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Mindfulness and Theatre

18 Nov 2014
- admin
- Leadership & Management
Experiential Learning, Journey, SOIL Days

“All there is, is Nothing Being Everything and what appears as part of that everything is the belief and experience of being a separate self – an apparent individual with its own free will, choice and ability to act. This happening is uniquely human and is called self‐consciousness. To most people it is the reality” – Tony Parsons (2006) – interesting, where did you find a quote from Parson’s.☺

Theatre is ontologically concomitant. I hope you know what this means since you have picked it up with our illusion of separation from, can you exemplify this stance and the suffering that arises from this is the source of all drama. The question therefore arises whether theatre might have something to do with healing us of this illusion. Whole systems approach that uses the distributed aesthetic space of the stage to orient attention towards the context rather than just the content of experience theatre is an externalization of consciousness; different modes of theatre represent different metaphors of consciousness; by participating in these different modes we experience different kinds of consciousness and certain modes of theatre are conducive to mindfulness and can lead to meta-awareness or meta-cognitive insight quote source, these are not your own words and we both know it, use it with citation. Research impressive! Ronald Valle will be proud.

“Theatre awakens the process of consciousness previously operating in a sort of unaware, automatic pilot mode, and it reveals the complex location of consciousness within the materialist spectrum”- Demastes (2002, p.94) – if you cite page number then you have to add the referece at the end of the text. You have lifted it from a book or article without checking its bibliography to know which book it the citation from.

Theatre can be an approach to mindfulness is the basic proposal of this thesis. It is not simply an attempt to graft a set of theatre exercises or techniques onto the curriculum of a Mindfulness Based Approach to Health course. Rather, it is making tentative steps towards defining a new theatre approach which is informed and has at its core the same functions as a Mindfulness Based Approach to Health, and which can contribute to the ,”skilful means” by which practitioners teach MBA’s across all curricula.

Mindfulness is an approximate translation of the pali term sati as taught by Buddha and describe in the ancient pali text – Satipatthana Sutta (The Way of Mindfulness) (Silananda & Heinze, 1995). Cite the publication at the end. Related terms are vipassana, insight meditation. Mindfulness, in effect, is like a Zen Kōan –questions that cannot be answered by rational thought. Indeed, the non-dual nature of the term, as scientists trying to define mindfulness have found, resists abstract conceptualization. And perhaps so it should be, because we can only really start to begin to understand mindfulness by its practice. Just as the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon and the map is not the territory – Myrko Thum?????, the concept of mindfulness is not mindfulness.

Theatre by contrast is derived from the same Greek word meaning “the seeing place”; which is derived from theoria from which the English word “theory” is also derived – theory being a way of seeing something. In Eastern Orthodox theology Theoria means beholding God (Wikipedia).

Another revolution in how we define theatre that has occurred in the last century in the space that has opened up between theatre and drama. Theatre and drama were more or less intrinsically bound together: theatre being the place where drama was performed, or alternatively where dramatic events occurred that place would be referred to as the theatre of operations – as in the theatre of war.

“The whole manifestation that we call life is simply the drama of oneness looking for itself, for all desire is the longing for oneness”- Tony Parsons

When theatre is applied the fourth wall generally becomes porous, and participation becomes the key word. In order to get an idea of how the COT approach might contribute to an MBA curriculum, below are some practices that address key points within the curriculum. The practices are described, followed by an explanation of their function and then a discussion of how they give added value to MBA‟’s through the specific properties of theatre that this thesis has re-contextualized. Then there is a suggestion of where in a curriculum it might be useful to use. One of the main tools in the armoury of the Theatre of the Oppressed is Image Theatre. Participants create images with their bodies and in some instances sculpt each other to create tableaux in which they can then place themselves.

Embodied discourse? Was it Schneider? I am glad you have read up on some good literature!

By creating images of our oppression we start to learn the language of theatre and of the body. We start to identify the nature of the oppression, and articulate its context. By dynamizing the image – giving them movement and sound (including speech) we are able to recognize the mechanisms of that oppression and find strategies for resistance. These images can depict external or internal oppressions. In groups of four or five participants are invited to create images of the barriers they have to mindfulness practice. Each take turns to use the other members of the group to sculpt into images of the barriers and then they place themselves where they feel they are in the scenario. Usually, in the Image Theatre process, these images would be seen by the whole group and interpreted and analyzed. But this takes a long time and the emphasis here is on manifesting externally in the aesthetic space these barriers so that they can be seen. All the groups simultaneously dynamize with slow motion movement and with sounds or words if appropriate, for each image in turn and with the instructions that follow.

Theatre provides the only mechanism that allows us to embody a metaphor, and by allowing us to project and identify with even inanimate objects enables us to also instantly embody the insight. There is also the playfulness associated with the exercise and the challenge, which everyone fails to complete, to try and strike up a meaningful conversation, illustrating the point Williams makes that attention is limited and cannot focus on more than two things at the same time (Williams, 2005). Secondly there is the relationship they develop with this inanimate object on which their name is written and this all leads to the dramatic moment when the group let the balloons drop, and after the frantic effort, the colour and movement, like leaves falling on a pond, there is a sudden stillness. While language as a metaphor, apart from poetry, encourages convergent processing- where a specific interpretation is sought; embodying metaphor allows for divergent processing, where a plurality of interpretations is encouraged or indeed, no interpretation at all but just a feeling tone. Therefore, while the instructions can be directed specifically to explore the themes of allowing and letting be, “Doing” mode and “Being” mode or attachment to thoughts, defining what the balloons and the movement of the arm represent can be left open. So by simply asking what the balloons and the movement of the hand might represent, or what in the mind do they correspond to, might proffer insight that is relevant to the participant at that time.

It would have been interesting to hear your interpretation of popular discourse. If you choose to use their argument it is unfair to give them credit because then you are stealing. Learn to quote and cite appropriately.

Well done! I hope you truly understanding that which you are arguing.

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