Day 54
Timer on…
15 Days to go…
I finished the series earlier this evening, but…I was attempting to finish my two lectures that I need to have ready by tomorrow…and I just finished the second one about five minutes ago…
I spent a very fun day reading all about Early Asian Theater, in order to be ready for my lecture and discussion in my Theater History I class this week. I never feel as confident in lecturing about Asian Theater. I have studied it a lot, and I have assisted on a Japanese/Chinese-American puppetry play with Ping Chong & Company (OBON: TALES OF RAIN AND MOONLIGHT), so…it’s not like I haven’t experienced the work up close, either, but…I am never confident in it. Everytime I read about it, I feel like I learn all sorts of things I didn’t learn before. I also, recently, read THE PAPER CANOE by Eugenio Barba, and I was comforted to find his delineation of Northern actors vs. Southern actors. He didn’t categorize them as Western vs. Eastern. I liked this because I agree with him about the fact that both Western and Eastern theater people like a codified/disciplined technique. So…I re-read the chapters in my textbook Wilson & Goldfarb’s THE LIVING THEATRE: A HISTORY OF THEATER, Kuritz’ THE MAKING OF THEATRE HISTORY, and Brockett’s HISTORY OF THE THEATRE, with this idea in mind…not that East and West are different, but that they end up the same…this was very enlightening…
Anyway, I digress to the above tangent because there was a lot of fun things about the Sanskrit language that can be applied back to the series I’ve been doing…so…bear with me:
The Shiva Nataraja (sound familiar? Natarajasana – Dancer Pose?), is the god of the dance, who performs to destroy and then renew the universe.
That above statement blew my mind this afternoon, when I read it, because this series is to destroy the mourning and renew my love…and Natarajasana is one of the poses that I probably will never master (reminder: I said it’s like my dream of doing a Sunday New York Times Crossword…I will probably turn into a white light and disappear, if I ever master the Dancer Pose). But…wow! The Dancer, the Performer, the Practitioner, is destroying in order to renew. Beautiful.
Another quote, from Kuritz: “Western drama was based on conflict; Eastern drama, on cooperative dance. The West sent heroes into the world to make their destinies according to their free will. The East let heroes flow with the way of the world by withdrawing to inner harmony.”
So…my series begins with Virasana or Hero Pose. The way of my world for this series is to withdraw into inner harmony. And, yes! That’s exactly what I’m hoping for…crazy…Kuritz…you are the man!
And, because I’m running out of time, also from Kuritz: “Upanishads: explanations of the relationship between an atman (individual’s soul) and the Brahman (universal soul). The Upanishads represent the world’s oldest philosophical and psychological system of investigation. The belief that atman and Brahman are identical, that the soul within is identical with the soul of the world, resulted in a philosophical position that unites the subjective and the objective, the individual and the world. This metaphysical view permeated Indian society and theatre.”
So…essentially…my intuitive investigation with this series is, hopefully, going to connect me back to the world by searching for my individual soul…who has…unfortunately gone for a sad walk…
That’s all for today…
Timer on…
15 Days to go…
I finished the series earlier this evening, but…I was attempting to finish my two lectures that I need to have ready by tomorrow…and I just finished the second one about five minutes ago…
I spent a very fun day reading all about Early Asian Theater, in order to be ready for my lecture and discussion in my Theater History I class this week. I never feel as confident in lecturing about Asian Theater. I have studied it a lot, and I have assisted on a Japanese/Chinese-American puppetry play with Ping Chong & Company (OBON: TALES OF RAIN AND MOONLIGHT), so…it’s not like I haven’t experienced the work up close, either, but…I am never confident in it. Everytime I read about it, I feel like I learn all sorts of things I didn’t learn before. I also, recently, read THE PAPER CANOE by Eugenio Barba, and I was comforted to find his delineation of Northern actors vs. Southern actors. He didn’t categorize them as Western vs. Eastern. I liked this because I agree with him about the fact that both Western and Eastern theater people like a codified/disciplined technique. So…I re-read the chapters in my textbook Wilson & Goldfarb’s THE LIVING THEATRE: A HISTORY OF THEATER, Kuritz’ THE MAKING OF THEATRE HISTORY, and Brockett’s HISTORY OF THE THEATRE, with this idea in mind…not that East and West are different, but that they end up the same…this was very enlightening…
Anyway, I digress to the above tangent because there was a lot of fun things about the Sanskrit language that can be applied back to the series I’ve been doing…so…bear with me:
The Shiva Nataraja (sound familiar? Natarajasana – Dancer Pose?), is the god of the dance, who performs to destroy and then renew the universe.
That above statement blew my mind this afternoon, when I read it, because this series is to destroy the mourning and renew my love…and Natarajasana is one of the poses that I probably will never master (reminder: I said it’s like my dream of doing a Sunday New York Times Crossword…I will probably turn into a white light and disappear, if I ever master the Dancer Pose). But…wow! The Dancer, the Performer, the Practitioner, is destroying in order to renew. Beautiful.
Another quote, from Kuritz: “Western drama was based on conflict; Eastern drama, on cooperative dance. The West sent heroes into the world to make their destinies according to their free will. The East let heroes flow with the way of the world by withdrawing to inner harmony.”
So…my series begins with Virasana or Hero Pose. The way of my world for this series is to withdraw into inner harmony. And, yes! That’s exactly what I’m hoping for…crazy…Kuritz…you are the man!
And, because I’m running out of time, also from Kuritz: “Upanishads: explanations of the relationship between an atman (individual’s soul) and the Brahman (universal soul). The Upanishads represent the world’s oldest philosophical and psychological system of investigation. The belief that atman and Brahman are identical, that the soul within is identical with the soul of the world, resulted in a philosophical position that unites the subjective and the objective, the individual and the world. This metaphysical view permeated Indian society and theatre.”
So…essentially…my intuitive investigation with this series is, hopefully, going to connect me back to the world by searching for my individual soul…who has…unfortunately gone for a sad walk…
That’s all for today…
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