On Monday evening, we gathered a group of people to have a discussion around some of the ideas that Ralph Lemon is exploring in his new work How Can You Stay in the House All Day and Not Go Anywhere?, premiering and touring this fall.

Joined by Ralph and dramaturg Katherine Profeta (who Ralph refers to as his “advocate for the audience” in his process) we read and talked about a couple short stories which are but two parts of the amalgamation of elements floating around the work: The Hare in the Moon (as mentioned in Jorge Luis Borges The Book of Imaginary Beings) and the Uncle Remus stories The Wonderful Tar Baby Story and How Mr. Rabbit Outwitted Mr. Fox.

Like any good conversation, we ended up with more questions than answers.

Each of the stories features a rabbit whose body is “thrown”—one into the fire to gain enlightenment, and one into the briar patch for survival. So, is there a way to understand them as the same rabbit—the striving for survival the same as that toward enlightenment? Can the clever trickster be as wise as the selfless Buddhist?

The Hare’s act of giving his body to feed a supplicant is one of generosity. But it is done for spiritual reward. Does the fact that there is reward somehow lessen the act of generosity? Is enlightenment the same as generosity? Is Brer Rabbit just as enlightened as the Hare? Are the Uncle Remus stories more understandable by us, coming from a Western, and particularly American perspective—for us is struggle a crucial element of the quest for enlightenment?

The ideas of enlightenment, grace, transcendence are present throughout How Can You Stay…,  but a key question is how do explore them through the body when it is impossible to achieve them physically? How can you DO something which pushes the body in that direction? How do you perform without “being” in the body?

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I was just going through our old blog entries to understand some stats and came upon this entry from almost exactly a year ago.  It’s nice to be reminded that what we set out to do a year ago– make sure these values infuse everything we do– is happening.  Thanks to all who join with us!

We value:

• the important role of the artist in an open, democratic society
• the importance of dialogue and global exchange and see artists as conduits for these conversations
• deep engagement with artists over time
• art that expands our world view and challenges/implicates its audience
• risk taking and experimentation

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This new slideshow from Dean Moss really captures the mood of his new work, Nameless forest.  Stay tuned for an open studio showing in August at The Kitchen!

Nameless forest (slideshow 2) from MAPP International on Vimeo.

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In total, twelve weeks of rehearsal for Nameless forest have been completed over five months, including the just finished “second rehearsal sequence” consisting of twenty-eight rehearsals spread out over the fifty-nine days of February and March.

The production has developed to about 50 minutes, or approximately 70% of the completed work, which is exactly what I was hoping to accomplish by this time.  But we had help. Several friends of the cast, professional colleagues, the serendipitously curious and other strangers, at least thirty in all, graciously helped us by coming to see the work and participating in it as an experimental audience. This was a fundamental aid to the development of Nameless forest and I am incredibly grateful for your many insights and comments, all of which added depth and nuance to the work.  Thank you all so much.

Roxana has been working magic with the costumes. Please check out her
images elsewhere on this blog. Sungmyung wasn’t able to attend this rehearsal sequence, though we were in constant communication during the process.  He did create and send the set design maquettes envisioned during our ASU residency last November.  After receiving the beautifully rendered set models and showing them to colleagues we came to the difficult conclusion that we needed a slightly different approach. In truth one of my gracious colleagues that came to see the work, Young Jean Lee, said something to the effect of “why are those big t-shirts in the space?”  Her question revealed something I was missing.

Since I knew what the design was based on, I had always thought of the set in relation to damaged bodies, as headless, armless torsos that framed the performing space. But she looked at the maquettes and saw striped sculptured tees. Where I imagined depth, she saw product placement.

Though clearly an exaggeration, she was, unfortunately, right. The maquettes did look too much like empty t-shirts.  Though we agreed  with Sungmyung that emptiness was the point, we also all agreed the metaphor of the set shouldn’t point towards commercial product. The new design fragments a single torso into two parts, preserving the emptiness while giving it a more dynamic, visceral impact.  It successfully manifests the original metaphors while integrating better with Gandalf’s neon elements, and as an added plus is less material to ship. Now if we can just get them made.

Fortunately we have time, though the countdown has definitely begun.

-dean

postscript:
Am reading “How to do things with Art” by Dorothea von Hantelmann, and
“The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony” by Roberto Calasso: both very interesting.

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From Ralph Lemon:

My dear and evanescent art partner, Walter Carter, passed away recently in Bentonia, Mississippi, at 102! He just got too old, and too beautiful, I guess.

The last time I saw him he told me it would be the last time, but he said that it would be the last time every time we parted in these last few years. Of course I didn’t believe it.

I’m terribly sad but also feel like celebrating, what an extraordinary, fearless and present life it certainly was.

May we all have such a life, and such play.

R

Even though Walter’s education ended after the completion of the fourth grade, he possessed a wealth of knowledge. He was literally a Jack of all Trades. He worked as a sharecropper, planting and picking cotton, corn, potatoes. He also worked as a carpenter and in a sawmill. The job he performed the longest was planting cedar trees. In the last years of his life he was a vital artistic collaborator with Ralph Lemon.

Ralph was introduced to Walter in 2002 by Jimmy (Duck) Holmes, owner of the Blue Front Cafe in Bentonia, Mississippi, one of the few remaining “juke joints” in the Delta. In their first meeting, Ralph asked Walter about local blues musicians, such as Skip James and Jack Owens. After reminiscing about some dances, Walter demonstrated steps he had not done since he was teenager:

Standing still for a few seconds, outside of remembering, and then he starts to move, mostly his legs, sliding, without bending any limbs, announcing and then moving from step to step. First the one-step, then the two-step, then the slow drag. His body thin as a rail and light, stiff, shinning.  Arms rounded. Hat tilted to the side. His cowboy boots scratching out music on the sandy concrete floor, surprising himself. Then he stops, places his hands on his chest, coughing, smiling, a revelation.

Since then, Ralph has visited Walter twice a year, creating an art exchange in his house, his backyard, along some nearby country road. A conversation with the living reality of ordinary human existence—a day’s work, ritual, repetition (digging, greasing, moving, breaking, dancing, waiting).

-Walter, what do you think about this stuff we’ve been doing…does it mean anything to you?

-I don’t think nothin’ about it. Ain’t never done it before, and won’t do it again after you leave, and surely won’t do it once I’m dead. So what’s to understand? I know I like it.

-You like it, then does that mean it’s important?

-I’m 99, ain’t nothin’ important to me. And then he laughed.

-But you’re alive, that’s important, isn’t it?

-Yeah, that’s a fact. Living is important, but I’m living ‘cause I’m living, but know soon I won’t be. That’s the privilege of an old man like me. I know what’s comin’ and in the meantime I’m enjoying myself.

What a full and beautiful life.

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