I would like to address question number 3: Do I agree with Kantor's view that the theatre is the least appropriate site for drama to be materialized?
Before examining this question, we must first explore the meaning of space. According to Eugene Minkowski, the essence of life is not "a feeling of being, of existence, but a feeling of participation in a flowing onward, necessarily expressed in terms of time, and secondarily expressed in terms of space" (from Bachelard's The Poetics of Space). Michael Foucalt says that just as the great obsession with the 19th century was time, the present age is the epoch of space. He writes: "We are in the epoch of simultaneity: we are in the epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of the near and far, of the side-by-side, of the dispersed. We are at a moment, I believe, when our experience of the world is less that of a long life developing through time than that of a network that connects points and intersects with its own skein."
He then notes that our contemporary experience of space is very different ages that have preceded us. In the Middle Ages for instance, "there was a hierarchic ensemble of places: sacred places and profane places; protected places and open, exposed places," etc. This space of emplacement was "opened up by Galileo. For the real scandal of Galileo's work lay not so much in his discovery, or rediscovery, that the earth revolved around the sun, but in his constitution of an infinite, and infinitely open space."
In other words, in our modern era, space as "emplacement" has been replaced by space as "extension." Today we talk about space in terms of sites connected to each other by relations of proximity. In Foucault's words: "space takes for us the form of relations among sites."
With the demise of the hierarchical experience of space - (space as places of meaning - i.e. "emplacement"), the world became flat. Many thinkers have written about flattening or leveling affect that modernity has had on the world. The distinctions between sacred and profane began to crumble as space became identified with extension. From this perspective emerge architects who believed that the structural and aesthetic considerations of buildings should be entirely subject to functionality. In other words, space becomes subject to the demands of reason and the feelings or emotional affect of these buildings are seen as unimportant.
In the early to mid 20th century however, with the discoveries of depth psychologists and phenomenology, things began to change. According to Gaston Bachelard, images reveal the psychological state of a person. He says that a reader of poems is asked to consider an image not as an object but to seize on its specific reality. In the introduction to his book he quotes C.G. Jung, who famously wrote about the connection between the images of the imagination and the unconscious depth of the human person. Images embody symbolically deep layers of meaning which the conscious mind may not be aware of. Bachelard takes the philosophic tools of phenomenology and the discoveries of depth psychology to explore the meaning of architecture. Architecture embodies the images of the imagination. He then takes "the house as a tool for analysis of the human soul." While the house may not "contain" meaning as it might have done in the mindset of ancient peoples, it is once again within a world of meaning insofar as it embodies human meaning.
All of this is very important when we consider the role of space in the theatre. Kantor makes a very chilling statement quoted by Amar:
Going back to Minkowski's quote at the beginning of this blog post: the essence of life is not "a feeling of being, of existence, but a feeling of participation in a flowing onward." Theatre is deadly when things get stuck within a particular form. This deadly "stuckness" occurs whenever movement is stifled. Stanislavski reacted against the cliche acting of his day and sought to recover a truthfulness that is new and fresh in each and every performance. In this weeks article's we read about how theatre must also break out of the deadly straight jacket of traditional performance spaces and past uses of technical elements. In short, if life is a feeling of participation in a "flowing onward" which gets expressed in space and time, and if theatre is an expression of life, then theatrical space must never become a fixed and rigid thing. Insofar as theatre becomes a "place" where one does "plays," Kantor is right. If however, the theatre remains open to the images of the imagination and faithful embodies these images in text, movement and setting, the drama of human life will continue to be expressed.
It is towards this goal that Richard Schechner offers his six axioms of environmental theatre. The point of his work, as stated by Amar, is to increase the audience's awareness by eliminating the line between what is the actor's space and what is the audience's space.
Before examining this question, we must first explore the meaning of space. According to Eugene Minkowski, the essence of life is not "a feeling of being, of existence, but a feeling of participation in a flowing onward, necessarily expressed in terms of time, and secondarily expressed in terms of space" (from Bachelard's The Poetics of Space). Michael Foucalt says that just as the great obsession with the 19th century was time, the present age is the epoch of space. He writes: "We are in the epoch of simultaneity: we are in the epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of the near and far, of the side-by-side, of the dispersed. We are at a moment, I believe, when our experience of the world is less that of a long life developing through time than that of a network that connects points and intersects with its own skein."
He then notes that our contemporary experience of space is very different ages that have preceded us. In the Middle Ages for instance, "there was a hierarchic ensemble of places: sacred places and profane places; protected places and open, exposed places," etc. This space of emplacement was "opened up by Galileo. For the real scandal of Galileo's work lay not so much in his discovery, or rediscovery, that the earth revolved around the sun, but in his constitution of an infinite, and infinitely open space."
In other words, in our modern era, space as "emplacement" has been replaced by space as "extension." Today we talk about space in terms of sites connected to each other by relations of proximity. In Foucault's words: "space takes for us the form of relations among sites."
With the demise of the hierarchical experience of space - (space as places of meaning - i.e. "emplacement"), the world became flat. Many thinkers have written about flattening or leveling affect that modernity has had on the world. The distinctions between sacred and profane began to crumble as space became identified with extension. From this perspective emerge architects who believed that the structural and aesthetic considerations of buildings should be entirely subject to functionality. In other words, space becomes subject to the demands of reason and the feelings or emotional affect of these buildings are seen as unimportant.
In the early to mid 20th century however, with the discoveries of depth psychologists and phenomenology, things began to change. According to Gaston Bachelard, images reveal the psychological state of a person. He says that a reader of poems is asked to consider an image not as an object but to seize on its specific reality. In the introduction to his book he quotes C.G. Jung, who famously wrote about the connection between the images of the imagination and the unconscious depth of the human person. Images embody symbolically deep layers of meaning which the conscious mind may not be aware of. Bachelard takes the philosophic tools of phenomenology and the discoveries of depth psychology to explore the meaning of architecture. Architecture embodies the images of the imagination. He then takes "the house as a tool for analysis of the human soul." While the house may not "contain" meaning as it might have done in the mindset of ancient peoples, it is once again within a world of meaning insofar as it embodies human meaning.
All of this is very important when we consider the role of space in the theatre. Kantor makes a very chilling statement quoted by Amar:
“It is only in a place and at a time where we do not expect anything to happen that something we will unquestionably believe in can happen.
This is the reason the theater, which has been completely sterilized and neutralized by centuries-old practices, is the least appropriate site for drama to be materialized.”
Going back to Minkowski's quote at the beginning of this blog post: the essence of life is not "a feeling of being, of existence, but a feeling of participation in a flowing onward." Theatre is deadly when things get stuck within a particular form. This deadly "stuckness" occurs whenever movement is stifled. Stanislavski reacted against the cliche acting of his day and sought to recover a truthfulness that is new and fresh in each and every performance. In this weeks article's we read about how theatre must also break out of the deadly straight jacket of traditional performance spaces and past uses of technical elements. In short, if life is a feeling of participation in a "flowing onward" which gets expressed in space and time, and if theatre is an expression of life, then theatrical space must never become a fixed and rigid thing. Insofar as theatre becomes a "place" where one does "plays," Kantor is right. If however, the theatre remains open to the images of the imagination and faithful embodies these images in text, movement and setting, the drama of human life will continue to be expressed.
It is towards this goal that Richard Schechner offers his six axioms of environmental theatre. The point of his work, as stated by Amar, is to increase the audience's awareness by eliminating the line between what is the actor's space and what is the audience's space.
Tim, this is a very interesting trail you take us through about spaces. I agree how architects and modern society have transformed spaces of meaning to be more about function, rather than the experience or meaning. Money and time seem to influence this trend in our age. Even new houses or mansions, some churches (at least Protestant churches in my experience), cemeteries (less ornate nowadays) and creative spaces (theatres, gallieries, etc..) seem to be all about energy savings or have a cookie-cutter-feel to them rather than about the phenomenology of these spaces. Spaces are built around budget and time allotment for the most part.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you connect Kantor's ideas to today's theatre. I feel the same way but wasn't able to articulate it as beautifully as you. Spaces must change and be endowed with meaning in order to dramatize an essence of truth. The connection of Minkowski's quote of participatory existence "flowing onward" gives an active and compelling perspective to what we should do in the theatre. I also dig the psychological look into images and it's relation to space. This makes me think about how place, or space, can affect our work as actors. We are encouraged to endow our space with personal meaning. How difficult it is sometimes to make any space specific, imaginative, and meaningful! Especially when the intrinsic phenomenology of most modern spaces seem to be lacking!