Checking back in

Hello again - I've been out of contact with everybody for a while.  I got sucked in by a million pieces of my life that were demanding immediate attention.  Seems like many of us have been.  I do apologize for dropping the ball of communication and activity on my end over the past few months.  

But I'm still here - and I'm sure we can get out of this inertia.  

What time, within the next week or two, might you all be free to work?  Step 1 - find the best time, step 2- find a place at least for that first meeting.  Let's just try to make one meeting happen for now, to get us back on our feet, and then worry about a regular meeting time/ space from there.  I think the most important thing is to just get us back in touch with the work and one another.  

Maybe, since it's been so long since our last session, we could start with a regular suzuki training and open viewpoints session.  Then move on from there?

Let's do it 

-Amber  

Improvisations (From Northwestern Workshop)

All-

Good day lovely people! Hope all is well in each individual world...

Could this be added as a warmup to sessions? After going to the workshop at Northwestern, about like a month ago, I really wanted to begin exploring dynamics and relationships and ideas for stories using this improvisation method we used. Its very simple, and only requires some chairs and an open room. This isn't intended to create some outline for future stories, just begin to stir the soul.

A thought I had on rehearsal space, if the space Keland and Erika doesn't work out, is could we move back to Links Hall? It would cost sure, but then we could develop a history in the same place SITI and other Suzuki and Viewpoint workshops are held. What does that idea stir up?

-James

Beginning (to work)

Please read the list of words, phrases and beginnings of sentences. After you read them:

- You may pick up any word or phrase and write connotations, synonyms, thoughts, ideas or any iconic phrase that includes the word.
- You may complete the sentences, each one more than once (as many times as you can).
- You may write your own list in respond to mine.
- You may respond to anything written below, from a sentence to a word to a single letter, in any way you see fit.


origin

original

my origin is...

beginning

to begin something is...

I've just begun...

an original is...

an original person is...

in the beginning was the word/the verb

in the beginning was...

in my beginning there was... I was...

everything is original/everything is copied

I am the origin of...

when I begin, I...

On limitations and obstacles (by Ofer)

I just read something that made me think of our group in a book by Susan Kozel called Closer: Performance, Technologies, Phenomenology)

On Limitations:

“One way of doing this is to use limitations (such as the lack of space or equipment) as ways of rescaling our aims and reshaping our process, not as reasons for abandoning a project. This approach can be painful, but fosters a critical perspective of an artistic area that is rapidly transforming, It also can address the thorny issue of content, now such a cause for concern in the world of electronic and digital art. The creative content of a work is not suspended until the technological glitches are overcome. It can arise through turning our gaze toward how we work with our materials, by being critically aware of our assumptions, and of the aesthetic and gender stereotypes may be reproducing.” (119)

Long term planning (posted by Ofer)

To add to what Kat posted (Thanks Kat!!!)--

Our regular meeting time (with flexibility) is on Sunday 4-7.

Phase 1--
We will spend the next two months exploring ideas and themes within the structure of the sessions. At the end of two months we will hopefully have a specific direction or we can re-evaluate and take more time for this phase. Deadline -- Last weekend of June.

Phase 2--
Devising! Once we have a clear starting point we will spend about four months generating material and writing/creating. By the end of this phase we will have "the piece."
Deadline -- Last weekend of October.

Phase 3--
Two months for rehearsals and working through the piece. The end of this phase is the end of December.

Sun 4/19 Discussion Notes & Summaries

The following are brief snippets captured from an informal discussion.

Any idea that jogs a memory, warrants further discussion, requires clarification, or inspires further ideas--please post!!

Discussion Topic: Where are you at? What's on your mind?

Amber: I'm really into smoked gouda cheese.

Keland: treaching developmental movement & clowning. Touch connection. Authentic movement. Play. Ideas of rebirth at Roosevelt; leaving & starting over. Struggle for connection during financial crisis.

Megan: This year family has been unwell, but there is geographical distance. Finding connection. Email & text are unsatisfatory, but feel dependent upon them.

Kat: bewildered by continually having to learn the same lesson of how to deal with embracing process, being OK with not getting it right the first time. Didn't I learn this in high school, and then a couple times in college, and then again about 6 times in grad school? What is it about my ego that just can't handle not getting it right?

Ofer: 4 books a week for 3 month. Working at a coffee shop, babysitting, aikido, Passover, visitors from Isreal. Why do a PhD? Small crisis of loss of space & training time w this group.

Megan: Constant go-go-go. Where are we? I don't know. Renewal of Spring?

Amber: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway--devastating. "you are not in the Spanish Civil War! Your life is fine! Be glad to be alive!"

Amber: coworker admitted to hospital with chest pains. Artery dilated to several centimeters; heart likely to explode. Crying, asks to be discharged and just go home to deal with tragedy. Nurse finds him and says "if you go home, you're going to be playing with your daughter and your heart will explode and there won't be anywhere for the blood to go but out your mouth and eyes and your daughter will be traumatized. " so he stayed and got treated.

Ofer: Before i had babysitting, coffee shop, training group, and aikido, I got nothing done. Now I feel like I have leisure time.

Kat: recap of Under Contstuction by SITI Company at Humana/

Keland: Universality of movement; text and references. Developmental movement patterns in children. homologous vs. homolateral movements in infants. when do we realize, accept, discover, how we developed and why and where do we go from there; what choices do we have? Connection of body to mind.

Ofer: cognitive neuroscience-- disconnect btw synapses and intelligibility

Kat: one friend injured to the point of external hematoma (requiring 17 staples to the skull) in a cab accident. Horrific hospital experience of blood everywhere when she woke up confused. Also, grandmother just drove car through glass window of a salon, but no one was hurt.

Ofer: Realization: I don't want to go back to Isreal. It's not my home anymore. Visit, not live.

Amber: recap of Churchill's 7 Jewish Children.

Keland: Theatre Arts vs. healing arts. Shift & pull from former to latter. School can be so unhealthy. Conservatory focused energy causes so many problems.

Keland: Rose & Rime by House Theatre recap.

Amber: I love narrative, I love storytelling, I love how it helps to tell people about things.

Ofer: Believes that Viewpoints/Suzuki ENABLES narrative more than creates it.

Ofer: I'm interested in things exploring themselves. Thing-in-itself. Don't point to something else, point to the thing that's pointing. Reflect self, reflect people, reflect narrative, reflect structure. In itself.

Kat: Shall we attend Red Tape's Enemy of the People together to show our support of them?

(respectfully submitted by Kat)

Sun 4/19/09 Structure Discussion 1 of Several

Structure Discussion Notes

Infinite possibilities -- VERY finite amount of time.

Possible Strategies

1. develop strategic relationships
2. develop community
3. advance training
4. create product

How do we begin?

Need to generate ideas, themes, and discuss ways of working, way of generating, composition, etc.

Blog & Google Calendars to help facilitate organization.

Leadership discussion-- Ofer has been our primary organizer; perhaps a bit burdened. While later in the process, a clear primary leader will be useful, now may be a good time for more shared leadership.

Possible Structure for working as we move forward:

• 45 min of Suzuki (lead by Ofer or otherwise designated person)
• 30 min of creative response to last session (lead by Megan, Kat, or otherwise designated person)
• 45 min of Viewpoints (with variations, rotating leadership)
• 45 min of Composition (rotating leadership)

Do we need a name other than "The Training Group?"

(respectfully submitted by Kat)