Ideas and inspirations

[sic] It’s done. It was a lonely and winding process but I have completed my master’s degree course. Here is a summery of my activity over the last 12 months all of which became a part of my presentation in some way:

• Songs of Lear and Cherry Orchard: reflections from my journal regarding the experience of professionally working with Pieśn Kozła from April through December;
• Open Your Heart workshop: the continued response and feedback from students, journal reflections on the shortcomings, challenges, and achievement of this piece of the project
• Solo meditations: journal reflections charting my experience of being in the space alone, saying good bye (for now), meditating on my own origins, video recordings of my personal exploration of text and movement, forming my own deep questions;
• Body Alphabet workshop: journal reflections on my power and strength,  finding my own resonance, being heard, deep personal research from within a group, being surprised;
• Starting a Foundation: the next step… building a platform for the creative life I hope to live, a chance to dream big and at the same time place my energy within a frame work relevant to here and now, slowly integrating technology, finding ways to share the work, not just “like” on Facebook but Opening the Heart.

 

I didn’t do this alone and have many colleagues, teachers, friends and family to thank for their love and support. Notably these lovely ladies: Jessica, Angela, Anna, Niamh, Kamila and Mom.

If you are interested in reading my contextual essay which fulfilled my written requirement and helped me receive a merit of graduating “with distinction” go to my document page.

The Body Alphabet as developed by Zygmunt Molik while working with Grotowski is carried on by Jorge Parente. This workshop was so gentle yet it created a vibrant and powerful connection between all the participants. It led to some of the deepest work I’ve done linking the body and voice.

Documentation and Video Editing by Kamila Dydak.

With T.S. Eliot’s poem The Wasteland as a starting inspiration I joined some colleagues in London on an urban expedition in the form of a four day walk on the river Thames. It was sort of like ››Romania except the 2012 Olympic Games were going on.

Here’s an email excerpt from the initiator of the Wasteland Project Stephanie Bain 30 May 2012 describing the aim of the research:
“I want to challenge the concepts and the boundaries of what the expedition model – as conceived by Teatr Pieśń Kozła – can be. I’m asking is it possible to do an urban expedition? Is it possible to explore a familiar environment, but to see it with new eyes when looking at it as inspiration for performance making? On re-reading The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot, I was drawn to the dialogues of London that weave together mythological images and songs that flow through the city by focusing on the river Thames as a rich symbol for birth, for death, for the passing of time. I was inspired to work on The Wasteland as performance material and this source text opens up the idea of an expedition to the communities around London docklands; Greenwich and the Isle of Dogs.
…
The expedition would be a walk along the East London to Essex portion of the Thames Path. I’m going to finalise this route within the next week but it’s likely that we’ll start around Canary Wharf and walk through Greenwich and Docklands and out into Essex. The idea is to talk to people on houseboats, to talk to people in pubs, to perhaps arrange a meeting with the veteran dockers union, to talk to people at some small agricultural fairs on route (lots of weird and very English stuff!). I need to do some more research this week, but there are some campsites along the route and in an effort to save money/adhere to expedition ethos we would probably be camping. Then we get back and get into the Tunnels space for the R&D weeks. There’s some specific actor research that I want to explore in this phase, but that’s for later. This email is long enough already.”

To Carthage then I came

Burning burning burning burning

O Lord Thou pluckest me out

O Lord Thou pluckest

burning ~t.s. eliot