Institute for Non-toxic Propaganda — ——– Society for the Promotion of Human Rites

NOTES FROM AN ACTORS’ WORKSHOP  –
BAGAMOYO COLLEGE OF DRAMA, TANZANIA – October 2007

It was an offer not to be refused – “Could I contribute a two-day workshop at the 26th Bagamoyo Festival of Art and Culture ?” My ticket to Tanzania was booked, I would be in the neighbourhood in about a week’s time.  Given that this internet café might prove my last before going incommunicado, I had approximately 45 seconds to coin a workshop title.

I fell upon – The Secrets of Slow Acting, a catch-all title that would allow me to weave a web of elemental playing proposals around an all encompassing central theme.  Meeting a very unknown body of participants, the techniques would of necessity be cross-culturally non-toxic, linguistically accessible, minimalist and emotionally satisfying – while never leaving a home base of negotiated safety…
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Once the dust of continent hopping had subsided, my thoughts could turn to the impending reality; which ingredients would best flesh out my all-purpose title?  I observed the first day of the festival. Continue reading →

SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF HUMAN RITES
Humankind’s problems are magnificent. They are many; they are daunting.
To resolve them requires vast amounts of human ingenuity.
The strategy of the “Culture First” ‘fictive NGO’ involves creating the inner dynamic of an active organisation at the very juncture of idealism and effort. Temporarily ignoring a problem’s magnitude, we boldly place ourselves upon the Bridge between the problem and the work required. By focusing on the cultural repercussions of change, we can sidestep considerable paralysis, and free the human vision necessary to create viable paths forward.

Old friend and collaborator, Steven Bush is getting his latest play published by Talon Books, Vancouver.  I requested permission to write an introductory preface…

I witness theatre as the most human of ‘rites’. Mysterious forces cause human beings to stand forth, naively offering themselves as objects of public consideration.   The pure soul of a performer enters a pact of interdependency with the audience.  If we are sufficiently open and vulnerable, we will be met with encouragement.  Buoyed by this encouragement, we can negotiate areas of empathic agreement wherein as we can safely unfold the raw material and circumstantial evidence that is our very being.  The synergic effect of the audience’s contribution can then carry us beyond the bounds of our rehearsed pathways, and into realms of fresh, infectious understanding.

a 4 1/2 minute short film was released and then withdrawn by the 10:10 coalition on action for climate change.  Designed to awaken a concrete commitment — it somehow fell a foul of some of the ground tenants of Non-toxic Propaganda.  Unbelievably, the filmmakers concerned (I take it primarily the writer — shame, shame) were of considerable stature in British cinema and 50+ professionals donated their labour uncritically?

I threw the longish comment into the discussion:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/sep/30/10-10-no-pressure-film

Or is it?  In  Abraham Lincoln goes to the Theatre (soon available in English from Talon Books, Vancouver), Tremblay has constructed a play of great intricacy.  The 1866 Good Friday assassination at the Ford Theatre may well surpass the 11th of September in its inexplicability;  it easily matches its capacity to derail America, spurring it into self-destructive spasms of reactive aggression.  The case is long since closed; the accepted facts are clear – a youthful Matinee idol, twisted by his celebrity, bent on revenge for traumas not yet past, blew off the head of the figure of rational conciliation; he then jumped from the presidential box, misquoted Shakespeare, and headed for the hills on horseback.

Lifting the curtain on this perhaps most grievous crime ever perpetrated in his belovèd theatre, Tremblay gingerly suggests that to this very event, may be traced the contagion that has spawned what he calls ‘the Stupidity of America.’  To explore this connection, Tremblay builds a construct of progressive theatre exercises that prod, dissect, digest, divert, discard.  With each twist, the narrative drops into deeper realities of the perceived themes of the play:  to the actor’s relations to one other, and to the strategies of their radical genius of a director.

One of my rants just came to the surface from a forgotten existence beneath my heaps of data files. If this page, as a portal of ideas and words, is to carry its weight, I’m going to throw out things such as this intro to, among other things, shamanism…

We may accept that a disproportionate amount of the theatre propagated in the name of enlightenment, has in fact its major working radius upon the participants themselves. To do so, we do no more than absolve the theatre of succumbing to its nature: youthful zeal and initiative confront the elders, and become blessed in a negotiated rite of passage. What then is the corresponding effective work field for post-passage performers?

The mature adult performer person, having done his/her apprenticeship, having burnt off their need of adulation, is left with a curse. Done correctly and with savvy leadership, the initiation rites have left one scarred for life. It is there on the floor, perhaps supported by the life support mechanisms of script and rehearsal, that the performer takes upon the tasks of distilling Truths. The givens are given; it is the unique, the unprogramable, that captures the essence of the theatre meeting. We cannot settle for less.

ACTIVE VERB LECTURE SERIES #4

a coincidence it may have been, but Society for the Promotion of Human Rites has signed on to hold the fourth edition of the Extracting Enthusiasm project on the 28th of May at the Festival of Uncivilisation, Llangollen, Wales.

Finally meeting an audience who aren’t just coming as a favour to an old friend will be a test.  That they may number closer to 300 than my accustomed 8, may also present a challenge.  Most interesting is that the festival itself is a gathering around the central theme of my piece — our psychological capacity to meet the future.

My text shouldn’t require radical editing, but will suddenly be amplified by a gathering of people who are pre-programmed to ‘get it’.

peek here:  http://uncivilisation.co.uk/