Travel
"... travel seems to me a profitable exercise. The mind is continually exercised in observing new and unknown things; and I know no better school, as I have often said, for forming one's life, than to set before it constantly the diversity of so many other lives, ideas, and customs, and to make it taste such a perpetual variety of forms of our nature."
Montaigne: Essays - Book III; Essay 9 "Of Vanity"
(translated by Donald Frame)
I had to smile and maybe wince reading these words written in the 1580's as I returned home after a recent sojourn in Europe here in the winter of 2009. I am not so sure that I can so easily praise the charms of travel as Michel Montaigne does. Then again, his travel was, for the most part, for pleasure and my recent outing to Barcelona with the company and then to London for the opening of Spring Awakening was very much driven by my responsibility. And perhaps it's unfair to attempt to reconcile what, in retrospect, were too many cars, planes and trains, hoards of tourists, taxicabs, publics, with Montaigne's quaint observation that travel is good for us!
Barcelona certainly deserves its reputation as a premiere destination for its wonderful architecture and delicious food. Our presenter, Francesc Casadesús, and his wonderful staff welcomed us gracefully to the Mercat de les Flores Theater (Spain's only professional theater entirely dedicated to presenting dance). His crew worked alongside our own to transform this large, open room into the arena/sacred space that defines Chapel/Chapter. Audiences were attentive and attendance built over the four-performance run so that the last performance was sold out.
The miracle of modern transportation found us immediately in London attending previews and giving notes to the energized young British cast of Spring Awakening. Frank Wedekin's Spring Awakening has a much more vivid presence in the minds of theatergoers and critics there than it did here in the US. The show has just opened and my understanding is that, for the most part, the reception has been favorable. One of the most profound lessons was in watching the diligent and caring way that Director Michael Mayer and our whole creative team labored to transfer this American production to Britain. My own ears had to adjust to the cultivated vowels and articulate speech of the English actors as they tore into Duncan Sheik's angst ridden, sometimes angry, rants as sung by the young cast.
In the wake of our rigorous time in Barcelona and between the sessions polishing and directing the young Brits in Spring Awakening, Bjorn and I visited the pre- and early Italian Renaissance rooms at the National Gallery. Contemplating the luminous collection of gold enhanced paintings by Duccio, Fra-Angelico, Bellini, Masaccio, discovering - surprisingly placed among the Italian masters the gorgeous Wilton Diptych, a portable altarpiece painted by an unknown French or English artist around 1395 for the private devotion of King Richard II, we discussed what could or could not express a similar conviction in contemporary performance...
And now it is back to the world of Lincoln and Fondly Do We Hope/Fervently Do We Pray...
-- Bill T. Jones (Monday, February 9, 2009)
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Mr. Jones, I was in the middle of writing the following blog on my Facebook site & happened to find out it was your birthday! Hope you enjoy the following...
Back in my seminary days I used to begin all my sermons with the following prayer...
"God, help me to be naked and unashamed like Your first creations."
I don't know if it was my own desire to be "clothed" or my growing awareness that some people were uncomfortable hearing a woman say the word "naked" while standing in the pulpit, but one way or another I stopped praying that prayer. But my reason for praying it in the first place never ceased to haunt me.
It's a simple truth. When we remove all the "clothes", the walls, the masks, the pretenses we wear on a daily basis, we are closer to God and closer to each other.
I thought about this prayer as I sat in a smokey neighborhood club last night. It certainly wasn't the place I was expecting to spend Valentine's Day, but it's been my experience that if you're open, God will lead you to some "interesting" places to get a point across.
So as I sat there waiting to videotape a friend who was scheduled to sing, I watched the comings and goings of the club's regulars. It wasn't really my kind of scene, but along with the smoke, here was an undeniably warm communal feeling in the air.
There was a buffet, a fashion show, and then to my surprise a "male review". Yes folks, a good ole fashioned strip show.
Now most of you know me well enough to know I'm not a prude, but strip shows have just never been my thing. My closest friends know, no matter how many more years we have to wait, there will be no "traditional" bachlorette party activities before I get married. I prefer true intimacy rather than the tease.
And there it was... the message in the madness.
In true intimacy there is healing and creative power and LOVE. In true intimacy both parties, all parties if it's a communal event, experience transcendence and encounter the Divine. When everyone is "naked", vulnerable, we find our power, that connection that makes us ONE. It is then that we are able to do the supernatural, the "greater works" that Christ spoke of.
But in our world, in our society, in our lives, at least I know in mine, we have made being naked something to be ashamed of. We practice wearing masks in our homes, pulpits and places of business, robing ourselves with anything and everything possible to avoid having a truly intimate encounter.
Way back when I was a student at Spelman director/choreographer Bill T. Jones brought a piece to Atlanta in which close to a hundred ordinary people graced the stage TOTALLY naked.
I vaguely remember some controversy about it all, but I was in college and controversy was what we ate for breakfast. What I vividly remember is how the piece impacted me.
At first I tried not to look. Then, after I surrendered my own discomfort, all I could do was stare. So much nakedness, everywhere. People of all shapes, sizes, ages, colors just standing on stage butt naked and smiling. They were so comfortable in their own skin that something miraculous happen. All of a sudden it was as if they weren't naked anymore. They were simply beautiful, like a garden of wild flowers. I could look into each shameless face and see... God.
I didn't have that language for it then, but in retrospect that was indeed what I experienced.
That's what I used to pray for in the pulpit. That I would be so open, so naked that people would see God in me and God in themselves. Not doctrine or dogma, but deliverance into the arms of the Creator of us ALL.
A few months ago I had the privileged of meeting Mr. Jones. I was sitting on the stairs at 37 Arts waiting for my friend Sahr (who was rocking the house as Fela) and Mr. Jones walked into the theatre. I took the moment to extend my hand and tell him how much I appreciated his work. I didn't go into detail but I was keenly aware that something of significance had just occurred in my life. You know those moments when your past collides with your present and points clearly toward your future.
My 40th year was filled with many such serendipitous encounters. And now as I approach the celebration of my 41st I am aware that it's time to get naked again! I don't feel as courageous as I did back in seminary. I am acutely aware of the discomfort it causes people when I walk through a wall bare butt naked. I know that discomfort can upset some people to the extent that they act out in defense of the walls they have built around themselves. But, I am also aware that if some of us don't get naked soon a lot more of us are gonna continue to live in the Hell of coutured silence.
I've known for years that my "calling" was to be lived out in some strange combination of theatre and church. The two are after all, at their best, the same experience. But, it's been a slow journey. I keep looking, futiley, outside myself for the experience that I was born to create. And now I seem to have reached the point in my life where I'm forced to make a choice. Am I gonna live a sermon or a strip tease???
So, I'm prayin' again...
"God, help me to be naked and unashamed. Help me to live out loud, wide-open, lovingly using all the gifts You've given me. Help me to strip off the clothes, walk through the walls and love even when it's uncomfortable. God HELP me!"
Post Note: As if all this wasn't serendipitous enough, I just happened to Google and today is Mr. Jones' birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIR. Thanks for showing us how to get NAKED!!!
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