La Iluminada

Mount Vernon, U Street, son zonas de Washington para la reconciliación con la ciudad. Entre M street y la 9th hay un callejon, Blagden Alley. Entras y sentados en la puerta de un garaje hay un par de tipos como recién teletransportados de Woodstock que hablan de Jim Morrison y cantan poderosas canciones acompañadas por una guitarra. Hay grafitis, ¡aleluya! y un garaje donde unos tipos intercambian golpes dentro de un ring. En otra esquina está Insomniac Design que es donde Rachel me ha citado. También es donde va a tener lugar su instalación viva el sábado en la versión local de la Noche en Blanco. No tengo ni idea de qué va pero siendo idea de Rachel seguro que es divertido y bizarro con un componente trascendental. Al llegar me invita a que eche un vistazo por el espacio que ocupa una planta baja y dos pisos. El último es una terraza a la que se accede desde otra mini terraza en la primera planta y por medio de una escalera de caracol. Según camino por el estuido me imagino que en la primera planta (donde hay una barra) tiene que ocurrir algo excéntrico y de manicomio. Por ejemplo que unos tipos con vestimenta elegante estilo Star Trek están diseñando inteligencia artificial mientras toman cócteles ultra narcotizantes y que en la terraza más alta tiene lugar algún tipo de ritual o sacrificio. No se me ocurre qué puede pasar en la planta baja. En las 3 horas de ensayo siguientes Rachel va desgranando la pieza y su deseo de que el happening ofrezca al público un recorrido simbólico de la muerte a la vida. El espectáculo se llama 'lit' o 'iluminado' y la iluminación o la oscuridad son elementos clave en la historia. En el espectáculo manipulamos la iluminación con linternas, luces de navidad y otros artefactos iluminados.  Abajo, al comienzo, recibimos a los visitantes con una grandes linternas en los ojos como si fuéramos buhos o extraterrestres, o pirados. Luego creamos un bosque de haces de luz, gateamos, danzamos y yo tengo una parte donde improviso una danza de mono iluminado mientras un batería y un contrabajo tocan a mi lado. Gente sale de los armarios y cuentan historias sobre la ciudad y se relatan cuentos con sombras proyectadas sobre una puerta traslúcida en forma de tríptico que da a una pequeña sala. Hay un momento en que el segurata  mete a alguien en el aseo y con la linterna y el cuarto a oscuras somete al visitante a un interrogatorio muy personal. Cuando todo acaba, a oscuras y con ruido de metales golpeando la barandilla subimos a la carrera al piso de arriba donde, efectivamente, hay caos y pintura, música y frenesí. Una mujer cuenta historias sobre un colchón en el armario, suena un chelo dentro de un cuarto de baño lleno de sangre. Al cabo vuelve la oscuridad y unas luces indican que la visita continúa en la terraza exterior. Desde allí se contempla cantar a una cantante en lo más alto de la escalera de caracol. El visitante sube y en la terraza de arriba se ofrece un ritual de respeto a los cuatro puntos cardinales y todos cantamos:

Hey ho, nobody home
Meat nor drink nor money have I none
Yet we shall be very merry

Hay un guión, y el segurata/narrador hace de guía para el público pero habrá espacio para la improvisación y el público decide si quiere observar solamente o si en cambio quiere participar de lo que ocurre. Creo que hay algún parecido entre lo que imaginaba y lo que es. Supongo que al fin y al cabo vivimos un año juntos y me gusta pensar que el habernos formado juntos hace que cuando miramos un espacio e identificamos su potencial, surjan ideas parecidas. Iba a escribir sobre lo talentosa que es Rachel y sobre todas sus otras cualidades artísticas y personales pero creo que la descripción es una buena tarjeta de presentación y así no me pongo muy cheese. Va por ti, chula.

Fat Flag America

Washington me recuerda a Rusia, los niños con uniforme de corte militar, la cantidad de adultos con el uniforme de guerra, las banderas, el sinfín de memoriales de muertos heroicos. América me lo pone fácil con los prejuicios: el que venga a hacer turismo sin contactos locales se encontrará eso: poética de guerra y compras.

Bethlehem es el arquetipo de ciudad decadente que un día fue el orgullo del país con su producción de acero y ahora es una ciudad con aspecto de diva podrida, un Petrozavodsk o Metallostroi en versión Yankee y a lo grande. La fábrica de acero es un complejo que se extiende a lo largo de 11 millas y de allí salieron las vigas, tuercas y tornillos de los rascacielos de Nueva York, el Golden Gate Bridge de San Francisco y el ferrocarril americano. La mayor factoría de acero del mundo después de la de Pittsburgh, también en Pennsylvania.  Cuando en Bethlehem sonaba la sirena entraban y salían ríos de portoriqueños, brasileños mezclados con los locales y sumaban hasta 40.000. Cuando a primeros de los '90 America dejó de comprar el acero de Bethlehem porque los chinos vendían más barato la ciudad pasó de ser el orgullo de la nación a convertirse en pueblo fantasma. Al complejo lo salvaron de la demolición y ahora hay un casino lleno de máquinas tragaperras en el corazón mismo de la antigua fábrica. Quisiera decir que es trágico pero las lucecitas y soniquetes con la bandera ondeando junto a la grua le dan un toque más bien melodramático.  En las provincias al igual que ocurría en Rusia se puede palpar el aburrimiento de la gente, quizás por eso en Bethlehem hay muchas iglesias, sectas, congregaciones, hermandades y centros espirituales de todas las clases. Las calles sin embargo son hogar de un espíritu muy particular: lo grotesco. 

Dos escenas cortas:

1)

Mujer gorda: ¡No corras!

Marido gordo (caminando a duras penas, un par de pasos por delante): No estoy corriendo zorra

Mujer: (con odio y resentimiento): Sí que lo estás, hijo de puta

2)

En una esquina del cruce donde estamos parados hay una mujer gorda, tan gorda que da la impresión de que la cabeza se la haya reducido un jíbaro que pasaba por allí. Tiene el pelo corto a lo militar lo cual ayuda a crear esa impresión de cabeza en miniatura. Está en la esquina y mira al grupo con curiosidad, con extraña actividad reticular, sus ojos están muy vivos pero ausentes y contrastan con el movimiento ondular y cadencioso del cuerpo. Me percato de su extraña presencia y se lo susurro a Cecilie. Cuesta reconocer a una mujer en eso que por su movimiento vagamente recuerda a un cuerpo humano. Nos mira aunque no estoy seguro de que nos vea. Cruza la calle hasta nuestra esquina, sube por la perpendicular, unos pasitos. Luego baja. Sube y baja sin rumbo ni intención. El instinto de vida sobrevive, poco más. Hay tantos gordos(la palabra no hace justicia al tamaño) con pinta de locos que inevitablemente empieza uno por preguntarse si la depresión les llegó antes de la gordura o como resultado de la misma. Los supermercados están llenos de gente con cara de idiota, mejillas que se confunden con la papada y rostros que delatan una sobredosis de tranquilizantes. Lejos de la imagen del obeso feliz estos son gordos que están jodidos y atiborrados a pastillas. Deambulan por los pasillos con los brazos caídos, como inertes. A veces van más rápidos pero solo cuando van sentados en esos vehículos mitad silla de ruedas mitad cesta de la compra. 

Me dice Jill que sí, que hay decenas de programas entre series, realities, películas, concursos, dibujos y documentales que abordan en la ficción y la realidad el tema de la obesidad pero que Hollywood, por poner un ejemplo, trata el tema siempre con perversa benevolencia. Áma tu grasa, acéptala, gordito, no está tan mal. 

También hay mendigos tremendos, gente que no tiene que para comer pero está gorda a morir.

Interview with Cathleen O'Malley

Cathleen is 31 years old and comes originally from the Washington D.C are. After training for 2 years in Lispa, in London, she now works in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with Touchstone, a 30-years old theatre company that advocates for a type of theatre that is highly involved in the past, the present and the future of its local community. Cathleen’s capacities at Touchstone include: education director -designing the curriculum they teach in local schools, writing teacher and ensemble member sharing the acting, directing and choreographing of the Touchstone’s work.

We meet at night in the rehearsal space of the barn where we live in Little Pond. It’s past eleven at night and it's raining heavily outside, most of Das Collectivnost's members have already turned in to sleep but some come and go to the kitchen or the toilets during our interview looking at us with the corner of the eye. Cathleen has accepted my request of an interview half flattered half surprised. I tell her that this is my first interview ever and that she should relax and excuse my clumsiness or excess of formality. She enjoys speaking about Touchstone and the work she's doing, and she speaks taking great care of what words she chooses. 

What makes you want to come to Bethlehem and work with Touchstone?

I have always been interested in creating a kind of theatre with a social consciousness and believed in the power of transformation that theatre can have for kids.

Having returned home after Lispa I applied for an admin job at Touchstone that they were offering at a time when the company was undergoing structural changes. When they learned that I was a performer too, they offered me an audition for their spring show, which was great for me. Inspiring people and helping them find their creative voice is at the heart of the work in Touchstone and very much what I was looking for.

You said you’ve been always interested in education, how did Lispa change your approach to teaching?

Before going to London I had worked for about 10 years teaching theatre performance, creative writing, visual art, in school programs and summer camps, etc. Lispa had a strong impact on me with regards to the benefits of structure. I think art teachers who have not studied the technique of being creative fail children by giving them too much liberty. I find that they are often afraid to give children too much instruction because it might block their creativity. In Lispa I learned the power of having a slight form or structure from which to launch a creative project. What in our language we call a fixed point. In USA the value of liberty is very important but in some contexts it is often misunderstood. I believe in the importance of having parameters so that creativity can breathe in the container of the structure.

How would you describe the process whereby a structure and parameters provide a greater freedom than a blank page?

I think that an artist who is aware of rules and norms has then the possibility of breaking them as a creative act. But without structure creativity becomes simply expression, a mood, something shapeless.

Can you provide an example of how you apply that method in schools?

In our playwriting class we might ask our students to think of an object as a point of departure. Once we have an object we can then describe it, compare it, contrast it, analyse it. We can talk about its shape, colour, texture… Often more than one student will say: ‘I can’t think of anything' or ‘I can only think of something stupid like my lunch box’. We try to show them the importance of that first input. After that everything is easier and so we may ask them: how long have you had it for (the lunch box)? Oh, it belonged to your older brother? Can you imagine how many places has it been to? It sat for years in the basement covered in dust? Well now think of it as having a personality, how do you think that must have felt? And so on…

Touchstone works with mainstream schools, what is it that these institutions expect from you guys?

Our subject is teaching the creative process as a discipline: something that has structure, a method, a technique... What we, the Teaching Artists bring to schools, is the experience of working professionally in the field. In addition it is also a chance for kids to be learning from someone who doesn’t hold to the culture and methods of the mainstream school. Most of the education in public schools is oriented towards a test based methodology, where there are right and wrong answers. I would like to think that our programs are a safe space for kids to take that idea that goes through their mind and use it for a creative act. Learn to listen to it. More specifically we work at creating movement as a discipline. It is true that a standard school provides physical education and time for play for the kids, and if it’s a good school it will also teach them how to write creatively and express their ideas. But what Touchstone does is to bring all those fields together: in our classes we teach them to create movement that is both expressive and tells a story, this is something that builds literacy but also confidence, public speaking, and a sort of kinaesthetic intelligence.

Touchstone works in creating some kind of movement or change in the local community. Can you speak a bit about it?

Over the past 30 years we’ve done a number of community projects, sometimes involving up to 50 or 75 people from the community, organized around a theme. A few years ago we did a project called Steel Bound named in reference to Prometheus Bound. Steel has traditionally been the most proud and accomplished industry in Bethlehem, the second city in the country manufacturing Steel after Pittsburgh –also in Pennsylvania. During decades, several generations of people moved to Bethlehem to work in the steel industry. When the factory closed and the work was moved overseas, for many people it felt as a betrayal and a loss of identity. Steel bound was an attempt to create a catharsis, an act of healing through story telling. We used text from interviews with the workers and the actors were the workers themselves.

What are you working on at the moment?

Well, my country is currently preparing to commemorate the 150^th anniversary of the American Civil War which is something that clearly still poisons our waters. The bloodiest battle took place in Gettysburg, here in Pennsylvania. This state was particularly stained by the events of the war so we decided to work on a project related to the civil war and the stories of people buried in the cemeteries. Our goal is not to make a history lesson but to find parallels between then and now and at the same time connect what was happening then and now in Bethlehem. Take this as an opportunity for people to be touched by the stories of the past and draw meanings of their own lives. We’re hoping that this piece provides a catharsis for the community in the form of dialogue about those issues and how they’re still at play. Or maybe the community will come out with a sense of pride about how the people fought for a noble cause or maybe it’ll reveal shameful things and that would be good too.

Social change can have so many definitions. We’re interested in people waking up to other people around and waking up to their area and the identity of their region.

A 30-years old company must have come a long way and may no longer have to face the trouble of making a name for itself and other issues that a new company faces. What are the challenges Touchstone has to struggle with?

Financial resources continue to be a challenge. As the company grows, our staff grows our ambition grows… We are a non profit organization and to a great extent we are still depending on government funding and private donors so it is impossible to be complacent because at every shift of powers the government funding sources are a risk. In times of crisis our private donations also get affected. Also recently there has been a change in the artistic directorship so now we're moving in a new direction. This is a small city so we're always trying to find ways to engage new audience.

Another challenge is the fact that when the company was born it was formed by a bunch of people in their 20s or 30s: recent graduates, at the start of their careers. Three decades later, the company has continually reinvented itself, ensemble members have moved away or changed careers. Now, only one of Touchstone’s founding members remains. Most of the rest of us are in our 20s and 30s, a few are married, most are without kids, but could one day. So I guess family and changing goals among company members can create a tension as a company grows. Also, the company is comprised of a wide range of people and therefore we are not all at the same place of our lives. That makes for very exciting and diverse creative work environment, but it also means we’re not always on the same page.

You have 3 seconds to define your country in one word

HUGE

What does a person from Texas, from San Francisco and from Pennsylvania have in common?

The good life and the pursuit of the good life. This could be a universal human ideal but it’s particularly cultivated in the States; what puts people at odds is the difference of opinions about how to achieve this good life. Is the good life a life where people watch out for each other or where the government helps us out if we lose our jobs or are sick, or we are broke, or if the road has potholes? Or is it a life where government is smaller and individualism reigns; these Contrasting understandings of freedom are at the center of current political debate, and manifest in attitudes prevalent to a great or lesser degree in different regions I think the idea of a good life is a common desire and perhaps even indicated in our founding documents, but which finds different expressions among individuals. Another commonality? The vast states of Texas and Pennsylvania, the city of San Francisco--and so much of the vast American landscape--each possess an extraordinary natural beauty.