focusing exercise
play exercise
play exercise
Have you ever had the feeling that you may have lived before? According to recent statistics one in four Americans believe in reincarnation. More and more people are looking at the idea of past lives and karma (just compensation of misdeeds from one life to the next) as a way of understanding the human situation. Such a rich and timely topic seems to have enormous potential for dramatic exploration. Both the director and writer of this production have had a keen interest in this theme for many years, and have developed it through the writings of Rudolf Steiner, whose insights in this field are unparalleled. But it is one thing to study these ideas and another to create a play. We are not clairvoyant; we have only our creativity and imagination. So where did we begin?
We had eleven weeks to create this production. The company came from all corners of the earth - UK, Australia, Japan, Brazil, and Croatia. Our first task was to create an ensemble out of the group of five actors and four eurythmists, an ensemble that could speak a common language. We began with focusing and ensemble exercises, with regular bodywork to maintain suppleness and flexibility. Then we started working with group improvisation, which would form the foundation for our process. To develop the language of the body (the speaking soul) we worked extensively with the Neutral Mask, creating solo, duo and trio, movement sequences that explored the way in which movement can be infused with the qualities of the elements (earth, water, fire and air), or familiar substances such as steel, glue, rubber, honey etc, or of an animal, or even of letters of the alphabet. This was so fruitful and opened up so many avenues in itself that it could have become a complete diversion.