4 from ritual to theater and back: the efficacy ... - AAAARG.ORG

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toward a poetics of performance
the trajectory becomes a graceful parabola or hyperbola. So, the
appearance of a goal will transform a graceless, and exploratory mode
of behavior (which may have a high information potential in it, in
the sense that it is looking in many directions) into one which has
only one bit of information, if the target is there, but looks smooth
and pretty.
(Walter, in Lorenz 1959: 202)
Early rehearsals, or workshops, are jerky and disjointed, often incoherent.
The work is indeed a hunt, full of actions with “high information
potential,” but very low goal-orientation. Even in working on texted
material this kind of “looking around” marks early rehearsals: actors
try a variety of interpretations, designers bring in many sketches and
models most of which are rejected, the director doesn’t really know
what s/he wants. And especially if the project is to develop its own text
and actions the basic question of the early work is an anxiety-laden,
“What are we doing?” If, by a certain time, a target is not visible (not
only a production date but a vision of what is to be produced), the
project falters, then fails. A director may maintain confidence by imposing
order in the guise of set exercises; s/he may do this too soon and
cut down the chances of discovering new actions. A balance is needed.
Comparable processes occur in traditional societies. John Emigh writes
about a rehearsal of a ceremony in a village on the Sepik River, Papua
New Guinea:
As the rehearsal proceeded an old man would stop the singing from
time to time to make suggestions on style or phrasing or, just as often,
just as much a part of the event being rehearsed, he would comment
on the meaning of the song words, on the details of the story. The
rehearsal was at once remarkably informal and absolutely effective. A
middle-aged woman with an extraordinary, searing voice seemed to be
in control of the singing. She would start and stop at whim, repeating
phrases, checking points with the old man, pausing to hear his
explanation. . . . As the rehearsal proceeded, men and women would
occasionally drift by. The assembled singers and drum beaters and
witnesses practiced the movements of the dance to accompany the
mother’s lament. 17