Enchantment

Just come from the Forman Brothers' (as in Milos Forman's sons) contemporary opera, Carokraj (Enchantia). A pretty spectacle of imaginative, joyful theatre. Perhaps the best part was the entrance. Audience members were led by a flurry of costumed creatures through the bowels of the theater--unlit passages and cramped corridors where cockatrices and werewolves leered at us from the darkness. Then we were led onto the stage, which was lit with soft blues and purples and gently rotating. We made our way through fabric tunnels, ethereal and disorienting, until we were standing in the National Theater. Puppet phoenixes loomed from the balconies and the orchestra tuned.

The show was really lovely, with some rather sweet allusions to the Magic Flute. I found myself most stimulated, though, by the details of the direction, and the sheer creativity of the staging. They made an ocean of cloth and light, with whales that leapt in and out of the water, and mermaids that swam and flashed their tails. Islands that split and revolved and resembled the jaws of a fierce beast. A magic book that sang as her pages turned. Even the people pushing set pieces were dancing and alive as much as anyone else. They really found the magic of the theatricality, and I was quite impressed. Well worth 50kc. That's like, two and a half bucks, btw.

A frog who speaks Czech.

I've been trying to meditate on the themes we've established for our Site-Specific performance. Memory and impermanence. Memory palaces.

Yesterday's class was actually quite delightful, exploring the possibilities in Namesti Jana Palacha. I joked about how we should self-immolate. Not funny.

But in our first improv, we found the joy and the games of the space, jumping like children on the cement squares, climbing, and playing. I climbed up on the central platform and tried to walk in the grooves. It threw me off-balance and I had to hold my arms out. Before I knew it, all three of us girls were up there, walking tightropes in the middle of Prague. Pete was watching from the bushes. The center became a safe space for me, but I was drawn away by a desire to connect and help the others. As the game developed, the tables turned. We turned on each other. Amanda was knocking me off the platform. I finally reached my safe center again, and she jumped on me, trying to pull me down. I wouldn't give in. Then we were all entangled, dragging each other upward and down, a sculpture full of dynamism. I wouldn't budge. Then it was over.

What a site to get specific about, huh?