Connections

Man stands at the juncture of nature and spirit, he is involved in both freedom and necessity, he is both limited and limitless.

Reidar Thomte
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My uncle Stanley Bate was a successful painter. He lived and worked in the Hudson River valley, as did many other great painters. I learned an important concept from him, the art of visualization. It's the act of connecting the seen with the unseen, the fact with the fiction, of bringing together two realities, of telling a story by means of a story.

One of my favorite paintings of Uncle Stanley's is a picture of four empty chairs and four empty music stands grouped around in a semi circle. It's called "String Quartet."

Every work of art is limited by dimensions, materials and the craftsmanship of the artist. But there is attached to it something unlimited, something which exists in the artist's imagination. That something is the true story of the work of art. The art itself is merely a manifestation of what is really taking place. the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

I took that lesson and began to apply it to my own work. When a character enters a scene the actor has to know when to start in order to be in the proper place at the right time, or how many steps it takes him to get into place. He also needs to know why his character is entering the scene and where he is coming from. That's the objective reality of the moment. But the actor also has to know and bring on the stage with him the subjective reality of the character, a certain mentality, a remembrance of sights, sounds and aromas, a lifetime of experiences.

I also began to realize how important it was to visualize the life behind the words. Even in the case of master playwrights like Shakespeare and O'Neill there was more work to be done by the performer. Each speech carried the obligation to fulfill the words with the sights and sounds of not only the subject being discussed but the real life that surrounds the person speaking it. The words may evoke the image but the image is different for each actor who speaks them.

Miles Davis said "Don't play what's there, play what isn't there." Louis Armstrong said "What we play is life." An actor who doesn't know his words is lost in a jungle of confusion and uncertainty. Just as an actor needs to know his words, so a musician needs to know his notes. From that basis he can then play the visions and memories in his head, the stuff that "isn't there."

So when we look at a painting, watch an actor perform or listen to a piece of music we have the freedom and obligation to look beyond the facade to the super reality, the unlimited life of the artist and the art. To really listen to the music or the drama is listening instead to what the artist is saying which can't be said in notes and words. When we do that we can experience surprising results.

DB - The True Vagabond
Never give up.
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SUMMER QUESTION

Summer is moving along, people.

It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 14 answers so far.

You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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Laugh It Up

We should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.

Nietzsche
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In Eugene O'Neill's play "Long Days Journey Into Night" James Tyrone wants to know what his young son Edmund is laughing about and he says he's laughing at life because it's so funny.

Ancient Greek theatre was a very vibrant, powerful and important one. There would be a festival at which four plays were presented all by the same author. The plays were based on ancient Greek history or legend. It often took a year to prepare them. The acting and the writing needed to be spectacular to hold a Greek audience for that length of time, and they were. Many of those plays still exist and the few famous ones, Oedipus the King, Hecuba, Medea, sometimes show up in regional theatres and Off-Broadway.

Though the plays took their plots from stories everyone knew the themes were relevant to life and portrayed the tragedies and dramas of human existence. While the first three plays in the festival were tragedies and high dramas the fourth play was a comedy. It was a parody, a satire on the same topic as the first three plays. After the audience had been put through the thunder dramas of life they were allowed to laugh about it.

Many of those ancient plays have been lost. But, and here a classical scholar, if there is one reading this, can inform me further if I'm mistaken, as far as I know only one of those final satires still exists: The Cyclops by Euripides, based on the Ulysses story.

There is a great lesson here. There isn't anything in life, no matter how dramatic, tragic or terrifying it may be that doesn't deserve to be laughed at. My developed and cherished sense of humor allows me to poke fun at everything about life, except other people. People change, life doesn't. To make fun of people is a bad way to get a laugh. I don't listen to people like Limbaugh, Leno and Beck. They take delight in putting other people down by scorning them and trying to make me laugh at them. It's cheap. low level. decadent humor and a total waste of my time.

DB
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

14 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
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