Joe's Query

Assuming that I am tossing bottles in the sea I have not clarified where I am ,who I am studying with, or what type of training I am undertaking. So –thanks to Joe Mills for pointing this out. Ok – so I am spending a month with the Saratoga International Theatre Institute – founded 25 some odd year ago by Anne Bogart and a host of remarkable people – they do a much better job of telling who they are than I – so their website is here: http://siti.org/

What I am studying is – well – is two techniques that complement each other very well. One is Suzuki actor training. An intense physical training method build out of things like Noh, martial arts, Kabuki, and other elements. When I say physical I don’t mean like you go for a run. What I mean is you spend a good chunk of the day forcing most of your energy into the floor and containing what comes back in your abdomen. A terrible description, but for now that is the best I can do. This video might offer more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFQSBOiyP9o

The other technique is Viewpoints- which essentially comes out of the world of dance – but has a ton of other application. Viewpoints inherits the Marcel Duchamp and John Cage desire to look at the world in a new way. Lot of it is based on shifting your perspective of how you see the world. Info on this can be found here: http://www.sixviewpoints.com/

So that answers a few of Joe’s questions. I have been tracking some of the training in this blog, but a lot of it is in the body and doesn’t translate well to text. I could say that today we had two great Viewpoints classes that expanded our mind and that we had two Suzuki classes that pushed our bodies by going over vocabulary we learned this week and added a few new things – but that wouldn’t explain that occasionally while stomping I really get it. The last foot fall felt great, the next one not so much, maybe the next I can improve.

I could talk about working with a wonderful group to create an original piece of theatre by pulling apart the Three Sister’s text, but that would not convey how cool it is for four people who sort of kind of know each other to meet in a space and spin out ideas until one sticks and everyone nods about how cool that fucking idea is.

So – what I will say is that I spent the first week collecting visible tattoo stories. I still have one to get, but basically I ask people if it is OK to ask about their ink. I have yet to have someone say no – then they tell me what they got inked and what it means to them. The stories are generally personal and important. As a bonus I had a wonderful conversation with a Waitress about her visible ink – much of which was in memoriam. Now, I don’t want this to sound like I am just gathering for gathering sake, I am genuinely interested in these stories.

Since I have exhausted that avenue – my newest query is why are people here – what took them from deciding they wanted to study with the SITI company to actually applying and coming here. Every story I have heard so far – six or seven – is fascinating. What is more interesting is that people want to share these stories or need to share these stories. So, along with expanding my mind and punishing my body I am working really hard on leaving my Ego behind, listening, learning, and not trying to be in charge of anything – which is really fucking hard for anyone who spends far too much time “being in charge.”