if . . .

 Abandoned: a thousand tongues / A Requiem for the Dead ... extremely challenging to write this post ... process began with July workshops (12 three hour sessions) ... continued with August focused training (14 three hour sessions) ... shifted towards structured production in Sept. (7 three hour sessions) ... performances in mid-late October (9 ensemble sessions including two performances) ... some how ... a generously provided space from 9am - 1pm  ... ... two co-founders of the project, 36 workshop participants resulting in 10 actors to which 4 more theatre workers were added to the creative team ...  ... directors notes:   Welcome.   I should say at the outset we invite you to think of the action you are to witness as a Requiem - an act of remembrance. This years end of October hovers specifically over the torrent of tears from the trauma of Itaewon.  We have approached this trauma first and foremost from the perspective of students. Many have experienced loss. The text you hear a

 Well ... ... Ullaanbaatar, Mongolia was a wonderfully challenging experience ... reaffirmed, if you want to make a difference you have to do things normal people would think are too radical/incomprehensible ... maybe the biggest hurdle to get over ... you think "fungus" ... the word in use now as my partner, a completely fluent english speaker/writer though not her native tongue, uses f--- often in public saying it is a fun word pretty devoid of meaning for her ... makes me uncomfortable ... we agree to use "fungus" as a replacement ... now i too have fun ... it seems a good choice ... ... so fungus ... performance/poem "Untamed" is not going to work/be understood/be accepted or appreciated ... you think fungus ... so just do it  ... it might work ...  note "make a difference" not succeed because then what the fungus does success mean ... seventy years old now ... need to throw caution to the wind ...  photo during performance by Kakumoto Atsu

:: Note::  ... our performance group Untamed has created a piece ... coming soon ... after 12 workshop sessions and 15 rehearsals we are about to be ready ... a few more sessions when we return from Mongolia where we perform our signature piece " Untamed " ...  then " Abandoned: a thousand tongues" will happen ...   

Acting School  begins again in May.       :: Note:: ... started in March ... had to return to Canada ... started up again in May ... classes vary but always with AeRan ... 

:: Note::  … a Mastadon embed

Untamed A piece to be approached as a poem. Yet there is a story ... The untamed, perhaps even called a 'soul' reimagines the past. Alone having left Korea, untamed has wandered foreign horizons. Releasing a blur of pain, lips call out scaring away the bitter hurt.   In early autumn returning to Seoul, a place once called home, wild faces the times. What did Korea mean? What does it bring now? The flowering tree under the harvest moon beckons. Tread softly for the journey has just begun.  Prologue  Spirit,  form the Koryo Dynasty, enters. Plays Buk & dances: cleansing the space. Exits  (5 min.) I. Facing the Past Wild emerges from the flowering tree. Finds a posted paper on the tree and reads  Yi Sang poem:   Flowering Tree / 꽃나무 On an open field      a flowering tree stands      with no other like it      nearby      the flowering tree blossoms with a burning heart      as if thinking of      another flowering tree      burns its heart.      The flowering tree cannot reac