Connection. This morning, I began to consider the theme of connections in the study that I’ve undertaken. Connection; that word kept reinserting itself into the conversation in my head. It’s a reoccurring concept that is routed in us as human beings. While there are many examples of individuals who want to live alone; people build homes that are completely “off the grid”; even teen agers attempt to sail solo around the world; hikers who want to experience the Appalachian Trail by hiking its length from Maine to Alabama without a partner it’s rare that at some point those same individuals don’t seek to become part of a group to communicate with someone other than themselves to remain in contact with their loved ones. Today, with the vast array of communications at our finger tips it’s easier and faster than ever to connect. We can text, call (even from remote rural areas or from overseas), radio, tweet, facebook, skype, ichat, but when does connection become meaningful? When does communication fulfill that basic human need to connect?
That’s all pretty esoteric, but in my next few blogs entries I’ll be using that inquiry as a touchstone. I’ll reflect on the work at The Globe; as an engaged participant and audience member, exploring performance theories through critical and creative thinking about the text and aural and kinesthetic engagement with the text. I’ll also attempt to explore connection with and among my fellow students and Globe teachers and through my various explorations of London and the surrounding area.
So, I have some catching up. With any luck this may be on the Advocate Messenger site soon! Feel free to use this as some general thoughts about traveling to London… things to do and see with an arts emphasis.
FREE WEEKEND IN LONDON!
Not that everything was free – it wasn’t, but it was relatively inexpensive for a big city!
Friday evening several in my Teaching Shakespeare group took a trek to the Victoria and Albert, locally referred to as the V & A. This museum holds a lovely and fairly eclectic collection of artwork that includes 2D and 3D visual art from many genres and time periods, fashion, photography and an interesting architectural exhibit that was recently commissioned. The architecture exhibit consisted of small dwellings by seven architects from around the world and it was fascinating. The dwellings could be entered and explored. Out in the garden area (which included a very fun “paddling” pool and fountain was a structure constructed from bent and split tree trunks anchored in mesh bags of wood chips. To enter made one fill as if they had become a wood sprite for a moment in time. Another consisted of very small rooms cordoned off from a narrow angular staircase by red velvet curtains. Each space was lit almost like it could contain separate, unique and minimalist performances. The structure was metal and at the top on a small platform were small bits of hair gentled tied with a nametag. On a separate platform sat hairbrush and comb that looked like they set on a dressing table in the 1940’s. My favorite architectural structure was modeled after almost clandestine housing found in narrow alleyways in Mumbai India. Everything was narrow and very tight, narrow stairways, tiny rooms, low ceilings – if you met someone in a corridor you had to turn sideways to pass. Since I am slightly claustrophobic I thought this might not be from me, but the placement of “windows” and open spaces allowed for an open feel among all this closed narrow space. The interplay of light and air almost gave one permission to feel alive in these narrow closed spaces.
I’m finding myself drawn to 3D artwork. The connection probably being the theatre. As theatre artists we often create in 3D. Certainly The Globe stage requires that one think and explore relationship and text in a world where the audience sits around ¾ of the stage and even proscenium theatre requires depth and perspective. My exploration of theatre in the past week has included strong ties to space… I think often educational theatre ofteen superficially, fails to deal with actors in space, but our focus on the use of The Globe, on London in the early 1600’s and our visit to The Rose archeological site emphasizes theatre as a 3D art form. It makes us consider the actor in the space and the use of that space.
Today, one of my colleagues and I went to the Tate Britain and saw a great exhibit of sculpture by the artist Henry Moore. His shapes were organic, yet often were of figures. Mother and child was a reoccurring theme throughout his work and his powerful images evoked that relationship in many of it’s emotional states including a piece in which the child seemed to want to devour the female form of it’s mother and the mother was portrayed with a angular sharp head. Several of the other images showed the nurturing side of motherhood, but it was very interesting to have real emotional range portrayed in the sculptures.
Just an aside… most museums in London are free including the Tate and the V & A. There was a charge for the Henry Moore exhibit, but it was worth every penny!
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