Out of the hinterland and World Theatre Day : Blog 1 - 2014

Good evening all - 

Well -  I say all, but on looking at the dwindling numbers on my blog count - I should rephrase this as good evening to you both! Its not entirely surprising that you have all gone away, although of course if you have gone away you won't know that I am talking to you in the first place!  In all seriousness though, its been six months since I last blogged,which was a bit of an abrupt stop to my year of almost daily blogging! Did I fall off the edge of the Earth? Well not exactly, but more of that in a later blog!

I have been promising to a couple of loyal readers (ok two of them!) that I would start blogging again when I felt the mojo was strong enough and that I might have anything remotely interesting to say, which of course is entirely subjective! I'll let you be the judge of that.But in fact there are two main reasons that I decided to put fingers to keys today. One is the fundamental call of competition that did me in finally - namely that my dear friend Amari Blaize, who like me has been somewhat of a reluctant blogger over latter months, has started blogging frequently again over the past month or so! And as usual hers have been interesting and intriguing blogs, worth checking out - The Personal and the Planetary at http://amariblaize.blogspot.co.uk. 

I've been particularly forensic in reading these recent blog posts as I am delighted to be working as a critical friend on Amari's new book which is almost completed. I am sworn to secrecy about its title and content, but suffice it to say that if you drop in on her blog you'll get an inkling of her areas of special interest! I am pretty hooked on the content and I know other readers will be too.

The other reason for kicking off again today is that yesterday was World Theatre Day - I appreciate this may not have quite the same immediate draw as ones such as World Aids Day, however I was moved and motivated by the words of South African playwright Brett Bailey which speak to me and I hope to you too -  about what drives so many of us to make drama. Thanks to Teresa Brayshaw for sharing this also.Brett Bailey says it so eloquently that I have posted it on my Facebook profiles and find myself re-reading it again and again. For me it touches the core, makes sense of much and revitalises my heart and soul. So here it is again for those who might not have read it.



Brett Bailey  - South African Playwright, Designer, Director http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brett_Bailey


.....Wherever there is human society, the irrepressible Spirit of Performance manifests.
Under trees in tiny villages, and on high tech stages in global metropolis; in school halls and in fields and in temples; in slums, in urban plazas, community centres and inner-city basements, people are drawn together to commune in the ephemeral theatrical worlds that we create to express our human complexity, our diversity, our vulnerability, in living flesh, and breath, and voice.

We gather to weep and to remember; to laugh and to contemplate; to learn and to affirm and to imagine. To wonder at technical dexterity, and to incarnate gods. To catch our collective breath at our capacity for beauty and compassion and monstrosity. We come to be energized, and to be empowered. To celebrate the wealth of our various cultures, and to dissolve the boundaries that divide us.

Wherever there is human society, the irrepressible Spirit of Performance manifests. Born of community, it wears the masks and the costumes of our varied traditions. It harnesses our languages and rhythms and gestures, and clears a space in our midst.

And we, the artists that work with this ancient spirit, feel compelled to channel it through our hearts, our ideas and our bodies to reveal our realities in all their mundanity and glittering mystery.

But, in this era in which so many millions are struggling to survive, are suffering under oppressive regimes and predatory capitalism, are fleeing conflict and hardship; in which our privacy is invaded by secret services and our words are censored by intrusive governments; in which forests are being annihilated, species exterminated, and oceans poisoned: what do we feel compelled to reveal?

In this world of unequal power, in which various hegemonic orders try to convince us that one nation, one race, one gender, one sexual preference, one religion, one ideology, one cultural framework is superior to all others, is it really defensible to insist that the arts should be unshackled from social agendas?

Are we, the artists of arenas and stages, conforming to the sanitised demands of the market, or seizing the power that we have: to clear a space in the hearts and minds of society, to gather people around us, to inspire, enchant and inform, and to create a world of hope and open-hearted collaboration? .....

So that's it for my first day back after the six month break. Will be blogging on and off now as and when I feel motivated to share something. (Certainly won't be every day in this incarnation!)  Please do comment so that we can begin a thread of dialogue. Hope maybe to get more than two readers and a dog over the next few weeks! Look forward to it (especially my loyal two readers and a dog - appreciated as they are of course!)

Nice to be back.

With love

Carole