Monday rehearsal recap

We spent much of our rehearsal today discussing the miniature space explorations each of us made on Sunday. A few things came up in our discussion:

Many people commented on the awkwardness of having people watch them be "alone" in the space, and of being aware that they were no longer "alone." Mark described this awkwardness as a means to accessing your own consciousness: you become aware of our own consciousnesses by realizing how they are affected by the presence of someone else's consciousness. We also talked about the audience as a component of performance and of theater; in making these individual pieces, we're straddling the desire to show people our work with the desire to keep our work something private, something unseen. The audience is a "second set of eyes" for our work, a set of eyes whose presence changes our work but may ultimately improve it. It's okay to let your private thing be observed.

Some things we do just for ourselves as performers, and the audience just happens to be there. Some things we do for us and our scene partners, and the audience still happens to be there. And some things we do for the audience, and for ourselves, and for everyone on stage.

We also talked about the pressure of drawing the audience in/making the audience feel included. Our solitary pieces are potentially very insular by nature, so would an audience feel alienated or intrusive by entering our space? Mark said that the proximity to the performances will draw the audience in and make them feel connected; because we are occupying the space and allowing them so close to us in that space, we don't have to strive to connect with them.

We also talked about the process of choosing spaces. Some people felt that they chose quickly so that they could get more time to work, instead of letting the space call to them. We talked a bit about how we want our pieces to work with space. We want to make complete pieces: some pieces of architecture/space are so "complete" that a human body feels like it clutters it; some piece of architecture/space feel unrealized and need a human body to complete them. One of our goals, I think, in creating these pieces is to have a conversation with the space and to use our bodies in conversation with the space to transform that space, accenting its lines and its shape.

Mark asked us to consider: what are the ways that we occupy spaces? How can you take a space and contextualize it for yourself? Think about riding the subway or SEPTA and occupying a seat. How do you own that seat and make it your own private space? How do you dissuade people from entering your space?

We also talked about the text we'll be working with for these pieces. We'll be working with poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, the poet who wrote the poem we've been working with through the process so far (I am too alone in this world, and not alone enough / to make every minute holy). Mark read to us from Letters to a Young Poet, a collection of letters Rilke wrote to a young man who graduated from his same high school, a man who wrote to him asking for advice on how to be a poet. Rilke emphasizes carving out a space inside yourself and just worrying about you, rather than placing your sense of worth outside yourself. You should all take a look, and you can find them here.