[OSList] Satyagraha, Opera and Wall Street.

[Skye Hirst]

Phelim, thanks so much for this sharing.  I'm reminded of the role  
Bob Dylan played in the middle of civil rights and anti war - it  
seems artists help us to reflect on what we are experiencing. We need  
your truth, something to help us to breakout of our habits.  I love  
the idea of "peace breakout"
On Oct 18, 2011, at 11:38 PM, Phelim wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> I generally pick up emails only at the beginning and end of the  
> working day. I am currently aiming to respond the following day. If  
> it is urgent please call me on 07956 187298.
> _____________________________________
>
> www.improbable.co.uk
> @openspacer
>
> _______________________________________________
> OSList mailing list
> To post send emails to OSList at lists.openspacetech.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to OSList-leave at lists.openspacetech.org
> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below:
> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org