post-pandemic ... this is not ...

... an open letter signed by board members of the Conseil québécois du thé âtre produced this translation courtesy of Dayane Ntibarikure (PACT) and Gariela Saltiel (Segal Centre), with additional support from Mishka Lavigne in a post titled This is not Theatre ...





... having forged the label "educator of the imagination" to describe my work with students in the domain of theatre/drama or rather the domain of the incarnation of the imagination ... i take a paragraph from the letter ...  replace "theatre" with "education" ...  exchange "audience" with "student" ...  perhaps scandalously exchange "performing arts" with "pedagogy" ... now have created some semblance of meaning to my days of unknowing ...

"Education is the art of gathering. Without direct encounter with the student, education does not exist. Without this delicious and dangerous awareness of the fallibility of the humans there in front of you, education does not exist. Without the mystical awareness of sharing a unique fleeting moment, education does not exist. Its existential quality is based on its ephemerality. Education is what happens between humans gathering together. Education is built on the ideas and feelings shared between souls gathering together. We build multifaceted universes, integrate new technologies, we sometimes collaborate with other disciplines, but none of this affects the essential nature of the pedagogy which fulfill the prehistoric need of humans to be among their own, to observe oneself in the cathartic presence of fellow humans." 
... and more changing "shows" with "teachings" ...
"In these unprecedented times, digital technology is a Band-Aid solution that we appreciate for what it is: a way to keep in touch with our students and offer them some substitutes for the teachings they are waiting for. Some encouraging and promising initiatives will last. Others are created to be temporary, to keep our heads above water while the storm passes, which may take a long time."
... culture's way out of this crisis ...  i fell compelled to imagine a post-pandemic recovery ... a creative dissemination which challenges the hijacking hive screen of the instumentarian ... it will be with caution, humility, patience, thoughtfulness ... a willingness to look beyond into time, place and context ...  of the small complicated acts ... essentially the way of the actor ... illuminating the human condition ... together ...

:: Note :: ...  please read This is not theatre ... we create education ...


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