Phelim, thanks so much for this sharing. I'm reminded of the role
Bob Dylan played in the middle of civil rights and anti war - it
seems artists help us to reflect on what we are experiencing. We need
your truth, something to help us to breakout of our habits. I love
the idea of "peace breakout"
On Oct 18, 2011, at 11:38 PM, Phelim wrote:
Dear Raffi, Harrison, Michael, Suzanne, Christine, Peggy, Karen,
and all, how great to hear from you around the world.
It is an amazing time to be here in NYC. As you may remember three
years ago we came here and mounted our Philip Glass opera
“Satyagraha” which some of you saw. At that time we had a great ad
campaign which was almost cheeky in it's proposition:
“could an opera make us stand up for the truth?”
(Links here to the publicity and poster:
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/news/features/detail.aspx?
id=3624
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/news/features/detail.aspx?
id=3674 )
“Satyagraha”: At that time in NYC no one knew what the word even
meant! How times have changed.
Glass’s piece is a thirty year old opera about Gandhi's Satyagraha
campaign which first emerged and was enacted in South Africa. The
Satyagraha protests involved the burning of record cards and the
Newcastle march changed the rights of Indians in South Africa
forever and was the beginning of the movement which brought India
out from beneath the oppression of the British Empire.
At the time of first doing the Opera I was so drawn to it because
of the personal connections to working with open space and it's
power to help “peace break out”. I was excited by how I saw that
Gandhi’s idea of Satyagraha meant how leadership, activism and
protest starts with work on the self. The intangible “inner work
cooking” that if we are lucky can happen whilst opening space for
transformation and self organisation. All these are open space
practices. All these are Satyagraha practices. A discipline of
forged vulnerability or “soul-force”, "truth-force", "love-force."
I felt it was important to do the piece as it re-imagined and
stated the true nature of what had become mistranslated and
interpreted incorrectly as "passive resistance" an unhelpful term
to truly explain Gandhi's concept.
Now just three years later we are remounting the production whilst
an open space/Satyagraha movement breaks out around us and worldwide.
The irony that our production will be playing to the Metropolitan
Opera house audiences whilst Occupy Wall Street is so near cannot
be avoided! I am fascinated to see how the audience will respond to
the piece this time around, especially as many of them no doubt
could well be considered to be part of the ”1%”.
I have also found myself feeling how strangely complicated the
politics of this piece playing in the opera house is for myself and
here of course the fifth principle seems all the more important and
helpful to me. I ask myself what am I doing not down on Wall
street but inside an opera housed doing a piece about activism and
protest portrayed by singers with amazing voices. Is this just
decadent?
“Wherever it happens is the right place.”
I have found myself in the past questioning during extreme times
what is the point of doing theatre? This thing that can seem so
frivolous whilst world events seem so overwhelming. However it is
in theatre that I first experienced the transformative nature of
space, atmosphere, silence and emergence. True theatre holds space
for the imagination, dreams and the future when events, despair or
beliefs could close that space down. This is the frontier I
personally have known since childhood where a true conversation
with the unknown and chaos can be had (as David Whyte says) and the
imagination can be the first step towards opening space beyond my
own prejudice and limiting beliefs into possibility.
So I have realised how important this piece is to perform right NOW
because it manages to communicate what is behind or beneath a
Satyagraha protest: this is the power of Spirit. How important it
is to speak from my own place of truth. To be present in this a-
causal connection with world wide events and to let theatre do what
only theatre can do: to communicate the mysterious nature of the
spirit that exists out there as the space opens. To speak tangibly
of the spirit that so easily can be dismissed or made invisible in
media coverage or polarised reactions. To use art to do what its
purpose is: to say the unsayable, speak the ineffable.
As Gandhi sings in the opera (in words from the Bhagavad Gita)
“These are the Athletes of the Spirit"
Love
Phelim
________________________________
I generally pick up emails only at the beginning and end of the
working day. I am currently aiming to respond the following day. If
it is urgent please call me on 07956 187298.
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www.improbable.co.uk
@openspacer
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