The Sacred Balance, rediscovering our place in nature, is a book by David Suzuki. It is one of the books that has been influential to me in posing acting and theatre in the realm of nature, a biological and ecological viewpoint and understanding. Don't get me wrong, I'm not disregarding the fact that theatre contains many elements, many viewpoints, nor am I intending to say it is or should be an exact recreation of life as in realism. But I am saying that theatre, at its best, given its own set of logics, the pretend, the contrived setting and circumstance, the ritual of spectator and performer, has a biological base still with the actor as core as well as a system of life and behavior, its ecology, in the movements and interactions of those actors in the particular environment. In order to understand it, and work with, explore it and use it to help create noteworthy productions, I try and understand the elements individually and collectively. Each day of working on it is like starting from scratch again, trying, as I have suggested in recent posts, to use a questioning system that is simple, that is just "trying to put two and two together." This means observing, trying, thinking, asking questions, waiting, concluding, starting over, trying again, etc. The fun is in the work, in the process, of seeing the activity, the growth, the change. There is never a point or a feeling of having understood completely or reached the zenith. There have been no ultimate ways as of yet for me. Each human, each actor presents a new set of trial and error for me, and in combinations it multiplies. My own body and mind is its own distinctive challenge as well, to learn with it, to prepare, to perform with it. Each time, I ask anew, who am I, who are we, what will we perform, how and why? This is how I understood it from my theatrical ancestors, Stanislavsky, Vahkatangov, Meyerhold, Grotowski. This is how I learned it from my teacher, Ellermann. This is how I tried it and recognized it with my peers, too numerous to name, and eventually with my students.
Chapter two of A Sacred Balance is called The Breath of All Green Things. The subject is air and breath. The following is a quote from the beginning of the chapter:
"Air also embodies ideas in speech and language, in song, and in the sweet airs of music. In English, as in other languages, a web of words celebrates the sacred status of air. Look at how the word "spirit" expands from its Latin source, spiritus, meaning breath, air, into so many other lively meanings - the soul, the animating principle, intelligence, emotional vigor, liveliness, essence or distilled extract - each one in opposition to deadness and dullness. From the same root comes inspiration, which gives birth to a new idea, and expiration, which signals the end of life."
The chapter continues on with facts about why, how and what we breathe, and its fascinating.
Grotowski came to the conclusion that actors must breathe as actors breathe, meaning this is different from other disciplines and activities, and even then each actor themselves is a little different. But there was always the work of trying to understand different types of respiration and its relationship to movement and physical action, including speaking. In Actor's Gymnasium we have tried breathing techniques from yoga, singing, and other disciplines as well as having invented our own techniques through trial and error. We have explored its relationship and influence with posture, movement and rhythm. We have tried to recognize its place in the "beginning of an idea" and its "end of life." We have thought about how plays like The Cherry Orchard could conceivably begin with and end with a body simple laying still and breathing (or not) - breathe of air, music, rhythm. (See the post on Fantasy Productions). We have tried out various breath-sound and breath-language techniques and ideas. And we have tried to acknowledge breath as our biological basis on the stage. In Jean Louis Barrault's idea of "setting the silence ringing" he is referring to vibrations of sound, of movement, which convey thoughts, ideas, meanings. For him, these vibrations travel through "air" or through that space between performer and performer, performer and spectator.
Like all things in theatre, that we want to consider "good and healthy" and worthy of our work and intentions, we need to strive for and to keep, or make, the "air" a good quality, one that can give us life through breath, influence our behavior and propel us forward. We must recognize that what we exhale, as in say or do, is going to be passed on - it is a shared resource for sure as it takes only a second or two for that molecule I breathed in and out to get to you and then you breathe it in and out. It is part of our ecology.
Chapter two of A Sacred Balance is called The Breath of All Green Things. The subject is air and breath. The following is a quote from the beginning of the chapter:
"Air also embodies ideas in speech and language, in song, and in the sweet airs of music. In English, as in other languages, a web of words celebrates the sacred status of air. Look at how the word "spirit" expands from its Latin source, spiritus, meaning breath, air, into so many other lively meanings - the soul, the animating principle, intelligence, emotional vigor, liveliness, essence or distilled extract - each one in opposition to deadness and dullness. From the same root comes inspiration, which gives birth to a new idea, and expiration, which signals the end of life."
The chapter continues on with facts about why, how and what we breathe, and its fascinating.
Grotowski came to the conclusion that actors must breathe as actors breathe, meaning this is different from other disciplines and activities, and even then each actor themselves is a little different. But there was always the work of trying to understand different types of respiration and its relationship to movement and physical action, including speaking. In Actor's Gymnasium we have tried breathing techniques from yoga, singing, and other disciplines as well as having invented our own techniques through trial and error. We have explored its relationship and influence with posture, movement and rhythm. We have tried to recognize its place in the "beginning of an idea" and its "end of life." We have thought about how plays like The Cherry Orchard could conceivably begin with and end with a body simple laying still and breathing (or not) - breathe of air, music, rhythm. (See the post on Fantasy Productions). We have tried out various breath-sound and breath-language techniques and ideas. And we have tried to acknowledge breath as our biological basis on the stage. In Jean Louis Barrault's idea of "setting the silence ringing" he is referring to vibrations of sound, of movement, which convey thoughts, ideas, meanings. For him, these vibrations travel through "air" or through that space between performer and performer, performer and spectator.
Like all things in theatre, that we want to consider "good and healthy" and worthy of our work and intentions, we need to strive for and to keep, or make, the "air" a good quality, one that can give us life through breath, influence our behavior and propel us forward. We must recognize that what we exhale, as in say or do, is going to be passed on - it is a shared resource for sure as it takes only a second or two for that molecule I breathed in and out to get to you and then you breathe it in and out. It is part of our ecology.
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