[OSList] Satyagraha, Opera and Wall Street.

Mon Nov 21 08:44:40 PST 2011

And bravo on so many levels - I saw that they broadcast it in Times  
Square and outside the Opera House.  Seeing this made me think you  
had a hand in helping this happen as your way of resolving that  
conflict of being with the 1% and the solidarity with the 99% and  
what comes of Opening the Space for possibility.  so many levels of  
thank you, this was truly a Universal connecting moment.   Skye
On Nov 21, 2011, at 10:52 AM, Martin Boroson wrote:

> Hello all …
>
>
>
> I have been off this list for a couple years as I needed to focus  
> on some other priorities … but then I began to miss the wonderful  
> people and ideas that get exchanged here.  So I started reading  
> again, and was pleased to see this chat about Satyagraha, as I had  
> the pleasure of seeing the HD video version last night.
>
>
>
> Phelim …. 100 bows to you for bringing this to us.  I found the  
> production to be very powerful and surprisingly – for something  
> that was not emotional in a conventional sort of way – it moved me  
> to tears.
>
>
>
> I particularly admired your courage in directing so much stillness  
> in the actors. I’m guessing that this required great restraint and  
> trust on your part, and might not have been too easy for the  
> actors, either. J But the feeling of deep conviction and courage in  
> non-action in the production supported the music and the message so  
> beautifully.
>
>
>
> Is there any chance of an audio recording of this company?  The  
> voices were just gorgeous.
>
>
>
> Again … Phelim … thank you and congratulations.
>
>
>
> Marty
>
>
>
> www.onemomentmeditation.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist- 
> bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of icataiw at ms69.hinet.net
> Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2011 11:59 PM
> To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
> Subject: Re: [OSList] Satyagraha, Opera and Wall Street.
>
>
>
> Phelim,
>
>
>
> Greatly appreciate your reflections on the NOW and Satyagraha.   I  
> shared it with friends in the US and got the following information  
> (sadly too late to tune in).
>
> The Metropolitan Opera is doing a series of simulcast opportunities  
> for us out here in the "wilderness."
>
> Satyagraha was simulcast yesterday and I couldn't go. It is having  
> an encore in local theaters across the country on Dec. 7. According  
> to the internet it will be at the Brassfield Cinema 10 and  
> Greensboro Grande Stadium 16 in Greensboro.
>
> Anyone not in NYC...or near...look up Metropolitan Opera live in HD  
> on Google. Faust is 12/10/11.
>
> There are 11 opportunities during 2012. I've been to several.
>
> Went to Seigfried a couple of weeks ago. It is better than being in  
> New York. The camera gets up close and personal with the singers.  
> Plus they go back stage and talk with folks.
>
> Congratulations to all of you!  And may there be more...........
>
>
>
> Gail
>
>
>
> Dear Raffi, Harrison, Michael, Suzanne, Christine, Peggy, Karen,  
> and all, how great to hear from you around the world.
>
> It is an amazing time to be here in NYC. As you may remember three  
> years ago we came here and mounted our Philip Glass opera  
> "Satyagraha" which some of you saw. At that time we had a great ad  
> campaign which was almost cheeky in it's proposition:
>
> "could an opera make us stand up for the truth?"
>
> (Links here to the publicity and poster:
>
> http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/news/features/detail.aspx? 
> id=3624
>
> http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/news/features/detail.aspx? 
> id=3674 )
>
> "Satyagraha": At that time in NYC no one knew what the word even  
> meant! How times have changed.
>
> Glass's piece is a thirty year old opera about Gandhi's Satyagraha  
> campaign which first emerged and was enacted in South Africa. The  
> Satyagraha protests involved the burning of record cards and the  
> Newcastle march changed the rights of Indians in South Africa  
> forever and was the beginning of the movement which brought India  
> out from beneath the oppression of the British Empire.
>
> At the time of first doing the Opera I was so drawn to it because  
> of the personal connections to working with open space and it's  
> power to help "peace break out". I was excited by how I saw that  
> Gandhi's idea of Satyagraha meant how leadership, activism and  
> protest starts with work on the self. The intangible "inner work  
> cooking" that if we are lucky can happen whilst opening space for  
> transformation and self organisation. All these are open space  
> practices. All these are Satyagraha practices. A discipline of  
> forged vulnerability or "soul-force", "truth-force", "love-force."  
> I felt it was important to do the piece as it re-imagined and  
> stated the true nature of what had become mistranslated and  
> interpreted incorrectly as  "passive resistance" an unhelpful term  
> to truly explain Gandhi's concept.
>
> Now just three years later we are remounting the production whilst  
> an open space/Satyagraha movement breaks out around us and worldwide.
>
> The irony that our production will be playing to the Metropolitan  
> Opera house audiences whilst Occupy Wall Street is so near cannot  
> be avoided! I am fascinated to see how the audience will respond to  
> the piece this time around, especially as many of them no doubt  
> could well be considered to be part of the "1%".
>
> I have also found myself feeling how strangely complicated the  
> politics of this piece playing in the opera house is for myself and  
> here of course the fifth principle seems all the more important and  
> helpful to me.  I ask myself what am I doing not down on Wall  
> street but inside an opera housed doing a piece about activism and  
> protest portrayed by singers with amazing voices. Is this just  
> decadent?
>
> "Wherever it happens is the right place."
>
> I have found myself in the past questioning during extreme times  
> what is the point of doing theatre? This thing that can seem so  
> frivolous whilst world events seem so overwhelming. However it is  
> in theatre that I first experienced the transformative nature of  
> space, atmosphere, silence and emergence. True theatre holds space  
> for the imagination, dreams and the future when events, despair or  
> beliefs could close that space down. This is the frontier I  
> personally have known since childhood where a true conversation  
> with the unknown and chaos can be had (as David Whyte says) and the  
> imagination can be the first step towards opening space beyond my  
> own prejudice and limiting beliefs into possibility.
>
>
> So I have realised how important this piece is to perform right NOW  
> because it manages to communicate what is behind or beneath a  
> Satyagraha protest: this is the power of Spirit. How important it  
> is to speak from my own place of truth. To be present in this a- 
> causal connection with world wide events and to let theatre do what  
> only theatre can do: to communicate the mysterious nature of the  
> spirit that exists out there as the space opens. To speak tangibly  
> of the spirit that so easily can be dismissed or made invisible in  
> media coverage or polarised reactions. To use art to do what its  
> purpose is: to say the unsayable, speak the ineffable.
> As Gandhi sings in the opera (in words from the Bhagavad Gita)
>
> "These are the Athletes of the Spirit"
>
> Love
>
> Phelim
>
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Gail West
> ICA
> 3F, No. 12, Lane 5, Tien Mou West Road
> Taipei, Taiwan 111
> 8862) 2871-3150
> SKYPE   gwestica
> www.icatw.com
>
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Skye Hirst, PhD
The Autognomics Institute
A Living World-view; the nature of reality

skyeh at autognomics.org
www.autognomics.org
Twitter @autognomics

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