone else’s life and to take on what isn’t but may possibly be. Even a great instructive artist such as Brecht doesn’t act only with reason and arguments; he also resorts to sentiments and suggestion. (…) Art is necessary for man to be aware of and to change the world. But it is also necessary for the magic inherent to it." (The Necessity of Art by Ernst Fischer)

:: Note :: ... Canadian premier in Saskatoon ...

finishing thought Part II

2011-05-16T23:03:00.006-06:00

... continued from Unfinished thoughts Part 1

"Molik: Everybody should be completely free, with imagination and all that is necessary to stimulate a creative process, while making really clean actions."(p. 13)

This is the test for any working process. A pain of lack gives birth to possibility. We need to overcome obstacle. We need space around us and precious pockets of time wherein nothing is required then maybe something may occur. We need an intensified reach, indiscriminate exchanges that are often linked with notions of body memory. We need a sense of uncontainability, a transgression of boundaries, a porosity and indeed the conviviality, of what has been treated as opposed: information and matter, imaginative and biological, body and mind, organic and non-organic life.

:: Note :: ... after sessions of practicality ...

School Art

2011-05-09T19:06:00.010-06:00

A wonderful moment at The Mendel Art Gallery of Saskatoon with the student artists talk. Since it's inauguration in 1972 the annual Spring School Art Exhibition has been a favorite of mine.

"School Art is in keeping with the vision of Gallery founder Fred Mendel. It was Mendel's conviction that art is for people of all ages and walks of life. (Folio MendelArtGallery Vol. 39, Issue 2: Spring 2011)

The young artist in the picture spoke with confidence and composure. Others were shy but all were received with genuine warmth. The Gallery was full of excitement and celebration articulating the joy of creativity. A grade one boy slouched against the wall hands in pockets casually confirmed "the cutting of his paper collage took a lot of time." Another self-composed youth produced a finished work which came from the study which now hung in the exhibition. Each work was treated with deserved respect. Afterall 200 artworks were selected from the 2,000 submitted pieces. Jurors considered the following factors:

Impact: an immediate chord
Authentic Expression: honestly envisioned & executed
Innovative or thoughtful use of materials: competent use
The elements of art and principles of design: color, composition, lines, texture, space.
Construction: physically well constructed
Individual merit: judged on its own merit
(from the handout: How Are Pieces Selected for School Art?)

There is a determined effort to select works from each and every school. This year I saw the gallery video taping chosen student artists for interviews. A commendable project. Looking forward to upcoming June events Shakespeare's Shadows Youth Theatre & SCYAP Urban Canvas.

:: Note :: ... the Artists Talk was held on mothers day ... a beautiful gift to all mothers ... took my mother who enjoyed herself immensely ... certainly hope that if the Gallery moves to a new location and is renamed that this School Art tradition continues in the spirit of serving the community ... by the way admission is free allowing all ages and status to participate in recognizing the importance of art ... also very much miss the Mendelog which had a more personal and community sharing feel ...

Baal

2011-05-08T18:59:00.001-06:00

ancient troubadour
dark glint
of violence
and amorality
inhabits stark
ugliness upfront
archetypal misogyny
nothingness

:: Note :: ... created as an erasure ... missing ...

How much irony?

2011-05-07T17:01:00.003-06:00

How much irony can one take? I ran away to get away from my Father but, I only fell in-likeness with a reflection of him. At first it was quite beautiful, not caring and witnessing him as I opened my tired eyes.

But as I grew farther away from the one man I hated I grew closer to a younger version of him. He was something I craved for - a bad boy. He had such a pretty face, marble blue eyes and honey coloured hair. He also had God-like hands that easily explored my body. He smelled like the ocean, so calm and quiet. He was what I adored, wanted, needed and craved for. And, just as I thought irony ended it spat more in my face.

He was like my silent addiction. Just like the one my father and him shared. As pure as the cocaine their body craved, I wanted our hearts to beat to the same rhythm. Was it even humanly possible to love a reflection of someone you HATED? But then again was I that rude to assume I was human? What if I was a lost soul, a sad ghost or a hideous monster?

He always gave me mixed signals, made me insecure and unsure of him, myself and our "Relationship". I was giving up but I never gave up until i get exactly what I wanted. And I wanted him so badly. To adore him and to victoriously call him mine. Was it a game? Or was it me making it into a game? All these questions clouded my mind night and day until he was near.

We both had the same mind set and easily made it into a game of some sort. We both knew the only way you lost was if the other fell for the opponent. And we were both too proud to admit that we both lost. So we did what was best and stuck thorns of jealousy into the others neck. The only cure was alcohol. We both ran to the cure and drank away the poison as quickly as we could . We both lost. But he was sadly one step ahead of me and played the card of ignorance. As it worked I felt unsure.

He came up behind me, took my pride, killed me and won.

:: Note :: ... writes & writes with courage ... every once in a while a student that attends my high school classes hands me scraps of writing ... the words always move me ... I've suggested & encouraged the collection of writings towards publishing ... offered & received permission to post on-line ... hope to see more ...

Who will

2011-05-03T21:01:00.004-06:00

Spent a few hours after teaching driving voters to their polling stations. A little bit of field work, I thought. The poverty was startling. Run-down apartment blocks, small dilapidated houses, streets dirty and pot-holed.

A single mother with four little ones leaving the oldest in charge bringing her nineteen year old to vote for the first time. They knew the party leader they wanted to vote for but not the name of the riding representative. They resided on a busy, noisy thoroughfare and when asked if it was loud replied yes it was a difficult place to live.

A talkative thirty something, labored breathing, living with his working girl friend collecting disability insurance after two bouts in the hospital dealing with lung cancer. Fighting to get re-trained, unable to pay for his drugs and therapy wondering how to survive.

Another thirty something coming out of a single room home with ten people crowded around a TV. He's the only one in possession of proper ID to vote. The next door neighbor kids ask what we're doing and learning about an election ask, "Can kids vote?"

Approached over ten people offering rides to their polling station if they wished. All of them declined. One stated, "I'll watch the winner on TV."

Got home and a bicycle rider cuts through my path asking for some spare change.

It was a disheartening experience especially later that night to witness a parade of clean cut talking heads in suits.

On twitter two former students tweet. One unable to hold back tears of joy on the historical election of a Green Party member. The other a wonderful cutting if not cynical observation about the future.

For the next 4-5 years, probably not a good idea to get sick, lose yr job, get old, or have a vagina.

Yes, who will speak for the disenfranchised.

:: Note :: ... We all live together barely moving out of our little "worlds" ...

Saskatoon Rosetown Biggar Candidates Twitterlogue

2011-04-30T23:40:00.010-06:00

After a local newspaper article Election has candidates all a-Twitter decided to contact Riding Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar candidates and engage in a twitter Q&A.

All candidates had an account (Apr. 30, 2011):

@KellyBlockcpc
285 Tweets 280 Following 1,189 Followers 136 Listed
@Nettie_Wiebe
55 Tweets 189 Following 201 Followers 23 Listed
@vicki_strelioff
135 Tweets 35 Following 29 Followers 4 Listed
@leereaney2011
2 Tweets 9 Following 11 Followers 1 Listed

Nettie Wiebe (NDP), Vicki Strelioff (Green) & Lee Reaney (Liberal) all started Twitter accounts for the 2011 election. Incumbent Kelly Block (CPC) started an account April 4, 2009. Usage speaks for itself.

Began with a Prologue - introductions and seeing possibilities.

Primary intention was to ask a series of questions. Needed to alert that the arts are important. Also posted relevent arts links from page numbers of their particular party platform statements on the arts to art advocate groups hoping candidates would become more informed on the complexity of arts&culture issues.
Canadian Conference of the Arts' online Bulletins and the Canadian Arts Coalition Arts Vote toolkit were main resources for both questions and information.

All except Lee Reaney made some contact. It became apparent he had no interest in Twitter.
________________________________

Prologue

i.. Dear candidates, your campaign is on: Who will speak for real support for SK arts & culture this time? (question co-opted with slight revision from Jian Ghomeshi tweet).

Kelly Block: Enjoyed hosting Minister Moore on March 17, 2011 who announced funding of$700,000 for festivals and cultural events in SK this summer.
Kelly Block: To start I would suggest googling Government of Canada and the Ministry of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages.

ii. Dear candidates. Any all-candidate forum planned?
no answer

iii. What is your vision for arts and culture in our riding?

Vicki Strelioff: Arts & culture needs more investment as they feed the heart & soul of society. People are more than machines.

Vicki Strelioff: I am involved with Scottish pavillion at Folkfest & on the executive of the SHDA. I enjoy music, art, theater, etc as a fan.
________________________________

Questions:

1. How will you improve culture sector workers socio-economic conditions whose annual incomes fall below Canadian average?

Vicki Strelioff: We need to establish an adequate base income & work up from there; establishing funding, grants, etc. to keep arts & culture vibrant.

2. How will you forge a culture policy of international exchange - a diplomacy of co-operation, understanding & critique?

Vicki Strelioff: Lot to answer in a tweet. GPC all about cooperation here & abroad. Can't we all just get along to achieve the common goals of humanity?

Nettie Wiebe: Hello Raymon. Thanks for the questions. However, they require substantial answers. Do you have an email address where I can reach you?

3. What fiscal measures do you propose to encourage SK arts philanthropy & private investment in arts and cultural work?

Vicki Strelioff: Better value at tax time for charitable donations made to the arts. Improve funding to Arts & culture agencies. Really support CBC!

4, What measures does your party propose to support touring and the circulation of the works of Canadian artists across Canada?

Vicki Strelioff: I would need to get details from GPC for this; don't know if there is time before May 2 to answer.

5. Do you support increasing the budget of the Canada Council for the Arts and if so, to what level and over what time frame?

Vicki Strelioff:You give tough questions! It's hard to nail down $ amounts, but I would guarantee no cuts firstly for sure & move forward from there.

________________________________

Afterward

Attended the all candidates forum and tweeted a thank you to the three present which resulted in the first candidate tweet to the others.
Vicki Strelioff:@if @leereaney2011 @Nettie_Wiebe As always, so many topics not touched upon which should have been.

Lee Reaney essentially did not use Twitter. Kelley Block stopped on Apr. 20. Nettie Wiebe tweeted infrequently though followed back (She did not e-mail back). Vicki Strelioff tweeted extensively, followed back & tweeted directed to me often.

A List of all candidate tweets. Should be noted posts directed to specific people (@user name) are not included on the list.

More info at PoliTwitter.

:: Note :: ... special thanks to Vicki Strelioff who sought engagement with thoughtful and continuous replies and extended conversation ... she also sought permission to use a tweet of mine in her speeches ... Kelly Block earned the most offensive tweet suggesting I google for information ...

Unfinished thoughts: Part 1

2011-04-30T15:33:00.020-06:00

Finished reading, Zygmunt Molik's Voice and Body Work: The Legacy of Jerzy Grotowski by Giuliano Campo with Zygmunt Molik. My debt to Zygmunt has previously been noted.

My thoughts revolve around 'tradition'.

Molik: The tradition. Follow the tradition. That's all. And everyone brings something new to the tradition and in this way it goes on. It's very simple. There's nothing more to say. (28)

Campo Note: I have to clarify that Molik's idea of tradition relates to research of the sources of each human being rather than the theatrical roots. In fact he created his own techniques and never referred to any other method, whilst still claiming to belong to the tradition. This is indeed the specific approach reveled by the operation of maieutics as an exploration of the self. (188)

My acting classes often conclude with a statement to the effect I come from the 'Grotowski tradition' and more specifically the voice work, though completely my own responsibility, is a direct development of a search begun with Molik.

T. S. Eliot wrote in an essay Tradition and the Individual Talent, "Every nation, every race, has not only its own creative, but its own critical turn of mind ..." What exactly do I mean 'tradition'? What is this searching? What 'critical turn' of a practitioner's mind is required?

Is it possible to inherit a practice? Could following the ways of a teacher/master with strict repetitive adherence reconstruct the meanings, proportions and values of an acting process.

I obtained my status as teacher by a labour of lived experiences. Through these experiences I perceived the presence of an acting process. I studied with a collection of the most individual work of actors during their period of full maturity with a growing sense of my own place in time and I fostered a deep appreciation of my relation to encounters with living actors. To teach in the present requires an awareness of the past which the past's awareness of itself cannot be articulated. I procured a consciousness of the past and continue to develop this consciousness with each and every classroom/training experience.

The paradox to discover my place/identity/process involves a surrendering of myself each moment to something more valuable. The progress is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual vigilance to follow the 'work'. In fact to become a receptacle for seizing and storing up countless exercises, remembrances, associations, feelings, phrases, images which remain until all unite in the moment of working. There is not the need to express myself but rather the need to follow a particular territory, " ... the unknown. I'm not going to explain what the unknown means, but such a thing exists, yes, and so it is possible to find it." (Molik. 5) The unknown, in practice, is when the practitioner combines their body, voice and life in peculiar and unexpected ways.

Molik: My knowledge. When I start a new work I don't use any knowledge. (19)

I take this to mean 'the work' cannot be done without surrendering wholly to the 'work' to be done and I am not likely to know what is to be done unless I practice in what is not merely the present, but the present moment including the past - fully conscious not of what is dead but of what is already living.

It would be false to speak of conforming to a way of working. It is more valuable to find a way the process fits into a life force.

continued at Part II

sun sojo

2011-04-29T20:54:00.002-06:00

snow gone
so go
o o
-

:: Note :: ... playing with korean word 소조 (sojo) ... as Ae Ran writes her Moscow presentation ...

Saskatoon Rosetown Biggar all candidates forum

2011-04-28T23:53:00.015-06:00

The Riversdale Community Association hosted an All Candidates Debate Forum for the federal riding of Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar on Thursday, April 28th at 7 p.m.

Thanks to Community association president Doug Ramage for all his efforts to make this possible.

The room was full of maybe a hundred and started with opening statements. Each candidate answered four questions from the chair: 1) The Environment 2) Health 3) Housing and 4) Riding Priorities. Candidates then directed questions to each other followed by an open microphone on far ranging issues: Defense, Treaty obligations, Agriculture, Food and Drugs, Unemployment Insurance, Poverty, Advocacy Rights, Student Tuition & Costs, Water Fluoridation and First Nation University funding.

The candidates though reluctant to pose questions to each other answered all constituent questions succinctly with clarity and respect. There was in the room a looming sense of absence - in fact Nettie Wiebe directed her question to the missing conservative incumbent & all three assured if elected they would be a greater presence in the riding and promised opportunities for citizens to have their voice heard.

My sense was of more commonality and shared understandings between the three. What separated them was their particular party history and experience. Lee Reaney affirmed his strong support of the Liberal Platform, Vicky Strelioff confessed herself a non-politician seeking to represent those who felt unrepresented and Nettie Wiebe asserted the affirmative actions instituted by the traditions of her CCF/NDP.

I learnt much about the immense diversity of the people that took the time to attend this forum. All ages were represented. A dirth of suits and ties. This was not a hundred dollar a plate dinner or invite only crowd or a rally for supporters. It was not even a debate. It was more a chance to voice and express deep concerns and the overwhelming concern was please listen to us.

The lasting image was three dignified and passionate individuals seated on a stage in front of a forest lake background of green trees, fresh water, clean air and open sky. A symbol of place. Open skies, open minds, limitless imagination - my definition of democracy.

In the crowd sat a recent graduate and a present high school drama student of mine. Both students just entering voting age and both from countries ravaged by war - their eyes shone bright as they valued the forum experience.

They are the future that cares.

:: Note :: ... picked up the "Nope" postcard from material at the back tables ... printed by the Young Liberals of Canada ... seemed fitting as nope the CPC weren't there ...

Quilico Awards announced

2011-04-24T22:43:00.004-06:00

Winners of 2011 Christina and Louis Quilico Awards announced
Soprano Ileana Montalbetti won the second prize of $3,000.
Also performing in The Canadian Opera Company Rossini’s Cinderella (La Cenerentola) April 23 - May 24.

:: Note :: ... folowing her dream ...

Running Amok

2011-04-10T00:10:00.003-06:00

Reprinting an article from the University of Saskatchewan student newspaper The Sheaf. Drama Students Run Amok

Year-end project shines light on budget cuts in arts colleges

ASHLEIGH MATTERN
Editor-in-Chief

"We’re a tiny little building, we’re a small student population, but we have a lot of heart.” - Grahame Kent Drama Student

A group of 20-odd people run through the halls of the John Mitchell Building, chanting, “Now all the youth of England are on fire!” A fourth-year drama class instigated the ruckus; they’re leading the group through a metaphorical reenactment of the Feb. 17 fine arts and humanities divisional town hall meeting.

Art cannot be wholly separate from the world in which it was created, a maxim the expressive movement drama class exemplified with a recent performance. Developed as a year-end project, the performance was born in part out of their frustrations with budget cuts and downsizing planned for the drama department. They were in the first stages of creating the performance when the College of Arts and Science hosted the first of two town halls. “We got kind of riled up about the town hall meeting, and we were already in the middle of planning this project,” explained drama student Morgan Murray.

“We were sitting outside and reading the text and a few things just lined up and then we kept going a bit deeper and more things started locking in place,” continued drama student Grahame Kent. The words to the performance came from Henry V. As they read the text, they started to see parallels to their own situation. One comparison they found was to England, a place which had a “little body with a mighty heart.” “That sort of was like, hey, that’s us!” said Kent. “We’re a tiny little building, we’re a small student population, but we have a lot of heart.”

The movement class performed three of five prologues from Henry V, inviting the audience to join in at times, and moving the audience around the tiny John Mitchell Building. Only one of the prologues was developed around the idea of criticizing the cuts to the department. At one point, the performance moved from a small seminar room to the larger North Studio. Drama student James Aaron explained this part of the performance was based on events at the town hall.

“When the vice-dean [David Parkinson] came in and saw there were tons of people from the music department, the drama department and also the English department and religious studies, visual arts, all people that are affected by the arts and science, his aide came in and moved us to a larger room.” Two big black boxes stood at the centre of the North Studio with the words “The Project” on it to represent the proposed Clarion arts centre. The performance included knocking The Project over.

“Our drama department is thriving,” said drama student Nathan Howe. “We’ve had a few sold out or close to sold out shows the
last two years, so we brought in some images of that with the Clarion Project.” “Everyone’s expecting more good things to come out of this department, such as the Amadeus production next year,” added Kent. “We were trying to show the problem with that because people can get jazzed about that, but they’re cutting down staff.”

The students who staged the performance are clearly frustrated and worried about the future of their department. Howe pointed out that the John Mitchell building was supposed to be a temporary building, but the drama department has been there now for 18 years. “It’s technically a soil science building,” said Kent.

Murray added that the department will lose nine credits next year. “One general theme that we wanted to get across was that for those of us who are returning to the university next year… we’re worried about what the department is going to be like,” said Aaron.

Islander Winds

2011-04-09T00:11:00.002-06:00

under the green-black ocean
Sea weed -
deep thought
murmurs the quake: there are
still voice cries beneath
the bleached bones.

:: Note :: ... searching for the soul of Grass Tomb ... with others ...

Odyssey

2011-03-26T16:22:00.011-06:00

In their final journey with Greystone Theatre, it is fitting that fourth-year University of Saskatchewan drama students are taking on the epic journey of Homer's The Odyssey by American playwright Mary Zimerman. Photograph by: Gord Waldner, The StarPhoenix

:: note :: ... the Cyclops & Athena were Romeo & Juliet this past summer ... not all of them are 4th year ... student newspaper The Sheaf article (Pdf) ...

to the limit Skit Skit

2011-03-21T00:58:00.021-06:00

Skit Skit is not a band nor a brand.

Not a post-modern apocalyptic traveling troupe though rumors prevail this may be the next logical step. Not a TV show nor Youtube sensation but see them on Skitskittv or YouTube-SkitSkitTV .

Not a counterculture network nor a legit theatre company - "It doesn't pay". Nor a wild animal collective/kingdom. Just a few friends having fun ... like Facebook friends or @Skit_Skit handles to follow.

They do alternative video-and-theatre sketch comedy and are in their "third season of political satire, farce, fantasy and just plain ridiculousness."

Their latest self proclaimed animal themed show revolves around personal interests of death, violence, tragedy, slang terms for the human anatomy & most significantly ad busting in the vien of Adbusters.

There is a dolphin-like satire of teenage angst, a rooster Agamemnon poke at greek tragedy, a tribute to Groove the cat & a foxy monologue ... yes and a pirate pole dance-off ... all acted with the highest of self-referential zeal matched by .mov digital virtuosity from a jesus video blog to the Chad ad which was a breadcrumb for the powerful ending punch line.

This group of friends are working artists. Performers filled with creativity and complexity. Actors who like playing together and riffing off each others material simply laying down a set of grooves onto which zany skits are separated from other scurrilous grooves of serious skit & silence. Hence Skit Skit.

Their dilemma is that they are not a band - a group of musicians collected around a sound releasing recordings for then they would have an identity with a fully loaded industry ... as they look out at us wondering why we're gathered around them ... we could tell them that we like them first and foremost as friends ... they are fun & funny ... deeply engaging ... a culture of many & we die to laugh & laugh to die with them ... a bit of funny or die ... an evening with Skit Skit is somewhat transforming as they seek the unsayable edge ... unpredictable, brilliant, mercurial, moody ... that's how I feel when I leave Skit Skit ...

With friends we have our favorite moments: mine the naive/surreal "Saskatchewan is changing" ... started to count the broom swishes ... felt trapped in some time warp ... contemplated myself in the trap ... the theatre to lotteries to capitalism to ... Skit Skit ...

Skit Skit knows the performers field is a space of wild contradiction & phenomenal exploitation ... they play at being Skit Skit ... a brand name without a brand ... we gather around them because they are a site of commonality, movement, energy and desire. They even listen to us or at least say they do. Sometimes I want their satire to be sharper & more pointed, way over the limit ... or maybe use less ... well John Steward on the Daily Show makes it effective with bleeps. Do I really want to change friends? No! Just delighted when they bust out their Skit Skit when ready.

Skit Skit is the artist/poet/actor worker friend composing a theatrical codex-calligraphy, image collage - from materials left at our shock policies culture dump.

Hope to see you around again soon.

:: note :: ... thanks for the evening ... pushed the handle Skit Skit enough times hoping to increase the google ranking ... & what fantastic music that formed the soundscape for Skit Skit ...

scene - seen

2011-03-06T00:40:00.004-06:00

the scene - seen
in site - sight
we see what we know and what we are conditioned to see

the scene - seen
something we didn't know
something we can't quite see

the scene is not action anymore
a meta-action
a gesture that creates the possibility
to instanciate further spaces
further forms for expression

processes, emotions,
attention, perception and cognition
your cultural awareness, your emotions,
your feelings grow relationally in context
building on differences, interactions
and interrelations in experiment

start to understand how things play
in emergent, ephemeral imagination

acting and rendering are not equivalent
more than an assertion, a suspension

:: note :: ... apologies to the -empyre- list which is always a gold mine of thought ... access the archives ...

Nox

2011-02-23T23:42:00.024-06:00

... the most provocative times during class world theatre 'scenework' are those moments where students dance into the imaginative sphere ... that is while witnessing a scene I experience a particular habitation ...

... the acting partners within a space establish a place & in exploring the territory generate a zone to create a sphere so moving I abandon 'self' to be exiled & then occupied into a cohabitation of the sphere ... i cease watching ... the scene stops playing ... we communion ...

... this occurred during Nox by Anne Carson ... the elegy for her brother had, as Eugenio Barba in answering What is theatre?, "a particular way of moving our shared inner universe towards the world of the tangible event" ... the tangible event of the loss of my sister ...

:: note :: ... "and then your creative juices flow and you see that her elegy is meant to force us all to write." - Raymond L. Bianchi... carson always demands a creative written response/reflection ... images are of opening the 'book' ...

Woyzeck

2011-02-10T23:43:00.003-06:00

:: note :: ... what goes around comes around ... forty years ago I performed on the Greystone stage in Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead ... tonight son Stefan performs for the first time on the Greystone stage in Büchner's Woyzeck ...

A New Year - Stepping on the Spirit of the Earth

2011-02-03T23:31:00.010-06:00

Canada Post Stamp

a prosperous peaceful new year to all my family & loved ones

"During the Jishin Balpgi (Stepping on the Spirit of the Earth) festival, a group of Poongmul (Korean drums) players called the Durepae, first travels around the village playing on the Jang-go (hourglass-shaped drum), Buk (the drum), Kwenggari (small gong) and Jing (large gong). This is followed by visits to private dwellings to wish residents peace and good fortunes for the new year through a mixture of drumming, dance and chants which everyone is encouraged to join in. In return, the hosts offer rice cakes and wine to the group and make a general donation that is used for the betterment of the entire village." - Sol

- See: Personal Stamps

:: note :: ... have always loved Canada Post’s series of Lunar New Year commemorative issues ... AeRan is on Paris streets moving from Korean site to site drumming in the tradition of Jishin Balpgi cleansing the "village" ... I took students to Barry Ahenakew sharing the story of the Thunderbird dance (Prairie Chicken Dance) at the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) hosting Aboriginal Storytelling Month Oral History & Indigenous Knowledge in an act of cleansing our hearts ... great ways to begin the new year ...

Olsou

2011-01-22T13:17:00.011-06:00

Now here
Layers of time
One

Close your eyes
We are Korea
Traveling

Where the
Sky, clouds, earth
See

Sky calling clouds
Clouds called earth
Lightning

Their voicings
Thunder the rhythm
Mystery

Tonight nourish
Unfold distant language
Secrets

Here rings
Vibrations of
Korea

- See: Personal

:: note :: ... AeRan performs today in Paris with Olsou: The Korean Drumming Association ... it is their 5th annual concert ... the words are my own transliteration of their program notes ... drumming voices her spirit & I wish her and her company great joy ...

Tales for Little Ones

2011-01-18T14:15:00.006-06:00

The Drama 20/30 Class presented Tales from the World to Day Care children as their final project.

They all made masks and at the end of the presentation each child who attended was given a mask which they treasured.

The presentation involved many stories, dance and song. Chantal wrote Kira and the Elves. Barinidum and Louise sang. The Raven Story a story handed down by the Tsimshian tribe, The Spider and the Honey Tree from a West African collection of three stories titled Deep in the Bush Where People Rarely Ever Go and an original story by Amy Lafontaine Wesuhkechuhk and the Mouse were then shared as Brydon danced in between the stories. The last tale, The Bear who lost his Cave was written collectively by the whole class ending the presentation singing and dancing to The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

A magical spirit filled the theatre when the children attended and as a class we felt the power of imagination. A truly rewarding experience.

Read an appreciative thank you note from a former student who brought her daughter.

View a Gallery.

- See: Plays Teens

:: note :: ... when do we lose the pure joy of imagination? ... the three year olds taught us so much about wonder & awe ,,, thank you grade 11 & 12 students for sharing & creating ... rare moments of simple magic ...

departure

2011-01-15T02:08:00.007-06:00

a day

after departure
found words

a shimmer
welled up
from beneath

not everything
is saved
from mistaken
erasure and loss

deep are
the breathes
that linger
making absence
"han" present

recollections are
not necessary

I watch
the snow
fall gentle

we dream

our story

- See: Personal Poetry

:: note :: ... over the holiday season the Temple was broken into ... lots lost ... I even erased material I wanted to keep ... loss and erasure ...

The Lottery 2010

2011-01-14T15:55:00.002-06:00

The Drama 10 Class finished the Term with three powerful performances of a Brainerd Duffield adaptation of Shirley Jackson's short story The Lottery.
Their presentation stimulated much discussion and many thanks to all the classes who came.

View Gallery

- See: Plays Teens

:: note :: ... the 2010 version fit the group like a glove challenging each student ... thanks for your work ...

Enough to say

2010-12-23T18:26:00.004-06:00

About the distance
to Paris, Saskatoon, Seoul &
Tokyo, whatever else,
it is enough to say it's far.

And the distance between
my love and me measured by
snowstorms and oil massages,
it is enough to say we're near.

We cannot see beyond
these worlds, pixels,
resolving
on flat white screens.
And because of our love
we have no other thought
than to sip this white wine.

- See: Personal Poetry Korean

:: note :: ... apologies to Twentieth-century Korean poet Pak Chaesam (1933-1997, also transliterated as Pak Jae-Sam) & poem Enough to Say It's Far ... good to have my love at home ...

to link or not to link

2010-12-19T01:30:00.006-06:00

Social networking is useful, imho, as a way to share links. I use Twitter almost exclusively for sharing. Excellent link-sharing tool.

Blogging is my way to explore writing. Before Twitter & FB I did use a blog for sharing links. Rarely now. Most aren't that interested in other people's experiments. Most of the time i don't anticipate misunderstandings and hardly self-edit. Result are comments in FB that are contentious or I misunderstand. So I question linking blog to FB/Twitter. My blog is primarily a halfalogue.

- See: Personal

:: note :: ... won't link this to social networking ... apologies to dave winer ...

trout mask replica

2010-12-17T22:11:00.009-06:00

It is 2010, just after the leak.
Am I here that I am reduced
located inside the backspace &
I need your trout mask. You will find
me south of the snow drift, where
the trees collect hoarfrost especially
at night, where wind and cold rub
the edges. We burn memories to shape
one another; to stay the icefall that
it not shatter toe slope wells. We are
running out of shamanic time, pitch fork
and axe. Rattles stuffed in the willow
bowed roof and whistle lies wet with no
breath. We should be singing to one another,
grease and cedar. We should be fire,
rock and steam. We should be still,
or at least, bearing pain. Be in the
fourth round of thanks. The light
invisible except to the elder. We
will be whited out. Early tailings of
nothing behind the fence. One howls, screams.
No, we must first be fire. Be kindling. Be wood
Be embers.

- See: Writings Poetry

:: note :: ... an evening at Wanuskawin ... ramblings, riff raff ...

SNTC survival

2010-12-12T00:52:00.006-06:00

It was fun eavesdropping on the Temple rehearsals of Luff Actually directed by Curtis Peeteetuce. Simply a wall away I would often catch myself guffawing over the lines. To finally see the wonderful farce in performance was a joy. More joy was watching Lacey Eninew & Aaron Shingoose, actors I had taught as students. Seeing them move on in the theatre world is rewarding. Catch an excerpt on YouTube or read about it in Plenty of laughter and love in 'A Rez Christmas Story' By Andréa Ledding Sage Writer Saskatoon. ’

Also attended Drew Hayden Taylor's Toronto At Dreamer's Rock
produced by 4E Presentations from Saskatoon at Persephone Theatre's Youth Series with my high school students. Again to see students I previously taught was exciting. Lance LaRoque in particular has been forging a sustainable path in the theatre world. In fact all the artists of both productions where graduates of The Saskatoon Native Theatre Company (SNTC).

The importance of SNTC is indisputable and as a community we must rally to support the survival of this company.

- See: Theatre

:: note :: ... SNTC is looking for a new artistic director ... why I mark these events:

Things that have mattered emotionally, often for the quality of their pattern, their beauty, their emotional shape, things that are not necessarily traumas, lodge in the mind, becoming shadows until you sit at a desk and begin to work out a pattern of words and images and then they become substantial and they block the way of narrative progress until they are allowed onto the page, or they offer the narrative great body and substance until they become the secret subject of the book. - The artist’s reticence ...

Skit Skit III

2010-12-08T22:47:00.006-06:00

Skit Skit III (if you will) at Persephone Theatre's Backstage Stage December 2 - 5 created intense excitement for their March shows (for me at least) ...

"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own"--Jonathan Swift

... not this company their cup runneth over as they ridicule their own foolishness with a disarming blend of humour, wit, nonsense, criticism, as well as some didactic intentions ... visit Facebook page to view some of the video clips: Mr. Groove, Tanorexia, School of Acting & more ...

... sketch comedy may sometimes be uneven ... not Skit Skit III ... the troupe (Ashton Francis, Tara Schoonbaert, Kristen Holfeuer, Ed Machete Mendez, Ashley Turner, Brent Mhic Pharthalain) tackles material with authority and a confidence that comes from experience and fearlessness ... to take time, endless time crossing the full length of the stage with gums flapping and crutch twitching or the sudden appearance of smashing Hulk (again and again) is a testament to brilliant pacing allowing us to simply enjoy the ride of vice & folly ...

... who needs New York Saturday Night Live ... add a celebrity Host: Henry Woolf and local musical guest: soso/Troy Gronsdahl & we have SasKatoon SKitSKit that easily challenges the rest of the best ...

... don't miss them both epic in scale and yet intimate in feel ...

- See: Review Theatre

:: note :: ... fyi: check the Twitter Hulks ...

Peer Gynt

2010-12-06T17:56:00.011-06:00

Alison Croggon in her brilliantly informative blog : theatre notes - independent theatre reviews and commentary writes on Four Larks original adaptation of Ibsen's Peer Gynt ... maybe the strongest aspect of this company's theatre is its design..."

I was reminded of Greystone Theatre's own adaptation in March '10 ... here are Jim Guedo's directors notes ...

This is a contemporary take on the Norwegian classic.

Before writing the prose plays for which he would be universally acclaimed as the father of modern drama, Ibsen wrote one of the last great verse epics of the nineteenth century.

Based in part on Norwegian folk traditions, Peer Gynt is by turns comic, tragic, lyrical and fantastic. The play has been adapted to speak to contemporary audiences by replacing the 'folk tales' underpinnings [which spoke to audiences of his day] with modern pop culture references, which are ingrained in much the same manner in our minds. The original fluctuated between prose and verse; this has been updated to dialogue and song.

Peer Gynt, Ibsen's sprawling epic, ranges wildly across realms rustic, exotic and fantastic. A play about a man whose philosophy is to have no philosophy, Peer Gynt, a country bumpkin embarks on a series of adventures in the mundane and the metaphysical world. Ultimately, he realizes too late that in our world nobody can exist alone.

Though Ibsen himself regarded it as his play least likely to be understood outside of his country, it has become one of his most universal works. It is not an allegory, but a phantasmagoria that speaks on many levels.

As Ibsen himself wrote: "Everything that I have written is most minutely connected with what I have lived through, if not personally experienced; every new work has had for me the object of serving as a process of spiritual liberation and catharsis; for every man shares the responsibility and the guilt of the society to which he belongs. That was why I once inscribed in a copy of one of my books the following dedicatory lines:

To live is to war with trolls in heart and soul. To write is to sit in judgment on oneself."

Ibsen, in a letter to Ludwig Passarge, June 16, 1890

It's impossible for any translation of Peer Gynt to be entirely satisfactory. This one has not attempted rhymed verse, and has refused to be chained to verbal literalness or for' line for line' rendering. An attempt has been made to follow the shape of the original, in unrhymed verse, keeping as closely to the original's literal meaning as is compatible with intelligibility in another century and tongue. So its energy is modern; it's been updated, deconstructed and played with in order to be acted, not read as poetry. Ibsen wanted it fleet of foot, funny and audacious, That's the aim of this adaptation.

- Jim Guedo

... i would call the adaptation a mashup ... the show fuses contemporary pop culture, advertising aesthetic and tongue in cheek humour with epic symbolic imagery ... the language observes and locates the place of ancient religious symbolism and mythology into a world obsessed with capitalism, celebrity and marketing gimmicks ... Guedo created a culturally re-mixed piece incorporating conceptual links, visual and conceptual mixing of religious mythologies with his student's personal experience, pop culture and folklore( Norwegian Death Metal, Gold Top Milk & Buddha) ... and the staging was absolutely breath taking ... applauding his work he replied ... "Oh you liked the Ninjas at work" ... indeed the stage hands (students under the direction of Steven Wade) were invisible and magical ...

... i have always been obsessed with romanticised fables within religious history, exploring the enduring appeal of spirituality within our postmodern and largely secular society ... it was pure delight witnessing Peer Gynt ... so many associations are conjured between cult ritual, pop posing, mythical symbolism and advertising logos ... perhaps the power of the performance lies in the fact that the audience is left unsure whether Guedo is presenting a serious message or jokingly taking us for a ride ... a delightful ride it was ...

... one could quibble with the excessive length but even that was for the benefit of students to allow many of them to explore long monologues or give more breadth to minor roles ...

- See: Theater

:: note :: ... a stunning production ... many observations written by Croggon apply to this production by 3rd. & 4th year drama students ...

Movember

2010-12-03T22:02:00.008-06:00

E.D. Feehan drama teacher Raymon Montalbetti loses it all Wednesday while participating in Movember charity festivitiesv
Photograph by: Greg Pender, The StarPhoenix, The StarPhoenix; with files from Postmedia News

E.D. Feehan High School Grade 11 student Taylor Arcand says she's thankful November is finally over.

Arcand sat near the back of the school's auditorium Tuesday laughing and wincing with the rest of the crowd as 14 mustachioed male students and staff paraded onstage.

"It's really weird. Guys with moustaches and beards are just ewww!" she said.

Fundraisers were held across North America last month, mostly to raise awareness for prostate cancer in a ritual that has become known as Movember. In Saskatoon, events were held at Louis' pub and other locations.

The Feehan event was in this spirit, although staff and students chose to raise funds for their year-long campaign for Pakistan flood victims instead.

Drama teacher Raymon Montalbetti sported a thick, red beard onstage and pledged to have it -- and his mane of curly hair -- shaved off for charity. His wife is studying in France, so he hasn't received any strange reactions from her, he said.

"But my mom gave me that silent, disapproving stare," he said with a laugh.

Read more: (expected to be linkrot soon)

- See: Personal

::note::... dyed my hair red in memory of younger sister Theresa who passed away at this time of year due to diabetes complications ... the event was a great spirit builder & lots of fun ...

Creative Drama Fall Session

2010-11-07T14:39:00.003-06:00

Creative Drama Collective Tale:

Opens with the King (Morgan) and Evil Queen (Sonia) fighting, the Evil Queen hands the king a mask. The King takes it and then banishes her from the kingdom and throws the mask after her. End Scene.

Next: An old lady (Mary?) is walking along when all of a sudden a monster (Macy) attacks and captures her. While the monsters back is turned the old lady uses her magic to escape and attempts to run away. The monster sees her and a battle of magic begins between the two. The monster pushes the old women to the back of it's lair, when it seems the monster has won the old women grabs her cane and bashes the monster over the head. The monster falls down stunned, the old lady then uses her magic to remove the curse that has fallen on the monster. The monster wakes up and is transformed into a young girl. The old lady beckons the girl to follow her and the two begin their journey to the king by walking on water.

Meanwhile: The Evil Queen is bored and is playing with her servant, she tosses the mask and makes her servant bring it back. The Evil Queen then notices the Old Lady and Young girl on her river. She stops them and only lets them proceed when they take the mask and promise to bring it to the king. As they walk away the Evil Queen's servant tries to tell them something but is stopped by the Evil Queen. The Old Lady and Young Girl continue their journey until the end of the river where they stop to rest.

At the Kingdom: The princess goes to see her father to ask if she can Play with her 3 pet birds. Her father says no and sends her to her room, the princess runs away crying. The Princess best Friend gets up and is soon called by the king, she goes to him and he banishes her before she even gets the chance to bow. The girl runs away crying into the forest, where she is stabbed and killed by one of the Kings men. She lets out a terrifying scream as she dies.
The Princess hears her friend scream, she calls her birds and they go off running to the forest. They find her dead friend, the princess then uses her powers to bring her back to life. The girl and Princess run back to the castle while the birds shortly follow.

The Old lady and Young Girl then continue their journey to the king. They are greeted by the princess who presents them to the king. They present the king the mask and leave to the woods, he slowly puts it on and the second he does a change happens over the kingdom. The birds begin to fly anxiously, the princess runs to hide, and the king begins to change. The birds drop to the ground, lifeless.

Suddenly the Evil Queen's servant appears, she calms down the king and removes the mask. As soon as she has it she runs away and the Kings hands shoot to his face. The Princess comes from hiding, she calls her best friend and the birds back to life. The Old Lady and Young Girl follow the Princess, her friend, and the 5 birds to confront the Evil Queen. They strike her down with the help of her servant.

In Celebration of the Evil Queens defeat Everyone dances around the Princess.

The End

- See: Creative Drama, TheatreWork, Collaoration

:: note :: ... Recorded by Tara Desroches November 5, 2010 ... story developed by approx. 21 children in the fall community creative drama sessions conducted at Cardinal Leger School ... assistants Tara & Stefan ... this has been the second session of a energy generating experience ...

Sleeper Awake

2010-10-31T14:49:00.005-06:00

The Sleeper Awake

A Tale from 1001 Nights Adapted by Paul Sills
Cast
Caliph ….. Sage Chartrand
Abu ….. Ashley Zuniga
Slave ….. Crissy Tamosiunis
Singer ….. Kaitlyn Ledene
Mother ..... Larissa St. Onge

Sleeper Awake was presented to all our Feeder Schools in the month of October. We thank the Grade 3/4/5/6 classes of St. Edward, St. Goretti, St. John, St. Mary & St. Michael for their wonderful hospitality.

- See: Theater, Plays, Teens

:: note :: ... presented in Story Theatre style the players narrate their actions and create props by way of shaping & handling the space ... a special group of teens performing a valuable service ... it was our intention to increase awareness of the beautiful Islamic literary tradition ... it seemed to work ...

how many times

2010-09-06T17:37:00.009-06:00

… how many times does your father have to die in your dreams?

… a couple of days ago I awoke in heart beating terror from a night dream … had been the front seat passenger in a car driven by my father … we were in a foreign, futuristic metropolis navigating endless freeways … had stopped at an intersection ... car ahead turning left … we waited till an opening finally came and he turned but we did not move … the light turned red … annoyed and bored I stared out the side window at concrete and cars … the light changed and still we remained motionless … turned to see my father slumped dead face up on the steering wheel … the face last seen in the casket many years ago …

… I awoke …

… this was not the first time dreamt of his death after his death …

… once before years ago … was leaving an Italian restaurant of my early youth when saw my father crossing the street … impossible I thought he's passed away … but it was him ... chased after the figure … he crossed the street into an oncoming truck and was killed instantly …

… I awoke …

… have dreamt of him often in situations where he doesn't die … yet how many deaths does it take?

- See: Writings Personal

::note::... impelled to write by White Apples by Donald Hall ... first line:

when my father had been dead a week

such sweet music

2010-09-01T22:29:00.004-06:00

… a summer bracketed by Shakespeare … in early July attended Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan The Merchant of Venice performed by a seasoned cast of professionals in their large billowing white mainstage tent on the riverbank site … late August, the youthful Abridged City Players presented Romeo and Juliet on the small proscenium stage in the Father O'Donnell Auditorium of St. Thomas More College on the University of Saskatchewan Campus ...

… both companies, Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan celebrating their 26th season and Abridged City Players with their 3rd annual Shakespeare summer production, first and foremost embrace clear, crisp language to create the scenography sharing these epic tales of the excessive character of love and revenge where interaction is driven by desires that overshadow all logic … both productions had hunger, urgency & were energy based …

… the evening in the tent packed with a sold out audience of 282 was occasionally overwhelmed by electrical storms which burst uncontrollably from time to time mirroring how we are not conditioned to weather these electrical brain storms of certain deeply wired racist reaction patterns … contrast the intimate audience of 31 in an auditorium … the hallowed silence penetratingly mediates the inner space of our familial relationships where love or lack of is experienced …

… each production had its unique visual brilliance … Merchant of Venice on the careful, detailed 1940's costuming of Beverly Kobelsky & Teri Morgan's R&J stage design where shooting star bolts of white scrim fell with every perilous portent and red scrim falling on every death …

… the emotional violence of each play shudders throughout … Catherine Harrison/Saleria spits contemptuously into Shylock's yarmulke … Grahame Kent/Capulet boorishly clenches and wrenches wife, daughter & nurse to submission … yet the shocking brutal climaxes are Henry Woolf /Shylock rushing to plunge his knife into the flesh of Ralph Blankenagel/Antonio, insanely exacting his pound & Stefan Montalbetti/Romeo viciously pummels Andrew Taylor/Tybalt insanely exacting his revenge …

… the delightful comedic performances of Joshua Beaudry/Clown Gobbo & Alana Pancyr/Nurse allow precious breath and pause to arrest attention on the deep poignancy of Jamie Lee Shebelski/Shylock's daughter caught in rueful reverie moments before the end and Danielle Spilchen/Juliet whose immensely tender journey of innocence to rash tragedy is compelling …

... each director was contentiously bold ... Mark von Eschen adds a final image of Shylock dragged in by SS uniformed soldiers … Shylock a black and grey striped, bewildered prisoner of the concentration camps ... slight, frail of frame, hollowed cheeks ... the timeless flow stops haunted by the Holocaust ... a long, bleak shadow demands the complete re-framing of all that has transpired ... we are in the spoken & unspoken underbelly of the whole history of The Merchant of Venice ... Charlie Peters in Romeo & Juliet melds a character named chorus ... a single, ever present changeling with intimations of coryphaeus ... Bethani Jade/Chorus recites prologue, plays prince, page, apothecary ... her vision moves beside, lifts souls silently with physical gesture … reveals the hidden cords which move the progress of events ... cautioning us to go warily ... steadies "katharsis" and sympathy ... these directorial craftings are the pinnacle of artistic creation when inventiveness emerges as if by itself ... fused with knowledge ...

… what had so stirred me in these two summer productions … the ensemble of energies … the rise & fall of emotions cascading & rescinding duelling soft & stormy, harmonious & discordant, distinct & overlapping … it was music … the rhythm & play of Shakespearian language, centuries away from the everyday acts in the same abstract way as music … to precisely pin down meaning is meaningless / to make complete sense is senseless … the characters alive & unpredictable when played with unabashed freedom yet disciplined to text sing textures of the human spirit … the young cast of Romeo & Juliet interweaving enthusiasm & zest wove an exuberant fresh remix of a spoken word hymn … the veterans of Merchant of Venice delivered an anthem with strength and authority …

… yes what had stirred me was the dynamic ensemble … the communities of 12 actors and the many designers & technicians layered upon one another within which and out of which people become/making themselves … a potent, active exchange that enables (creates) people … this is the image of creativity & herein lies the 'aura' of text based theatre …

… the vitality of an eighty year old Henry Woolf who speaks the words as if for the first time & whose presence has the freshness of youth … the twenty-five year old Jacob Yawarski/Friar whose tongue wraps around the words as of an actor speaking them from eighty years of confidentiality … the brilliance of Shakespeare plays … there is something authentically hopeful when we participate in the multitude of exchanges where we trust in one another to make a contribution, and we pledge ourselves to honour their contribution even if it wasn't the one we'd anticipated … where this friendship can lead to radical new ways of seeing …

… somewhat fortuitously was reading Ashley Kahn's book A Love Supreme/The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album … first purchased on vinyl over forty years ago now listened to digitalized … there was the articulation of what I was experiencing … actors laying down a line … responding to the phrasing … freely repeating motifs startling in their impromptu originality … lyrical … modulations … voicing in minor keys … melodic runs & harmonic emotional leaps twisting and frenetic toward heated summits … a sympathetic sonic blur … great text based theatre allows feeling riffs on great themes … the stuff that sticks with us are the pieces that say what few have the nerve, imagination, or critical vocabulary to voice spiritually ...

… as my son wrote on his Facebook page … "It's been an amazing summer with you man! I hope we meet again some day but if not I will never forget you! Take care! For the final time ... *** Exeunt: Bromeo ***"

- See: Theater Personal

::note::... want to write more but can't … just thanks to all the great artists …

Louie Louie

2010-08-29T15:16:00.003-06:00

have you ever gone
downstairs to a place

where vinyl & plastic
steel strings & code
surrender
to electric
feedback storyland soul

where a single mosquito
buzz thirsty resides

skillful & deft
heart in his ears
listening
for blood
pulsing warm beat

i have & i tell you
lifelines are sweet

the delight is gentle
the bliss & joy
bites
chord memories
ghostly future past

am going downstairs
before winter snows

blind grateful hope
restless & old
embracing
eternal comfort
most affectionate friend

play again & again & again ……… Louie Louie ……. amen.

- See: Writings Personal

::note::... each year we meet twice at most ... 25 years ago we met everyday a classroom away ... still the most creative musical educator anyone could meet ... thanks for the afternoon ... take them away jc ...

no place

2010-08-14T19:52:00.002-06:00

no place on earth
doomed temple vexing
the water stain islands
on carpet of green
prophesying ruin

random flakes drop from the cracked ceiling tracking decay

on the right
a row of windows
frame intimate gold twilight
concerning least of all
the late night pillar rope pull

all seek consolation in this summer repeating words of romeo

- See: Writings

::note::... summer of perpetual yearning ...

the faceless socialist

2010-07-25T00:45:00.012-06:00

the faceless socialist
by stefan montalbetti
july'10
Uploaded by raYmon

"the faceless socialist'

is not faceless

the face is not blacked out but whitened out, it is in fact the face which boldly demands attention … a distinctive etched face, ghost-like obliterated, beckons behind the white mask of this agrarian worker behind what? A plough, a gate, a tombstone … holding what in the left hand? A pitchfork, a flag, a spear … a prophet's staff ...

are those fences? Flowing fences where the lone figure poses battle-ready protecting the furrowed earth … one-armed, one-eared, one-buttoned, half-rolled sleeve, the half-known icon, not full frontal, not fenced in, angled … resting, watching, waiting, retreating …

he … though slightly showing … eyeless, mouthless & legless … sees, speaks & stands in the tradition of brothers and sisters proud, strong & free … there is no balance, no justice, no reparation … no thing can heal the outrage done to …

the not faceless

- See: Writings, Art

::note:: ... my son gifted me this and another "father Gray" a couple of days ago ... brought it over with a meal he had made & some beer ... he's taking a summer print-making art class towards completion of a history degree & this summer he plays Romeo in a student R&J production ... i admire his intuitive powers ...

if only i feared

2010-07-16T17:45:00.003-06:00

if only i feared death
the sky would not darken
if i had no word
the grass would brown
if i had thistles in my mouth
the wind blown seeds would land
if i had freedom in my heart
the great flood would not come
if i opened my eyes
the sky would darken

- See: Writings

:: note :: ... nothing to note ...

Mortgaged Time

2010-07-11T23:44:00.013-06:00

Korean East Coast
Originally uploaded by raYmon

The ocean water, one thousand and eight eyed,
opens its lids of white foam
to axe you, wide and deep
sixty years long.

fall my heart, from the temple of time
fall, you blossoms, from rain drenched branches
fall, as tears fall from the widened eye

Dark words, harder days are coming
where Korea's sky blackens the earth,
it's wounded tiger seeks a cave for its hate
handing you the monks bowl of rice water.

A handful of pain is lost in the sunken ships.
Only hope cowers blinded by the flame
Where Korea's earth blackens the sky,
a hand looks for solace and fills the plaza with yearning.

Before winter hears the call through the first sun
the unspeakable, said softly, steals over the land.

- See: Writings

::note:: ... the first anniversary of my visit to Korea ... an Ingeborg Bachmann In the Storm of Roses mashup ...

fall down

2010-06-28T22:43:00.004-06:00

"They have given us war and we are going to give them war back."

Who doubts a worse world may fall down.

Together, not out of cowardice, nor provocation

with tears carving the cheek as if a funeral,

as if extinguished, whether at protests or among prisoners.

The hooded, the convergence and those who lowered their visors,

hoisted their shields dare. Isolated islands in the Han river dream

leaders and visitors will not return to dream armament.

Bear witness, for a moment, fear and force stopped.

- See: Writings

:: note :: ... attempting to see what cannot be seen ... how can one make any sense of Toronto & g20 ... too much was seen ...

Performance

2010-06-17T01:01:00.007-06:00

Performance
Originally uploaded by raYmon

Performance disappears in the moment of its manifestation.
It is an expression of the potentiality of the past and of the way the past can shape the creative impulses and imaginative landscape of the present.
Performance is a restless visibility of imagination and embodies the invisible intensity for the sudden, epiphanic emergence of the genuinely unplanned unknown.
Performance sculpts space creating temporary bursts of ‘now’-ness inside a form constantly vanishing.
Performance negotiates action with breath, blood, bone & mind in fields structured by desire, power, gender, identity, narrative and memory in ways consciously deep & with nuanced understanding.
Performance dreams wakefulness.

- See: Writings Theater

:: note :: ... what is performance? ...

Zygmunt Molik

2010-06-07T20:48:00.025-06:00

Received e-mail this afternoon

Dear colleagues: As many of you will have worked with him and many others will know much about him, this is just to let you know the sad news that Zygmunt Molik died last night at 6 pm in Wroclaw hospital.

... checked the The Grotowski Institute ... the words confirmed ... I had been told he had been bed ridden this past while and even last week had dreamt of a passing ... still for a moment time eternal stopped ... why must we suffer losses?

"The secret lies in the voice, sound as whole and pure as it’s possible. Its essence is to release and awake the middle part of the body. Different parts of the body are very often separated: the head is separated, the legs… We are blocked. As a result of combining vocal and body excersises we reach the point, where the whole organism is active in speaking and singing." (Zygmunt Molik)

... Zygmunt Molik's Voice and Body Work the Leagacy of Jerzy Grotowski was published eight days ago ... thirty five years ago (1975) during the University for the Exploration of a Theatre of Nations organized by Grotowski and the Laboratory Theatre I attended a session called Acting Therapy ... my movement from desire to practical research began at that moment ... a cultural, raison d'être explosion ... from Wroclaw, Vienna, Venice, to Toronto opportunities came to work with this master of wry humour and deliberate understatement ...

... once while I attempted a profound explanation of the voice/text I was exploring he responded: "I know nothing of that but please tilt your head to the side" ... he was right ... an oracle that confounded and comforted ... from then on, as much as my tendency was towards the sacred & holy, he urged the work to be deeply practical ... his gaze scrutinized your work with a dense silence belying the impish sparkle just beneath the calm, reserved exterior ... the precious few things I pass on came from him ... his was a gentle soul compressed into total concentration ... I know not where he now voices but for the time being I will tilt my head to the side & quietly honour his departed presence ...

... I will in each breath inhale the many hundred particles of his vibrational wisdom that will eventually be a new inch of topsoil & wash into the textwork ocean ... on a shore eight thousand waves break a day ... that is how we suffer loss ...

- See: Memorium

:: note :: ... he was my teacher/guide ... cannot miss him for he lives within me ... my wife shared a story of after watching him smoke at every workshop break only to search for foil or empty bottle or whatever to dispose of the butts she gifted him a simple ashtray ... he lovingly treasured the gift, washing it each day ... his foot was as light as that of a four-year-old ... my lasting image is him sprawled in a corner of the old work studio at Sonnenfelsgasse with eyes closed listening intently to the work & smiling ...

Stoon West Powwow

2010-05-26T21:52:00.005-06:00

Saskatoon West Intertribal Powwow “The Gathering of Communities”

9:15am Drum Roll Call
Dignitary Line-up
Opening Prayer and Drum Song

9:30am Grand Entry
Flag Song
Victory Song
Student Welcome Speeches
Introductions
Dignitary Shuffle and Round Dance
Intertribal Songs (Drum Contest to Begin)

10:30 Tiny Tot (ages up to 5) Exhibition
Intertribal Songs

11:00 Elementary School Exhibition
Intertribal Songs

Noon Giveaway
Honor Ceremony
Métis Fiddling- Dallas and Phil Boyer
Métis Jigging Contest (youth and adult)

1:00 High School Exhibition
Intertribal Songs

2:00 Adult Dance Specials
Drum Contest Announcements

3:00 Grand Exit
Dance Out of Eagle Staff and Flags

- Photo Jade Henderson

- See: Personal

:: note :: ... students danced the day away ... out of respect not a picture of the dancers but a moment during the day of the community ...

Sound Mind - A Classical Music Blog

2010-05-20T21:35:00.001-06:00

Ileana Montalbetti as Elettra in Canadian Opera Company performance of Mozart's Idomeneo.

(Photo Michael Cooper)

Last night, members of the Canadian Opera Company's Ensemble Studio -- an apprenticeship program for promising young singers and accompanists -- took over the non-chorus cast of the current production of Mozart's Idomeneo.

An announcement over the PA system said that last night was the result of 7 weeks of intensive work. It's labour that paid off, because everything on stage appeared to work as smoothly and seamlessly as with the professional cast on opening night two weeks ago.
In reality, the Ensemble Studio singers were already heavily involved in the production. Last night, several of them merely exchanged their roles for something more significant. If there were more than one performance with the Ensemble cast, I would have recommended it as highly as the original.
Although everyone's singing was fine, there were two particular stars on the stage last night: soprano Ileana Montalbetti, as Elettra, and tenor Michael Colvin, who traded his role of Arbace in the regular run for a chance to sing the title character.
Montalbetti is ready for a great career. Period. Her voice rings, her breath support is flawless, she can turn an elegant phrase and she has dramatic ability.

via Star Blog

:: note :: ... been her dream since three years old ... make it real Ily ...

MayWorks

2010-05-01T21:35:00.006-06:00

"The festival strives to bring together many divergent groups: artists, social movements, community groups, organized labour and non-unionized workers to work together to support each other’s struggles and issues. We believe in using the arts to do this."(MayWorks)

- See: Politics

:: note :: ... sadly a day full of apathy where i am ...

a situation

2010-04-29T18:59:00.006-06:00

listen
hear the rain
see a thousand dead umbrellas
frame drowsy past hero inspirations
crave the heart of hearts fake ideology
retrieve snapshots of blurry nervous love
kill a squalling homage to my flawed adult self
sing sarcastically the edge of haves and the have not
regret the worst kind of emotional mediocre promise
bite little everyday paranoia lurking just below
turn to extreme dark dirgey lyric mixes
negotiate a kind of tribal throbbing
mute the sigh to somehow lusher
embrace the latest buzz
use your discretion
resist fragments
marginalize

- See: Poetry

:: note :: ... april is the cruelest month ... Everywhere I go, I find a poet has been there before me. (Sigmund Freud) ...

9.

2010-04-05T13:15:00.004-06:00

If I slip now
If my tongue is brash
If my thoughts betray
If my feet numb
If I fall
If my tongue
If the shell cracks
If our knees touch
If words fail
If our eyes meet
If my heart softens
If the sun
If tongue
If word
If numb
If heart skin tongue word embrace

Fall

I will deny it all

(from Slip. Poems by Sina Queyras)

- See: Writers Poetry

:: note :: ... reading this while writing previous post ... they were (to me) connected ...

Drowning in what is there

2010-04-03T20:04:00.017-06:00

"When someone is following the stream of transformation energy, doing it - performing - with the ancient vibratory songs, the resonators in the body can begin a very complex dialogue with themselves. A dialogue which is not at all guided consciously by the doer but led more by the "inner action" itself."(Thomas Richards Interviewer: Lisa Wolford. The Edge-Point of Performance)

Bent Out of Shape Productions' The Drowning Girls recent Saskatoon performances March 24 - April 5 at Backstage Stage Persephone Theater surfaced a thought frenzy that always lays close to the surface. What do I witness in a performance?

Daniela Vlaskalic, co-writer, actor and co-producer has stated "... we all ended up writing and creating the play together. That was 1999." The ten year journey has been mostly lauded throughout as hugely entertaining and visually mesmerizing with positively sparkling comments. "From conception to execution and performance, all the elements are gloriously realized." Some voices questioned the "Style in fact, totally triumphs over potentially deadly serious substance." & a script where "Unfortunately, there is no tension." Still clearly the function of enjoyment & fun is, as Helen Shaw writes on Upstaged, well ... important.

At the opening sold out performance the audience rose to its feet with an enthusiastic ovation. There was no denying the clean, clever imaginative action. The splashing, dripping, showering and drenching water was indeed the fourth character driving the gulping, spraying and breathless rhythm while both concealing and revealing the wedding dresses, viels, blue bouquets and newspaper props of play. The three white porcelain claw-footed tubs with functioning shower-heads gleamed stoically, silently & threateningly not only a murder object but more a metaphor for the historically rooted husband George Joseph Smith who was eventually hanged for the murders of the seven women he married, three of which he drowned in a bathtub.

Beth Graham and Natascha Girgis joined Vlaskalic with bold, confident and studied, sometimes stylized and other times poetic, eloquent movements. They flowed through the dark narrative, vaudevillian sketches and poses of women perched at the close of the Edwardian era with careful distance. Their delivery dazzled whether ironic church hymn singing (wish I knew the song for the middle aged couple next to me chuckled knowingly), mocking Scots brogue or court room antics. Their speech though earnest resonated with good humor. The lighting designed by Narda McCarroll was a counterpoint to the wild water ruthlessly sharp and precise pinning the actors to the black and white tiled stage floor. Often the spot and cross lighting exposed the vulnerable women caught in the social mores of the day yet eerily still contemporary.

What I experienced was a collaboration of artists fully engaged in smart, open-minded theatrical creativity. I felt an empowerment which explored an unwritten story of victim. The point I wish to examine is what did I witness.

Once I believed theatre was carved on body memory in the tangible space between actor & audience. That esoteric, strange and complicatedly compelling space where energy is exchanged. The invisible space within and without.

"Normally in theatre (that is to say, in theatre of performance, in Art as presentation), one works on the vision that should appear in the perception of the spectator. If all of the elements of the performance are elaborated and correctly assembled (the montage), an effect appears in the perception of the spectator, a vision, a certain story; to some degree the performance appears not on the stage but in the perception of the spectator. This is the nature of Art as presentation. At the other extremity of the long chain of the performing arts is Art as vehicle, which looks to create the montage not in the perception of the spectators, but in the artists who do. This has already existed in the past, in the ancient Mysteries." (From the Theatre Company to Art as Vehicle Jerzy Grotowski in At Work with Grotowski on Physical Actions. p. 120)

Now I witness energy transformation in artists themselves. A quality of active receptivity in the singingness and dancingness which allows a play-force. I witness a state of body resistance cultivating a flexible and empty acceptance to be a channel open to encounter. I witness the capacity to play in the conjunction between the rigors of all the raw material elements of craft and the flow of spontaneity. This happen stance occurs in an informal and discreet way. I witness how it rewrites my subjectivity and how it kicks my ass with its transformative power. I witness an uncontrollable quality.

In The Drowning Girls I witnessed a solid quality of a seeing what is there - controlled presentation fostering ultimately predictable effects.

- See: Theater

:: note :: ... whatever the performance opening up cannot be over calculated ... beg to open ... let dreaming adrift ... release wanting ... release expectation ... who knows how we experience ... open the soul and journey in a heartbeat ... cartoons found at Mimi and Eunice drawn by Nina Paley ...

performing Thompson

2010-03-20T19:18:00.006-06:00

The beginning of March offered Saskatoon audiences a rare sighting of two productions of plays by Judith Thompson. Recognized by some, “as one of the major playwrights in the English-speaking world ...", her profoundly dark and disturbing visions present challenges to mainstream companies. It is not surprising then both plays were performed by what may be described as outlier ensembles.

White Line Productions performed The Crackwalker at The Remai Arts Centre's BackStage Stage and Goat Songs Theatre performed Lion in the Streets at The Refinery Arts and Spirit Centre. Director Kristen Holfeuer assembled her Crackwalker cast from the creative firepower of recent University of Saskatchewan Drama Department graduates while Bethani Jade directed her young, fearless group of high-school and current university students in the fragmented and disruptive narrative Lion in the Streets. Does it really take gender to recognize the common condition of oppression with the will to powerfully confront that oppression? Or is it simply coincidence playwright and directors are female?

Seen together the performances complement each other. The actors Scott Gould, Alan Long, Aaron Naytowhow, Cherillyn Porter & Tara Schoonbaert unleashed studied, controlled and carefully crafted portrayals. Saija Shearer, Jeanine Thrasher, Charlie Peters, Danika Stecler, Alana Pancyr and Tristan Hills twisted and turned in the precarious and reckless types stretched beyond limits. All actors committed themselves with exhaustive energy and an undeniable nightmarish passionate journey of self-destruction accessing emancipation through self-construction. The Man in The Crackwalker daringly hinted & hovered beyond metaphor just as the child/youth Isobel vibrated in dreaming reality. One can only imagine the strength of purpose stage managers Cady Groat & Erin Crowley maintained during the harrowing rehearsal passage.

The simplicity of space and sound design whether a couch or pew or natural sounds or Soso songs or Johnny Cash NIN cover allowed the gritty & raw text to play with its richly layered poetics.

Seen together the text and images of psychological, sexual and physical violence assault the senses. Thompson has written on the role her epilepsy played in shaping her work:

"My seizures were horrifying, but I had so few that I think it's helped me as a writer. To be an artist, you have to have some of the advantages of being an insider and you also need the disadvantages of being an outsider. I've been marginalized by that, and I'm grateful to have suffered through it because, if you get through it, it can be a gift if you've also had the advantages I've had." (Behind the Mask)

Seen together the complex, risky emotional territory of Thompson's characters who so desperately seek love and Grace in the cruel and hateful terrain invite serious "work".

"Once you're in your late twenties and thirties if you don't do serious work on who you are, if you don't acknowledge and meet fatality, then there is such damage that can be done. You have to really work. You have to think and work on yourself." (Judith Thompson Interview by Judith Rudakoff in Fair play: 12 women speak: conversations with Canadian playwrights )

There can be found the outlier ensembles. Artists taking the courage to dig around - to dig around at their community, their family & their generation in all its economic/class splendour and to explore how strong the connection is between culture and the crashes. Kristen Holfeuer when asked what she had learned from her work answered: "To trust my instincts more."

Praise all outlier ensembles and to the mainstream & "indie" companies please take notice. Be brave. Strive for excellence. Reinvest in the daring experiment called theatre. Find the Monster.

Alterati Manifesto

2010-02-16T15:34:00.005-06:00

Alterati –
The Other Culture

"This is a statement, not an appeal.
Most great art movements, like surrealism, dada, or situationism all started with a manifesto, a statement of position.
Here is our position:

We are already here.
The proscenium has been breached, disbanded and dismantled.
Information networks span the globe, and cultures, ideas, and realities are converging and being redefined minute-by-minute.
This revolution will not be broadcast, although it may be televised, on demand, portable and configurable — but it will be your choice.
Possibly, it will be your creation.
Remember the Future of “no future”?
Well, this is it.
That’s not a statement of doom.
It’s an expression of freedom.
Kill your clocks, burn your calendars, and hang out.
Alterati has built the platform. All you need do is show up."

Alterati

- See: Manifesto

:: note :: ... love a manifesto ...

Lunar New Year

2010-02-13T20:34:00.010-06:00

Passing on to All

New Year greetings
from Monk Dae Yo
Hwa Eom Sa
The 19th Branch Temple of Korean Buddhist Chogye Order

눈이 많이 오고 강추위도 잦았던
겨울이 지금도 기성을 부리네요

화엄사 향기님들 모두 평안하시지요

기축년이 어느덧 가고

경인년 신년이 시작이면서
민족 고유의 명절인 설날이 오네요

올해는 연휴가 짧아
고향에 머무시는 시간도 많지 않고
혹여 길이 막히지 않을까 싶은데
느긋한 마음으로 안전운전 하셔서
무사무탈하게 잘 다녀오세요

복 많이 지으시고 평안하시길 바랍니다

♬까치까치 설날은 ♬

♬ ♬ Magpie Magpie New Year is ♬ ♬

- See: Temple

:: note :: ... received this e-mail greeting ... the Temple Stay this summer was an emotional experience & Monk Dae Yo was an inspiring, generous, kind & benevolent director whose smile attracted compassion within all ...

The Sea Creature

2010-02-08T23:03:00.007-06:00

The sea creature lurked silently at the bottom of the ocean. Mermaids played skipping games making bubbles outside their magic shell. Suddenly a splash sounds above them. Two Haenyo, skilled women divers who are known to be able to hold their breath for more than two minutes and dive to depths of 20 meters start their day foraging the ocean floor for octopus, abalone, sea urchins, sea slugs, cucumber and seaweed.

The sea creature curiously approaches the divers. They panic fearing an attack & call for help. A passing fisherman hauls the divers onto his boat and spears the sea creature. Mortally wounded the creature falls to the bottom of the ocean.

The mermaids mourn the loss of their companion & protector. They dance over him calling on spirits to bring the creature back to life. Joyously they succeed. Swimming to the boat they summon the divers coaxing them to climb on the creatures back. Together they are carried to the shell kingdom where the mermaids gift the divers with the drum of the ocean.

The divers return to shore. The mermaids realizing the divers had forgotten the drum stick swim and toss the stick to shore but as they swim away they get tangled in the fisherman's net. The sea creature hearing their plight swims to their rescue cutting the net & freeing the mermaids.

At that moment the magic drum sounds and all dance in celebration for harmony on earth & in the waters.

- See: Creative Drama

:: note :: ... story developed by the creative drama team @ Cardinal Leger School during the second session of community classes ... that night eight students between the ages of 8 - 12 ...

due course

2010-02-07T01:43:00.000-06:00

The eternities went
for his reveries and deeper

The blaze of intention
The dream lifeline design
Trekking introspection

Excavating the gap

At the abyss
the underly totem runes
buried again buried again shock

:: note :: ... a response to the night ...

Parcours

2010-02-06T23:03:00.009-06:00

Live the Question
Becoming the answer

The journey I trace
The impulse I follow
The loneliness I assume

Reveals the way I am

In the silence I listen
to the forgotten question
Remembering to learn my way.

- ae ran
(Transliteration of Parcours by raymon)

:: note :: ... written for an acting course ...

harrison & josipovici

2010-01-27T20:12:00.004-06:00

... listening to Ted Harrison interview on The Next Chapter he explains ... simplify the shapes & add more colour ... gradually the colour takes over ... the colour was a discovery ...

... strikes me Gabriel Josipovici follows this aesthetic in his novels I've recently read: conversations in another Room & Everything Passes ...

... in the theatre render the action & deepen concentration ... wonder on the pedagogical application ...

- See: ArtistsSpeak

:: note :: ... ? ...

66 events

2010-01-21T00:48:00.002-06:00

66 Events

#six_events in 2008 was performed by hundreds in 29 countries across the globe over 6 days
#sixty_six_events is over a full 24 hour period and can be performed by anyone, anywhere.
#freely interpret and perform any number of the 66 events within the given time
#document your actions and send to info@sixtysixevents.com
(Crg Hill's poetry scorecard)

- See: events

:: note :: ... missed it ... next year? ...

simply be faithful

2010-01-20T22:02:00.000-06:00

what theatre really is or princesses of the new moon
they form a gentle circle on a darkened stage listening

faces so seriously still desiring this ones gift &
that ones voice they await the tone which releases them into the wild

lights fade, seats empty, doors open as the future slides in.

you'd think I'd tire of this endless seasonal come & go
experience is brutal, generous & expansive
a worthy loss.

simply be faithful to the eternal visionary tradition of unovertakeable,tender loss.

:: note :: ... end of term ...

why write reviews

2010-01-19T12:06:00.003-06:00

I am wary of performance and attend when obligated yet often am aroused to write.

I prefer description supported by action. I go looking, searching, asking, questioning, reacting to data, leaping in, constructing notes to [re]act on my responses instead of contemplating on them. I dislike a cursory summary of the narrative action and shy from offering judgemental impressions. I prefer to present details, referencing examples to illustrate an assembling attention. I try to situate the work within the context of the oeuvre of the playwright/director/ensemble or whatever seems appropriate: a close reading of content, form and working procedures, historical and biographical tidbits, the canonical vocabulary of theory, innovation or stated intention.

I require an intelligence of feeling and academic rigour parallel with associative linking to create a complexity that blurs serious and playful thinking. My wish is to stimulate questions that encourage a working manifesto for all types of practitioners. I look for a tone of passionate detachment infused with provocations. I value wit and insight. I recognize my knowledge is fragile, my certainty about anything has decreased and embrace the liquidity of reflection.

As theatre is one of the many "rivers" of culture I write about theatre to swim in its currents. I confess a huge reliance on the vast writings of others from diverse fields and hope my [re]views stimulate engagement on performance work.

Hope to meet you at a performance.

:: note :: ... part of a series of fragments on self ...

self narrative

2010-01-17T04:43:00.006-06:00

What are the artistic processes of performance & how to articulate how I witness the uncapturable in performance practice are questions that guide my exploration. I meditate on them from the vantage point of my own self-narrative, as a performance practitioner whose artistry, in many ways, relies on the willingness of others to disclose, to open themselves.

I left my home and theatre practices turning twenty to immerse myself in another tradition. After an extensive stay within the Grotowski and Grotowski diaspora I returned home to dwell in the perceived place of my creative center. The work inexplicably led to the vocation of education & specifically playing in the territory education of the imagination.

One of the frames through which I construct my research is a focus on the formal in practice: attention to the shapes of narratives, the physical intimacy that changes the time and space of an encounter, the fullness of the movements of touch and density (dancingness & singingness) and on the ways that formal experimentation can open up spaces beyond and beneath narratives that can sound so familiar - those moments of energetic connection that happen through the practice to discover traces of attention and to attain a sensibility towards the aura of vibration.

In time I learned, that my research aim, in all the meditation sequences mistakenly labelled teaching, was not to find essential truths about identity or establish a living, creative consciousness but to explore the limits of entwined ideological, aesthetic and cultural expression and create tools that enable recognition and hence communication. In a deeply practical way the path was to experience the imaginative world we all inhabit and to make that imaginative life experiential.

:: note :: ... taking myself very seriously & reading The Loser by Thomas Bernhard ... "In theory he became one of the greatest piano virtuosos in the world, one of the most famous artists of all time (even if not as famous as Glenn Gould!), in practice he accomplished nothing at the piano ...

creative drama fall session

2010-01-06T14:06:00.000-06:00

Opens with the King (Morgan) and Evil Queen (Sonia) fighting, the Evil Queen hands the king a mask. The King takes it and then banishes her from the kingdom and throws the mask after her. End Scene.

Next: An old lady (Mary?) is walking along when all of a sudden a monster (Macy) attacks and captures her. While the monsters back is turned the old lady uses her magic to escape and attempts to run away. The monster sees her and a battle of magic begins between the two. The monster pushes the old women to the back of it's lair, when it seems the monster has won the old women grabs her cane and bashes the monster over the head. The monster falls down stunned, the old lady then uses her magic to remove the curse that has fallen on the monster. The monster wakes up and is transformed into a young girl. The old lady beckons the girl to follow her and the two begin their journey to the king by walking on water.

Meanwhile: The Evil Queen is bored and is playing with her servant, she tosses the mask and makes her servant bring it back. The Evil Queen then notices the Old Lady and Young girl on her river. She stops them and only lets them proceed when they take the mask and promise to bring it to the king. As they walk away the Evil Queen's servant tries to tell them something but is stopped by the Evil Queen. The Old Lady and Young Girl continue their journey until the end of the river where they stop to rest.

At the Kingdom: The princess goes to see her father to ask if she can Play with her 3 pet birds. Her father says no and sends her to her room, the princess runs away crying. The Princess best Friend gets up and is soon called by the king, she goes to him and he banishes her before she even gets the chance to bow. The girl runs away crying into the forest, where she is stabbed and killed by one of the Kings men. She lets out a terrifying scream as she dies.
The Princess hears her friend scream, she calls her birds and they go off running to the forest. They find her dead friend, the princess then uses her powers to bring her back to life. The girl and Princess run back to the castle while the birds shortly follow.

The Old lady and Young Girl then continue their journey to the king. They are greeted by the princess who presents them to the king. They present the king the mask and leave to the woods, he slowly puts it on and the second he does a change happens over the kingdom. The birds begin to fly anxiously, the princess runs to hide, and the king begins to change. The birds drop to the ground, lifeless.

Suddenly the Evil Queen's servant appears, she calms down the king and removes the mask. As soon as she has it she runs away and the Kings hands shoot to his face. The Princess comes from hiding, she calls her best friend and the birds back to life. The Old Lady and Young Girl follow the Princess, her friend, and the 5 birds to confront the Evil Queen. They strike her down with the help of her servant.

In Celebration of the Evil Queens defeat Everyone dances around the Princess.

The End

- See: TheaterWork, TheaterWorkCreative Drama

:: note :: ... recorded by Tara Desroches hours after creative drama session ... this was second term of creative drama where I was assisted by Tara & Stefan ... 21 children this time ...

New Year Greetings

2010-01-01T14:28:00.003-06:00

Bonne annee 2010,
ouverte sur le monde,
chaleureuse et fraternelle.
Ouvrons nos fenetres
pour regarder et apprecier
la richesse et la diversite
de ceux que nous rencontrons.
Rejouissons nous
de cette lumiere
qui vient a nous.

:: note :: ... greeting from Cised Paris an international student service for University Paris 8 ...

Dog

2009-12-28T11:36:00.004-06:00

Wegman

:: note :: ... walking by the river encountered a jogger with dog ... the innocent eyes & curious gaze captivated me ... " Wish I were a dog", I exclaimed ... partner responded "You are - You are!" ... finally found myself ...

Friends

2009-12-27T22:45:00.000-06:00

He turned to jade and left the world.
He danced death outside to no secret.

He closed his blind eyes tightly shut
and invited some close friends over.

The friends lost their way somewhere.
They reappeared inside the deep dark.

Since his soul snapped and sunk,
they held a magnifying glass inches away.

:: note :: ... a pillaged poem ... Strangers by Annie Finch ...

return

2009-12-23T19:32:00.008-06:00

On a hot summer day, a country in mourning, we each went our way to the very end.

Awaiting her return, the day after winter solstice, anticipating footprints in the snow I close my eyes to perceive the airport kiss which like vapour disappears forever illusive.

Have just replaced the calendar, surprised that 1998 matches 2010, acknowledge the ignorance of time, comforted by the ignorance, a better part of beauty, in the briefest of times charms the magic of the moment.

Are we sharp-witted fools sacrificing cold blooded existence to a studied cultural fanaticism, artists out of desperation barricading ourselves from catastrophe, self-disciplined martyrs ruthlessly pursuing danger, exploiting the chance, the last compassionate chance towards a fatal & ambitious ideal nonsense.

The mirror reflects the look of a wild man. Switch on the coloured festive lights as a beacon. How will she look? You don't have to be with a person in order to feel bound to them as to no other. Cross the threshold wondering whether cross-border narratives overwhelm absurd laughter to denounce, scandalize and shake the chains of passionate ambivalence with unassuaged anger dissolving into muckraking cathartic attacks.

Our desires are only realized when we are totally concentrated. Wait out the intense devilish curiosity to the point of life ability exhaustion. You awoke ridiculously early & sleep pulls at the eyelids of despair unable to look through them to give thoughts free rein.

Into the cold dark night, later than expected, rejoicing the wonder of our love till the very end.

Skit Skit

2009-12-21T01:23:00.009-06:00

The Urban Dictionary defines skit skit: "to cum or to want to be cummed on by either sex" and yet SKIT SKIT is a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based sketch comedy troupe composed (this time round) of Ashton Francis, Kristen Holfeuer, Matthew Keyes, Ed Mendez and Tara Schoonbaert.

This wonderfully skilled group last performed @ The Refinery December 17, 18 & 19th. Cam Fuller of The StarPhoenix wrote they are "a big hit with the audience" & their Facebook page affirms this. No small feat in a genre that puts a high premium on novelty.

A mix of video clips around Heritage Minutes & Sexy Singles flows seamlessly into live SNL type sketches boldly & exuberantly performed at a carefully crafted pace. The writing is paradoxically broad & concise at its best when they follow the comedy edge of making serious stuff humorous. Where the troupe shines most are their provocations at the arts. Matthew Keyes does a priceless Nichelback parody, Tara Schoonbaert's opening "Welcome" sketch playfully pricks the pompous, pretentiousness of the "rich" modern theatre and the whole ensemble closes the evening with a delightful rendition of So Long, Farewell, Aufweidersehen, Goodbye from The Sound of Music.

Here lies the rub. Anne Bogart writes in and then you act:

"The classic recipe for effective theater is threefold: 1) you need something to say; 2) you need technique; and 3) you need passion."

Skit Skit are passionate & accomplished actor/writer/directors. I invite them to reflect more on what their material may have to say for therein comes greatness - continue to make us laugh & maybe cry but don't forget we need to learn with work that will disarm with laughter and with wit impregnate. Skit Skit.

:: note :: ... did miss the presence of a couple of their founding members ... & from my favourite radio comedy (no longer) show Dead Dog Cafe: stay calm, be brave wait for the signs and leave the good news alone ...

Textwork

2009-12-02T01:24:00.007-06:00

With warning
as lightning heralds thunder
love rumbles my heart.

Textwork is a practice, not a product.

It is praxis, part and parcel of the critique of the everyday creative life act.
It invites something out of nothing. A source.

TextwUrk is not a metaphor, not metaphorical. It is creative work. A passion.

It exists precisely in the obdurate interstice between body and voice.
It exists in the arrow - the connection. It is memory. It is invisible to illuminate.

It is not a set of procedures or perceptions. It is the crisis noise in the system.
It is not the encapsulation or object of the crisis noise or the system.

It is continuous; it is parasitic; it is thetic. It seeks obstacle.

It is of no interest except as cultural residue: it is of great interest to the actor's studies.

It is nothing more than the continuous reification, territorialization and rendering of the
actor's work/etude - as if the etude were always already cleansed, available for the taking -
as if the etude were already transformed into living action.

Textwrk is demonstrative, a demonstrative fragment, an experiment, partial-inscription,
partial-object, the automatic prior to its presentation, the linguistic kernel of the pre-linguistic.
TexTwork is the thetic, the gestural of the demonstrative.

It is the gesture that never quite takes. It is the noise inherent in the gestural.

To TextWork is not to produce text; it is to create a study on the pre-level of living action;
the irreversible spew of cellular automata is TextwOrk, all the better if the rules of vibration,
support, range, position, character, voice and repetition are noisy.

The cultural production of tEXtwork abjures intensifications, strange attractors & descriptions
such as this. The hunt and reception of impulse & association is TextworK. Creators on the edge
are circumscribed by textwork. Malfunctioned psychoanalytics & scatologies are dissolute,
partial, always already incomplete: the differend is Textwork.

Be wary of the violence of the legible text. Beware the metaphor which institutionalizes,
the text which defines, the text of positivities, not negations, the circumscribing text,
the inscribing text; beware of the producers and institutions of these texts, whose stake
is in hardening of definitions, control, capital, slaughter: Texts slaughter.

Textwork slaughters texts.

:: note ::. ... used What is Codework? as template for this statement towards What is Textwork ... apologies to Alan Sondheim |sondheim {AT} panix.com| (Tue, 16 May 2006 08:46:55 -0400 (EDT)) ...