Context Oriented Theatre
Context Oriented Theatre proposes that theatre is a metaphor for consciousness and that by using theatre to explore the context of our lived experience we can bring new awareness to who we really are, to a more expansive view of reality.
Many species don’t have stereo vision; even though they have two eyes. They don’t perceive three dimensions even though they have the physical capacity to do so. Theatre, is a human invention and like having two eyes, can be used to reveal our nature.
Using a range of theatre methodologies, Context Oriented Theatre invites audiences to turn their attention towards the present moment –the sense of being alive here and now. To suspend not just dis-belief but also to suspend belief (what we think we know), and to witness directly the nature of reality.
“Augusto Boal has said “Theatre is the art of looking at ourselves”, but when I look I find nothing…a nothing from which everything arises and into which everything eventually falls.
What if theatre, rather than explore the content of consciousness, explored its context? What if, rather than stage the travails of life that provide so much ‘drama’, we shine the spotlight of attention on the exquisite drama of being alive right here right now?
This is a theatre which would invite us to notice not only what is seen and heard but that which is seeing and hearing; not only what is being thought and felt but that which is feeling, which is thinking.
Then the stage necessarily becomes awareness itself and the character and plot , in effect ‘the play,’ is the creative movement of awareness, unfolding in each moment. Just as it is right now in this moment.
Do I mean here the moment I wrote this or the moment when you are reading it? In the Republic of the Imagination they are the same moment.”
Iwan Brioc
Director, The Republic of the Imagination
The aim of Context Oriented Theatre is proprioception – an awareness of the whole movement of the mind as it is happening. Proprioception can bring about an awakening to who we really are and a revolution in consciousness. Theatre has the capacity to do this because it is a metaphor of consciousness.
“Proprioception has two parts ‘Proprio’ means ‘self’ in Latin and ‘ception’ is like perception.
As an alternative to this reflexively ingrained mode of self-observation, David Bohm points out that we have recourse to the body as an immediate display of the actual movement of values and assumptions. It is through the body that we experience values and assumptions as concrete processes, rather than as purely abstract ideas...This approach to experience – in which the symbiotic nature of idea and energy is suspended and displayed throughout the entire organism, rather than just in the ‘mind’ – has the potential to engender proprioception” from The David Bohm Reader
Theatre as a Metaphor for Mind
Theatre is a metaphor for consciousness and different modes of theatre correspond to different modes of consciousness. What follows are a series of slides which picture the correlation.
The first shows conventional ‘Greek’ theatre that separates actor from audience creating a duality. This corresponds to the idea that the world is out there and happening to us. Neurologically it is similar to the separation of the thalamus and the neo-cortex – the later is tasked with entertaining the former with mental projections that support primitive homeostasis. The fragmentation of this movement helps us cover up the neurosis on which society has been constructed.
The second shows the Participative Theatre model – such as Forum Theatre, where audience can cross the fourth wall into the aesthetic space of the stage. Here dialogue is established between the inner experience and the outer experience and if facilitated correctly we can start to see our role in the way we perceive the world.
The third shows immersive theatre, such as Sensory Labyrinth Theatre, where the conditioned theatre/mind structure can collapses. The audience is the hero travelling through a landscape which is aesthetisized. The inner and outer become one and it can happen that the whole fragmented movement of the brain is witnessed, but it is not witnessed by anyone. It is just seen.
Illustrative Film Clips
There follows two film clips which illustrate proprioception.
The first is from ‘The Miracle Worker (1962 – dir. Walter Hill). Helen Keller, deaf/blind from infancy makes a connection between the word for a sensory experience and the sensory experience itself. The specific (the experience) now becomes integrated with the generic (the word for it) and a whole new world of abstract thought opens up and enables here to become socialized. Similarly, proprioception of the fragmented nature of the brain would enable us to see the abstract nature of the self. The inner and outer experience become integrated, or at least the relationship between them is momentarily revealed.
The second, from The Wizard of Oz (1939, dir. Victor Fleming) shows the unveiling of the wizard who comically continues to try and persuade the witnesses to ‘take no notice of the man behind the green curtain.’ Our self is likewise continually telling us not to notice the present moment, where it can be seen not to actually have any independent basis for existence. Caught in the act it can be seen as a fragment that has separated itself from the mind at large (or the ‘chorus’) and made itself both audience and actor in its own play.
Please join me in developing this new and exciting form by joining the Agora discussion group, where you can comment on topics of discussion related to Context Oriented Theatre.
The Republic of the Imagination
The international School for Context Oriented Theatre is called, The Republic of the Imagination is a collective of individuals who are committed to the development of Context Oriented Theatre.
It hosts an ongoing transnational program where students study to become creative citizens in their own communities by practicing Context Oriented Theatre on projects with communities throughout Europe.
The curriculum explores Mind/Mindfulness, Body/Embodyment and Voice/Vocation and includes Theatre of the Oppressed, Sensory Labyrinth Theatre and Creative Movement; supporting practices include Chi Kung, Mindfulness Based Approaches and Feldenkrais; and the school operates according to Permaculture principles and is organized through Open Space Technology.
