Autobiography of Grass Tomb
(Director Notes for the show not to be.)
My partner AeRan Jeong, an incredible performance artist and esteemed academic, introduced me to the Korean Arts - the mask dances, Temple stays, Pansori instruction, Piri lessons and a vast array of Korean theatre from puppets to drumming. We spent years sharing workshop experiences.
Believing a chance to stage the piece may not arrive i challenged my high school students to enter a project introducing Korean culture culminating in a performance of Grass Tomb at E.D.Feehan High School last year (2019). We worked months shaping, rewriting and discovering. As students do I learn much more from them than they do from me. They teach me lessons.
The University Drama Department, apparently driven by students request, opened a slot in the Greystone season for me to direct. Receiving permission from Korean directors affiliated with the play i felt it a wonderful opportunity to not only share aspects of another culture but also to investigate my past endeavors with Grotowski, Eugenio Barba and AMoK, the Austrian research theatre company which provided the source for my pedagogical path.
A significant moment was during the Christmas break reading The Autobiography of Death by Kim, Hyesoon, I decided to bricolage, into the Oh, Tae-Sok script, her 49 surreal poems where each poem represented a single day during which the spirit roams after death before it enters the cycle of reincarnation. The poems unveiled what Kim calls "the structure of death, that we remain living in." There were other sources particularly Eugenio Barba's Half Human Half Ghost: Techniques that are learned and a Technique to Elude techniques found in The Moon rises from the Ganges My Journey through Asian Acting Techniques.
At the same time I was reading Rethinking Religion in the Theatre of Grotowski by Catherine Christof. The tension within me was to fluidly walk the line of many interdisciplinary frontiers and make connections with Korea's traditions and violent contemporary history to our presence here on Treaty Six Territory and Homeland of the Metis.
Three, three-day weekend workshops in January and February, resulted in 14 acting students and a design team committing themselves to the project. Each workshop investigated aspects of Grotowski’s research.
We moved through theatre of productions to para-theatre / theatre of sources to objective drama / art as vehicle to soul work. The disciplines of the workshops were rooted in Theatre Anthropology, Ethnoscenology and Performance Studies. The actuality was a training play process - in the spirit of a series of happenings. After the workshops I had no plan ... Grotowski’s words “I do the play I do not know” is a beginning place fraught with anxiety.
During the workshop i exclaimed: "i don't care about the production - i care about you" ... i saw panic in their eyes & later retracted the statement wishing to clarify to no avail. What they perhaps neglected to realize is if you care deeply about your actors the production will take care of itself.
Still what I could not have foreseen and left me completely overwhelmed were how the students forged a fascinating work from acts of inspired creation. I did nothing but watch. Occasionally spoke incomprehensible words, told stories I hoped related, made suggestions most of which had to be discarded and ignored.
I did share videos, created a structure of cycles attempting to follow Korean dramatic structure and poorly described aspects of Korean rhythm and conceptual aesthetics. I distributed the poems by asking each to pick a number or two and provided them with the numbered poem. It felt like casting the IChing Book of Changes (though never talked about it.) It was remarkable how so many found the perfect place and action for their randomly chosen poems. We did have a moment of doubt regarding cultural appropriation and what were we even attempting to reach with this project. Given a chance to discuss the students answered the questions themselves. We continued positioning our quest in an indeterminate place of half ghost/half human. We all had ideas of loss & grief ... loss of land. loss of the other, loss of humanity.
I continued to listen & responded by cleaning the floor, threw pieces of fabric at them, moved, breathed and voiced with them. Shared dreams, fears, inadequacies and couldn’t hold back tears of gratitude. I had a faithful grounded manager team that magically recorded our words shaping them into a script and kept us on our path. Videoed a later rehearsal run to help cue to cue. Standing with me were designers and experienced faculty who if I didn’t have a clue knew exactly what needed to be done. The set and lights were deliciously magnificent. We ended up with a script composed of a welcoming, cycles 1 to 4, the knot and untying. Interspersed were 16 poems.
Each and every step along the process a student - no a searcher, a fresh unbridled artist would discover some territory of the heart, some deep connection, some inner life moment, some physical truth, some playful living act, some unfathomable psychological source, some leap of imagination, some power of voice, some unanswered question later to be answered in the action of playmaking and together they made the work play and the play became life or rather the space was transformed into a rhythmic, narrative of evocative energy changeable and ephemeral yet a precise form which preserved the mystery of our relationship between the living and the dead.
The Autobiography of Grass Tomb allowed us to witness “ripples of gestures, intonations, actions, stillness and thoughts and it is as if these remained unknown to us” (Barba: Half human, half ghost - Techniques that are learned and a technique to elude techniques found in The Moon rises from the Ganges My Journey through Asian Acting Techniques)
Sitting in the audience at our first and last sharing the play somehow made breathtakingly visible what lay in the here and now dormant in each of us as we dance the illusion of existence.
One of my last acts was to gift an object to each actor. It was an act of selfishness. They were to return the object at the conclusion of our process. i desired one last face to face opportunity to meet and look directly into their eyes to hold the preciousness of what we had done and give thanks
The Autobiography of Grass Tomb was shared at a tech rehearsal for friends and family Sunday, March 15 @ 6pm. It was never publicly performed. Cancelled due to the coronavirus (covid-19).
:: Note:: ... also posted these words of thanks to the cast: ... dearest team Grass Tomb ... i breathe deeply ... your incessant energy intensifying each day of our sojourn became the power that pulled me into your zone of an unfathomable freedom of expression and exploration ... your physical and emotional daring swept me into the visceral and inventive acts of creation ... in awe i participated as witness to your ruthless capacity as you entered rhythms of discovery and cycles of motions elevated far beyond the substance and limits of my imagination ... feelings swelled i chocked by tears feebly articulating our process ... inspired by you i rest wordless ... thank you for giving me the space to be with you ...thumbs up to the future ... you are the dancingness & singingness of hope ... when the fog cleared we affirm, after the process, we challenged a ghost and were not defeated ... much love as you continue your path own the way of the actor/artist ...
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| A still from the archived video from tech rehearsal |
My sojourn with the present embodiment of Autobiography of Grass Tomb began in 2003 during a first visit to Korea. Fascinated by the rich traditional arts i searched desperately for a Korean play in English translation and successfully downloaded one from a site now long defunct. Grass Tomb by Oh, Tae-sok & Dong Nang Repertory Theatre of Korea was described by the translator Ryu, Yung-kyung as “personified abstractions”. A short read of thirty-five minutes made it ideal for research in university classes. I played with the script for a few years in first year acting classes eventually developing something articulated as soul work.
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| The High School Cast |
The University Drama Department, apparently driven by students request, opened a slot in the Greystone season for me to direct. Receiving permission from Korean directors affiliated with the play i felt it a wonderful opportunity to not only share aspects of another culture but also to investigate my past endeavors with Grotowski, Eugenio Barba and AMoK, the Austrian research theatre company which provided the source for my pedagogical path.
 |
| Fi Jae Lee drawing |
At the same time I was reading Rethinking Religion in the Theatre of Grotowski by Catherine Christof. The tension within me was to fluidly walk the line of many interdisciplinary frontiers and make connections with Korea's traditions and violent contemporary history to our presence here on Treaty Six Territory and Homeland of the Metis.
 |
| DSA photo |
We moved through theatre of productions to para-theatre / theatre of sources to objective drama / art as vehicle to soul work. The disciplines of the workshops were rooted in Theatre Anthropology, Ethnoscenology and Performance Studies. The actuality was a training play process - in the spirit of a series of happenings. After the workshops I had no plan ... Grotowski’s words “I do the play I do not know” is a beginning place fraught with anxiety.
During the workshop i exclaimed: "i don't care about the production - i care about you" ... i saw panic in their eyes & later retracted the statement wishing to clarify to no avail. What they perhaps neglected to realize is if you care deeply about your actors the production will take care of itself.
 |
| DSA photo |
I did share videos, created a structure of cycles attempting to follow Korean dramatic structure and poorly described aspects of Korean rhythm and conceptual aesthetics. I distributed the poems by asking each to pick a number or two and provided them with the numbered poem. It felt like casting the IChing Book of Changes (though never talked about it.) It was remarkable how so many found the perfect place and action for their randomly chosen poems. We did have a moment of doubt regarding cultural appropriation and what were we even attempting to reach with this project. Given a chance to discuss the students answered the questions themselves. We continued positioning our quest in an indeterminate place of half ghost/half human. We all had ideas of loss & grief ... loss of land. loss of the other, loss of humanity.
 |
| Collage created by Paige Francoeur |
Each and every step along the process a student - no a searcher, a fresh unbridled artist would discover some territory of the heart, some deep connection, some inner life moment, some physical truth, some playful living act, some unfathomable psychological source, some leap of imagination, some power of voice, some unanswered question later to be answered in the action of playmaking and together they made the work play and the play became life or rather the space was transformed into a rhythmic, narrative of evocative energy changeable and ephemeral yet a precise form which preserved the mystery of our relationship between the living and the dead.
 |
| DSA photo |
Sitting in the audience at our first and last sharing the play somehow made breathtakingly visible what lay in the here and now dormant in each of us as we dance the illusion of existence.
One of my last acts was to gift an object to each actor. It was an act of selfishness. They were to return the object at the conclusion of our process. i desired one last face to face opportunity to meet and look directly into their eyes to hold the preciousness of what we had done and give thanks
The Autobiography of Grass Tomb was shared at a tech rehearsal for friends and family Sunday, March 15 @ 6pm. It was never publicly performed. Cancelled due to the coronavirus (covid-19).
:: Note:: ... also posted these words of thanks to the cast: ... dearest team Grass Tomb ... i breathe deeply ... your incessant energy intensifying each day of our sojourn became the power that pulled me into your zone of an unfathomable freedom of expression and exploration ... your physical and emotional daring swept me into the visceral and inventive acts of creation ... in awe i participated as witness to your ruthless capacity as you entered rhythms of discovery and cycles of motions elevated far beyond the substance and limits of my imagination ... feelings swelled i chocked by tears feebly articulating our process ... inspired by you i rest wordless ... thank you for giving me the space to be with you ...thumbs up to the future ... you are the dancingness & singingness of hope ... when the fog cleared we affirm, after the process, we challenged a ghost and were not defeated ... much love as you continue your path own the way of the actor/artist ...
Cast List Autobiography of Grass Tomb
IMJA. - Paige Francoeur
SOJA. - Danova Dickson
DANGJA - Max Perez
KOONJA - Kaylub Sinclair
ISLAND AIR / GREETER - Eden Park
ISLAND ORDER. - Katie Blackburn-Dust
ISLAND WATER - Molly Chartier
FISHER / BIRD - John Cody
ELDER FISHER - Jose Arias
APPRENTICE FISHER. - Vinrecs Lescano
METAL SPIRIT / GREETER - Adam Tweidt
VOICE SPIRIT - Emily Pickett
IMJA SPIRIT - Mckenzie Huyghebaert
FIRE SPIRIT - Emily Heinek
Set design by Nathan Harder
Costume Design by Kihiw Pilon
Light Design by Aalliyah McNab
Stage Managers - Paige Naknoneshny & Kurtis Crawford
Costume Design by Kihiw Pilon
Light Design by Aalliyah McNab
Stage Managers - Paige Naknoneshny & Kurtis Crawford
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| Costume Design drawing by Kihiw |
Music:
Pre-show: Album: When we all fall asleep where do we go? - Billie Eilish
- Pedang Duet - AeRan Jeong
- Paris Event
- Pedang Duet continued
- Chango Red Sun & SamulNori - International Version
- Ching Red Sun & SamulNori - International Version
- Piri - Red Sun & SamulNori - Then comes the White Tiger
- Taepyongso & Samullori Kim Duksoo - Traditional Korean Music Various Artists
- Salpuri dance-Park Seo-yeon https://youtu.be/e_wGUzas5DY
- Peaceful Question - Red Sun & SamulNori - Then comes the White Tiger
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