Outside the Box...

...into the Golden City. This is why I am here.

I've just completed an exceptionally physical Site-Specific theatre class, and I'm twitching with excitement and energy. Howie, the instructor, is an American expatriate like Alex (I am totally intrigued  by the influence of Czech on their regular English speech--they've grown accents!) who came to Prague because he couldn't be satisfied doing regional theatre and moving around the states for the rest of his life in search of acting work. Once here, he started to create work that broke free from the "Black Box" of the theatre and the "White Box" of the gallery.

His first work with his partners (who include his wife and Alex) was called Doma/At Home and took place in people's apartments. They employed actors as well as the inhabitants to investigate universal themes hidden in our own banal homes and re-mythologize those everyday spaces. Performances, scenes, events, or happenings ran in every room of these apartments, and the audience was invited to explore and interact in various ways. They formed a company here, and since it is good luck to name your company after your inaugural production (MONUMENT Theatre Collective, anyone?), they named it HoMe. Like the Alfred, they also offer international residencies and partnerships--look at me, finding my way in!

I was also blown away by Howie's explanation of another work of theirs, called Oedipus (complexly), which invited an audience to play the role of "detective" in a Sophocles-based murder mystery. Part of the audience was trained as a Greek chorus, and the other had a chance to unravel the riddle. The performance involved group "therapy" exercises, unearthing each audience member's own personal tragedy. They stray from and return to the classic. In the end, the Tiresias character strips away the pretense and becomes a professor of Classic Literature. He leads the audience in a discussion and experimentation on the question: Does tragedy have to happen? Can Oedipus avoid his tragedy? Apparently, in all the many times and places it's been performed, no one has been able to find a way for Oedipus to avoid it. The final moments involved Tiresias/Professor "blinding" himself, while the audience does the same, shouting out their own personal tragedies.

Goosebumps!

I'm flying back here next time they perform that show, no doubt.

Our homework for Site-Specific is to bring in at least two photographs of spaces in the city that could be used for performance or installation of some kind. One of those spaces needs to be thought through with a theatrical concept. My head is reeling--how to choose? My first impulse is to do something in Vysehrad, maybe that moves along the walls/paths and provides a 360 view of the city as the performance unfolds. The concept would, of course, have something to do with Libuse. Maybe I would find a way to actualize her vision/prophecy, or take the audience from ignorance to enlightenment somehow.

Wood-block monuments in Vaclavske Namesti.

But I also want to develop a concept for something physically closer to DAMU, in Stare Mesto. The reason is, my class--Presenting Performance--is a combination of three disciplines: Puppet and Object Theatre, Authorial Performance, and Site-Specific/Interactive Theatre. By week three, my classmates and I must choose ONE (either as a group or individually) to pursue in-depth. After having all three classes once, my impulse is to choose the last one. So it would culminate in a final presentation for the rest of the students, which would of course need to be nearby. But this is really why I'm here, to learn new approaches to theatre in Prague. It would be silly to not embrace the city as a partner. After all, my work as a playwright, poet, and artist is continually informed by place, space, environment. This calls for a deep exploration of the heart of the city, and evaluation of the responses it invokes within me, and an openness to experiment. I'm pumped.

On the other hand, we spent today's class doing Viewpoints. Naturally, MY FEET ARE COVERED IN BLOOD BLISTERS!! IT IS SO NASTY! Fortunately, I have until Wednesday to heal before we do that again. But Alex's class tomorrow may involve more movement exercises. Good thing I already climbed Petrin and the Tower. Won't be able to do that for a while!

Petrin and the Castle at sundown.