Bitef

zamislio Bard. Ostvarenje jednog od dva scenarija, i to »Strange Bedfellows«, izazivalo je spontan smeh. Mabou Mines, grupa sa krajnje različitim stavovima, podstiče studente na stvaranje monodrama, и kojima bi izvođač koristio raźne elemente, као slike iz detinjstva, istraživanje ličnih emocija, redore tekstu iz knjiga Ui dnevnika, nastojeći, istovremeno, da kontrolišu prostor па коте se izvođac nalazi. Kao rezultat toga dobijamo poeziju u pokretu: delikatno balansiranje između sporta i igre, čiji utisak pojačavaju autentični futbalski pokreti и apsurdnom ispoljavanju snage (jedan tim bori se sam sa sobom na igralištu), i najveću ozbiljnost futbalskog rituala uobličenog и koreografske norme, John Howell, jedan od pravih članova »tima«, objasnjava smisao ove koreografije : »futbalski pokreti su sami po sebi sasvim realni, mada su razlicito organizovani na primer, napadacka linija rasporedena je prosterno.« Na takav nacin, preneto na neki drugi medijum u ovom slućaju na pozorište futbal postaje umetnički sport, u kojem su principi estetike u potpunosti zastupljeni. Sport posmatran na televiziji čini sličan utisak. Na ekranu, umetnička vrednost futbala dolazi do izražaja, kada se pojedini kadrovi odvijaju u usporenom tempu, a udarci u golfu izgledaju umetnički ako ih kamera prikazuje u krupnom planu, podvlaceći njihove osnovne elemente. Kao najsramniji primer tretiranja sporta kao umetnosti, mogao bi то zda da poslufi dokumentami film » Olimpijada « Leni Riefenstahl, snimljen za vreme olimpijskih igara 1936. u Nemačkoj, kada je Hitlerov lični snimatelj filmovao atlete u njihovoj prepotentnoj eleganciji. Izgled tih nadljudi bio je malo dolerán i, mogło bi se reéi, da je čak stvarao nacisticku ideologiju; Niceu bi se svakako dopao taj film. Daleko od jurnjave i uzbudenja koja neminovno prate probe na Prattu, za vreme lakog obroku и vagón restoranu, Breuer i ja diskutovali smo о estetici dinamizma. Ali, značaj sportskih oblika ostajao je i dalje na prvom mestu a za to smo bili najviše zainteresovani. (The Soho Weekly News, 5. 2. 1976) Ц know what Tm Wjgffî ja running in different directions. Л. No staff. No casting agent. No JÊtf chauffeur. No backers.« Lee B reuer is slightly hysterical at the thought of Mabou Mines’ undertaking to produce the finished version of The Saint and the Football Players in the giant indoor stadium at Pratt Institute on February 7. Nonetheless, propelled by that crazy, wonderful logic of theater people that involves them in productions they don’t have sufficient

time to rehearse or ample money to produce, he attempts the impossible. The spectacle-in-the-making which features well over a hundred performers football players, drill teams, referees, marching band, and six cars has been briefly shown in various guises since 1973 at the Loeb Student Center and Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and Connecticut’s American Dance Festival. Still, many people have managed to miss the piece so there’s always been a great demand for it. Now, New York will see the completed version which has become rather like a work composed of found objects’ a collage of performers and ideas gathered from several of Mabou Mines’ workshops across the country in the last three years. People from more than a half dozen states will travel to Brooklyn to participate in this » abstract Superbowl « (as Breuer calls it) whose half-time features dancing cars in a parody of parade floats, a conribution of students from last summer’s workshop in Connecticut, and a card cheering section and snowstorm at game’s end contributed by Pratt students. Students at Pratt, where Mabou Mines is now in residence, are getting college credits for participating in the event. Dr. George New, Chairman of the Theatre Department there, is overjoyed about bridging the gap between academia and the avant-garde. »The great thing about Mabou Mines is that our kids are having to rethink their whole perception about theater ,« he told me as we sat at one edge of the playing field while at the opposite end the ’team’ rehearsed plays, and another cluster of performers practiced a movement sequence for half-time. The Pratt Connection is the sine qua non of this event since the new version needs the big indoor space that only Pratt can offer. A conceptueal art piece which blurs distinctions between dance and theater, The Saint and the Football Players had its genesis in San Francisco poet Jack Thibeau’s xerox poem of the same name in which images of football plays cut from magazines and books mingle with a holy card of Saint Theresa in a metaphoric suggestion of the religiosity of sports events. Out of these images Breuer developed a performance piece which, in effect suggests a kind of high mass celelbrated before a gathering of worshipper-enthusiasts. Yet, it is also a statement about movement taking place in real time, and posing real dangers for the perfomers. For Breuer the event is his realization of a dream to create poetry in the theater: The whole idea of Mabou Mines is that it was to devise a method of rendering poetry on the stage not the Yeats bit but to translate a poem into an image series. To have it end up not as a play made out of a poem, but a poem staged. The result is a poetry-in-motion : a delicate balance between sports and dance energized by the interplay of authentic football moves in an absurdist show of power (one team fights itself across the field), and the high seriousness of football ritual abstracted in choreographic patterns. John Howell, one of the original » team « members explains the effect: »The football movements themselves are very real but they’re organized differently for instance, the line shift is about spatial arrangement.« Thus, transposed to another medium in this case theater