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

At this stage, actors test out the many different possibilities of any
given text. Or rather, the texts are revealed as not being fundamental,
but permeable, open, wildly interpretable.
12. Scenes are enacted with one underlying rasa, on top of which are
bits played in different rasas.
Here one begins to see how a whole production could be mapped as
a progression of rasas. The progression could be scored or improvised
each performance.
There are even more possibilities. The Rasabox exercise is designed
to be unfinishable. It is not intended to be a “true example” of an NSbased
performance. Indeed, what comes from the Rasabox exercise is
not at all like what one sees at any traditional Indian performance. The
exercise actually points to the creative possibilities suggested by the
underlying theory of the NS. It “comes from” rather than “is an
example of” that theory.
THE EMPTY BOX
rasaesthetics 355
What about the empty box at the center? Historically, there was no
“shanta rasa” until Abhinavagupta added it some centuries after the NS
was compiled. In the exercise, as in the historical development of rasa
theory, the “ninth Rasabox” is special. What happens there? In the
exercise, a person can enter that box – the s´ānta space – only when the
person is “clear.” What that means is not for the one directing the
exercise to say. Each person will have her own criteria for total, whole
clarity. In the years that I’ve directed the Rasabox exercise, “sānta” has
been occupied very rarely, one or two times. There can be no challenge
to such a position. So what if it is “not really so” that the person is
“clear”? How can another person tell? And maybe it is so, maybe the
participant has surpassed all samsara, all the clutter of feelings, the confusion
of mixed emotions, the noise of change.