Bitef

What are the human forms we might have taken? What are the parts of ourselves which have not yet lived? ’Mutations' is a subjective work about human change, human forms torn from their first nature, torn from a nature they con not define, torn from the child in the adult. Whatever lives grows. The conditions of living promote growth in different directions. We assume the conditions are fixed, that our growth can only follow from these conditions. Yet we know that from moment to moment we are constantly changing. We know we can also create the condiitons which shape our growth. In this work we renounce the conditions that give the illusion of a fixed state. The work itself is still in an early stage of growth. It too will undergo many changes, it no longer is recognizable from the early months of exploratory work. During the time the Open Theatre is touring it will continue to change, perhaps to be unrecognizable again when compared to past performances. There are many parts to the piece. Each scene is the representation of a mutated condition. Some of them which have endured through the most recent period of the work are: THE GALLERY: A gallery presenting human forms. Each was once an infant; each will someday be a corpse. THE JOURNEY; A continuous journey, a forced walk, carrying the performer through conditions and changes. THE TEARING AWAY: The boy who lived all his days in a box is torn from it and carried a great distance. He is dropped at the foot of a hill near the city. THE PEOPLE GIVE TESTIMONY: Each gives testimony to the many former lives within their present life. THE INVASION: The missionary and the hunter, always at the side of the colonizer, hunted and found a wild human child. She had lived with an animal pack as one of them. She was torn away from the den. captured, and made 'civilized'. BREAKING; The one in the box breaks from the box and sees for the first time. THE SHOES AND THE MATING: The child who once ran free with the animal pack is made to stand upright; shoes are placed on her feet; she walks the way she is taught. THE WEDDING: In a wedding dance, each one dances, mutates, changes.

Tina Shepard (giumac) Roberta Sklar (reditelj) Paul Zimet (giumac)

Šta su ljudske forme koje smo na sebe uzeli? Šta su delovi nas samih koji još nisu živi? ’Mutacije’ su subjektivno delo o Ijudskoj promeni, ljudske forme izvučene iz svoje prvobitne prirode, iščupane iz prirode koju ne mogu da definišu, iščupane iz deteta i pretvorene u odrasle. Sve što živi raste. Uslovi življenja usmeravaju rast u raznim pravcima. Mi mislimo da su uslovi zauvek dati i da rast može samo da sledi te uslove. A ipak znamo da se menjamo iz trenutka u trenutak. Mi znamo da možemo da stvorimo uslove koji oblikuju naš rast. U svom radu mi odbijamo sve što stvara iluziju o fiksiranom stanju. Naš rad je još u početnoj fazi. On će pretrpeti mnoge promene. Ne može se prepoznati ako se poredi sa prvim mesecima našeg rada. Tokom sadašnje turneje Open teatra, naš rad će se i dalje menjati, tako da se u krajnjem rezultatu neće prepoznati ranije predstave. Predstava se sastoji iz velikog broja scena. Svaka scena predstavlja jednu izmenjenu okolnost. Evo nekih od scena koje su izdržale sve promene u dosadašnjem radu. GALERiJA: Galerija koja predstavlja ljudske oblike. Svako je jednom bio odojče i svako će jednog dana biti leš. PUT: Stalni put, forsirani hod, koji glumca vodi kroz okolnosti i promene. KIDANJE: Dečak koji je celog života živeo u kutiji biva iz nje izvučen. Nose ga daleko. Bacaju ga u podnožje jednog brda. LJUDI SVEDOČE: Svaki svedoči o svojim ranijim životima U odnosu na sadašnji. NAJEZDA: Misionar i lovac, oduvek na strani kolonizatora, lovi i nalazi divlje dete. Devojčica je živela kao životinjica. Izvlače je iz jazbine, hvataju i ’civilizuju'. PRELOM: Jedan iz kutije izlazi iz nje i progleda. CIPELE I SPARIVANJE: Devojčicu, koja je nekada jurcala slobodno sa čoporom, naučili su da stoji uspravno. Natakli su joj cipele na noge; korača kako je naučila. VENČANJE: U svadbenoj igri, svi igraju, svi se manjuju.

about (joseph chaikin)

Theatre is the collaborative art. But often the director gets in the way of the actors, the actors in each other’s way, the playwright in the way of the play. Yet finally it is all intended for a single event. We continue to work toward a dialogue between the artists, in terms both of discussion and of exercises. The plas as well as the exercises are about many different things. At the Open Theatre we are not trying to groom ourselves for the current business

theatre, but to explore and experiment. In the workshops we project questions through stage exercises and improvisations. Recently we have been exploring extensions of the audience/performer relationship. Something which we continually come back to is the impulse behind the useless war this country is fighting and the condition of peril we live in, with nations pointing prepared nuclear weapons at each other. Can these larger issues be seen in personal, one-to-one

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mutacije

mutations