And bravo on so many levels - I saw that they broadcast it in Times
Square and outside the Opera House. Seeing this made me think you
had a hand in helping this happen as your way of resolving that
conflict of being with the 1% and the solidarity with the 99% and
what comes of Opening the Space for possibility. so many levels of
thank you, this was truly a Universal connecting moment. Skye
On Nov 21, 2011, at 10:52 AM, Martin Boroson wrote:
Hello all …
I have been off this list for a couple years as I needed to focus
on some other priorities … but then I began to miss the wonderful
people and ideas that get exchanged here. So I started reading
again, and was pleased to see this chat about Satyagraha, as I had
the pleasure of seeing the HD video version last night.
Phelim …. 100 bows to you for bringing this to us. I found the
production to be very powerful and surprisingly – for something
that was not emotional in a conventional sort of way – it moved me
to tears.
I particularly admired your courage in directing so much stillness
in the actors. I’m guessing that this required great restraint and
trust on your part, and might not have been too easy for the
actors, either. J But the feeling of deep conviction and courage in
non-action in the production supported the music and the message so
beautifully.
Is there any chance of an audio recording of this company? The
voices were just gorgeous.
Again … Phelim … thank you and congratulations.
Marty
www.onemomentmeditation.com
From: oslist-boun...@lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-
boun...@lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of icat...@ms69.hinet.net
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2011 11:59 PM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] Satyagraha, Opera and Wall Street.
Phelim,
Greatly appreciate your reflections on the NOW and Satyagraha. I
shared it with friends in the US and got the following information
(sadly too late to tune in).
The Metropolitan Opera is doing a series of simulcast opportunities
for us out here in the "wilderness."
Satyagraha was simulcast yesterday and I couldn't go. It is having
an encore in local theaters across the country on Dec. 7. According
to the internet it will be at the Brassfield Cinema 10 and
Greensboro Grande Stadium 16 in Greensboro.
Anyone not in NYC...or near...look up Metropolitan Opera live in HD
on Google. Faust is 12/10/11.
There are 11 opportunities during 2012. I've been to several.
Went to Seigfried a couple of weeks ago. It is better than being in
New York. The camera gets up close and personal with the singers.
Plus they go back stage and talk with folks.
Congratulations to all of you! And may there be more...........
Gail
Dear Raffi, Harrison, Michael, Suzanne, Christine, Peggy, Karen,
and all, how great to hear from you around the world.
It is an amazing time to be here in NYC. As you may remember three
years ago we came here and mounted our Philip Glass opera
"Satyagraha" which some of you saw. At that time we had a great ad
campaign which was almost cheeky in it's proposition:
"could an opera make us stand up for the truth?"
(Links here to the publicity and poster:
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/news/features/detail.aspx?
id=3624
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/news/features/detail.aspx?
id=3674 )
"Satyagraha": At that time in NYC no one knew what the word even
meant! How times have changed.
Glass's piece is a thirty year old opera about Gandhi's Satyagraha
campaign which first emerged and was enacted in South Africa. The
Satyagraha protests involved the burning of record cards and the
Newcastle march changed the rights of Indians in South Africa
forever and was the beginning of the movement which brought India
out from beneath the oppression of the British Empire.
At the time of first doing the Opera I was so drawn to it because
of the personal connections to working with open space and it's
power to help "peace break out". I was excited by how I saw that
Gandhi's idea of Satyagraha meant how leadership, activism and
protest starts with work on the self. The intangible "inner work
cooking" that if we are lucky can happen whilst opening space for
transformation and self organisation. All these are open space
practices. All these are Satyagraha practices. A discipline of
forged vulnerability or "soul-force", "truth-force", "love-force."
I felt it was important to do the piece as it re-imagined and
stated the true nature of what had become mistranslated and
interpreted incorrectly as "passive resistance" an unhelpful term
to truly explain Gandhi's concept.
Now just three years later we are remounting the production whilst
an open space/Satyagraha movement breaks out around us and worldwide.
The irony that our production will be playing to the Metropolitan
Opera house audiences whilst Occupy Wall Street is so near cannot
be avoided! I am fascinated to see how the audience will respond to
the piece this time around, especially as many of them no doubt
could well be considered to be part of the "1%".
I have also found myself feeling how strangely complicated the
politics of this piece playing in the opera house is for myself and
here of course the fifth principle seems all the more important and
helpful to me. I ask myself what am I doing not down on Wall
street but inside an opera housed doing a piece about activism and
protest portrayed by singers with amazing voices. Is this just
decadent?
"Wherever it happens is the right place."
I have found myself in the past questioning during extreme times
what is the point of doing theatre? This thing that can seem so
frivolous whilst world events seem so overwhelming. However it is
in theatre that I first experienced the transformative nature of
space, atmosphere, silence and emergence. True theatre holds space
for the imagination, dreams and the future when events, despair or
beliefs could close that space down. This is the frontier I
personally have known since childhood where a true conversation
with the unknown and chaos can be had (as David Whyte says) and the
imagination can be the first step towards opening space beyond my
own prejudice and limiting beliefs into possibility.
So I have realised how important this piece is to perform right NOW
because it manages to communicate what is behind or beneath a
Satyagraha protest: this is the power of Spirit. How important it
is to speak from my own place of truth. To be present in this a-
causal connection with world wide events and to let theatre do what
only theatre can do: to communicate the mysterious nature of the
spirit that exists out there as the space opens. To speak tangibly
of the spirit that so easily can be dismissed or made invisible in
media coverage or polarised reactions. To use art to do what its
purpose is: to say the unsayable, speak the ineffable.
As Gandhi sings in the opera (in words from the Bhagavad Gita)
"These are the Athletes of the Spirit"
Love
Phelim
--
Gail West
ICA
3F, No. 12, Lane 5, Tien Mou West Road
Taipei, Taiwan 111
8862) 2871-3150
SKYPE gwestica
www.icatw.com
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Skye Hirst, PhD
The Autognomics Institute
A Living World-view; the nature of reality
sk...@autognomics.org
www.autognomics.org
Twitter @autognomics
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