How do you apply “spirituality” in theatre training?

by

William Weiss

University of Ottawa, Canada

This was a question that some participants asked me after my presentation of a paper entitled “The ego and the self in actor training”(1) some years ago at the ISSEI conference in Haifa. The question puzzled me because obviously they thought that the theatre could be a good vehicle for spiritual development. Yet my understanding is that “doing” theatre is an activity that is no more spiritually advanced than dentistry, or any other human endeavour. It is true, however, that in the stories told by the theatre there are characters who show wisdom and fearlessness, loving kindness and helpfulness, peacefulness and joy, all qualities which without a doubt are spiritual but which do not represent the bulk of what theatre expresses. It is also true that an audience can feel elated after a show but spiritual transformation as a result of seeing a play is at best rare. And actors who express lofty ideals through their characters rarely become spiritual leaders. Hence my puzzlement with this question.

However, if they asked the question, it was because they themselves were interested in spiritual understanding, and were wondering about the aspects of the theatre that would be helpful in spiritual growth. My own understanding of “spirituality” is non-dualistic along the lines Advaita Vedanta or the Course in Miracles. In the words of Adi Shankara [http://sankaracharya.org/] “Brahman is the only truth, the world is unreal” and “The world is an illusion” [http://www.acimabstract.org/subject.htm, W-155.1:1] in the Course in Miracles. Although practising the art of the theatre is, as I said, no more spiritual than any other activity, itself being a part of Maya, in fact doubly so by being fiction, it could be looked at from a spiritual perspective. In that role, theatrical activity resembles any other ‘world creating’ activity be it sports or war making. However, the theatre can be seen as a representation of our world, and proof that we can create a reality by believing in it even though we know it is false.

If theatre could lead us to question our beliefs, it would no doubt be a tool for spiritual development. If that were the case, as producers or audience, when exposed to theatre we would advance in our spiritual understanding. We could come to the conclusion, for example, that if we can play several roles it could also mean that we do not have to feel imprisoned by our own personality which would be seen, in this context, as an effect of a world view and a manifestation of our beliefs, because that is how we play roles. We would also see that our roles are made in function of our goals, wishes and grievances. In principle, we would look at the character that represents us, the person that we think we are, with greater scrutiny. We would find that our character is no different, except for its form, from all the other characters represented in the theatre, and we might come to the conclusion that the theatre, as the symbol of the world of illusion, could give us greater clarity as to the fabrication of our personal world. In that sense, the theatre is a model in world making – the opposite , as I shall argue, of spirit.

Spirit is complete, eternal and invulnerable whereas the world presented in the theatre consists of bodies, time, space, relationships, conflicts, search for happiness and death. In this sense, the most one could say about the spiritual is that it is represented in the theatre by its absence, as if we postulated a world of happiness without opposites for which we substitute a world that resembles our own.

With such a perspective, the theatre could nevertheless be seen as a vehicle for a spiritual message, by revealing our allegiance to a flawed perception of the world, and pointing to the possibility that there might be another reality.

Now, this is all well and good, but changes in our world are often spearheaded by anger and despair – not by spiritual recognition - even if the agents, whether in the theatre or out of it, espouse lofty ideals and proclaim that they are committed to the well-being of the world. If we adhere to the goals of the world while seeking spiritual advancement the endeavour is likely to fail. It is not in the nature of the spiritual to seek vengeance against evil because the spiritual is very simply ‘not of this world’. If the theatre could create a world ‘not of this world’ it would be a very holy institution indeed. But since theatre is defined by action, and given that spirit, being immaterial, does not act, the spiritual would only manifest itself there by it absence. The theatre shows us that whatever conflicts we overcome, conflict being a central aspect of drama, our satisfaction is limited to the circumstances that are depicted. That our existence is temporal and limited and that human beings experience only partial happiness. In other words, if you are interested in looking into these matters you could find them even in the theatre. But the majority of audiences may not be interested in these matters, some may simply want to witness a story, but would that mean that they are inferior spiritual beings? This perception would be quite detrimental to the would be spiritual seeker who would thus judge her brothers. The point is that the theatre is not a vehicle for spiritual ideas except if this is what you are looking for.

And if this is what you are looking for there are many illustrations of our not wanting to see ourselves as spirit but rather as persons. That would be an essential lesson. We act on our wishes and grievances, we have conflicts and accomplishments, but we seek happiness or salvation in this world. The theatre which enacts the world of action shows us the spiritual, I repeat, by its absence, let’s face it: peace and love are not very dramatic. Yet, if this is what you are looking for, then you could find spiritual elements in the theatre and you could devise lessons and exercises to point them out.

What theatre and spirituality have in common is that they are both avenues that seek happiness. Both try to reconcile what is to what ought to be. Theatre is a symbolic materialization of our search for happiness; it manifests what we value in this world – even if it is only a virtual reality. Spirituality is a desire for a virtual world in every way different from ours – a world where death and hardships are absent.

Spirituality is a search for a different identity – a non-material one if the logic is followed. Acting is a desire to discover whether we can shed our identities and adopt different ones. And a theatrical production is an artistic materialization of the stories that dwell in our imaginations. But these fictional “possible worlds” are essentially like the actual world. So, being able to play different roles in a fictitious world also symbolizes the possibility of playing the ultimate role: of our spiritual identity.

This gives a sense of freedom, because in our daily lives playing the different roles that we are called to perform is seen as an imposition. Playing roles in the theatre is freeing because it is voluntary and it asserts our mastery. It is a challenge that will possibly end in success. With the proviso that searching for happiness inevitably brings us back to earth because success is temporary – like everything else in our world. Thus, whether playing roles in our daily lives or in the theatre we are always looking for ultimate happiness, which is the spiritual world by definition. But the theatre reflects our search for a spiritual world that nevertheless looks like our actual world, characters in all plots seek to fulfill their goals of happiness.

Our world is a construct of time and space whereas the spiritual world is of unity and eternity. Our world is a place of obstacles and action whereas the spiritual world is a realm of love and stillness. The theatre is a part of our world that shows how humans seek the divine in earthly circumstances, thinking that an improved world could substitute for the spiritual one.

The theatre portrays a world in need of improvement, it is characterized by endemic imperfections and perennial lacks. There is always the sense that this world is not the ultimate fulfillment, which reflects the spiritual desire for perfect happiness. The spiritual world is perfect (by definition) and, as long as there is unhappiness, ours is not.

Here theatre reverts to its origins, before the separation from religious rituals, by aspiring towards a perfect world, the spiritual world. But to see this world one needs a spiritual interpretation of the world of the theatre. Every aspect of the theatre can be seen as a reflection of the search for a spiritual identity. Whether it is the content of the plays or the theatrical event. The notion of theatrum mundi, the world as a play, is an interesting connection to spirituality because the world is portrayed as a play within a cosmic play, where theatre is a play within a world that is already a play.

Hence, theatre is a play or a made-up world within a world that is also made-up. That is because we could not possibly be spiritual beings and earthlings. If we are immaterial and eternal we could not be bodily and temporal. If we are spiritual we are not of this world but of a different realm, and, in that case, when we experience ourselves as “persons” we are playing a role in a fictitious world. The dictum of “action” as the central element of acting, as described in Stanislavski’s method for instance, seems pleonastic in a “made-up” world. So is the term “performance”, which also applies as to the efficacy of carrying out any job by an individual or machine. As such, performance is work done in the process of building a fictitious world. Even the word “fiction” finds its etymology in the Latin “pottery making” or fabricating objects. The point being that you can act in accordance with a point of view in which you do not necessarily believe but you could bring yourself up to believe it for a cause.

So, as the theatrical object or event is made-up it will have to be performed and shown to an audience whose role is to “make it real”. The observers make the object “real” by believing in it, in concert with the producers of the presentation. That is because the theatre is an event where a group of people carry out a pact to portray and perceive the counterfactual as true. But the pleasure derived from such products of performing art is that they are “not real”.

Were we to see real killings on stage for instance, we would feel guilty and disgusted rather than relieved. Catharsis comes from identifying with a make believe world, and its entertainment value comes from the fact that it being fictitious it leaves us no problems. As is the case in children’s play the pleasure comes from the fact that it is “not real”. As players or audience we are given terrible dilemmas which we do not have to solve because the situation is illusory. The actual evasion from “real life” happens because in the world of fiction we can experience the difficulties of “real life” without assuming the consequences, hence the relief. But where is the spiritual lesson?

I want to be clear that spirituality should not be confused with morality. Morality is concerned with behaviour and is consequently quite transparent. Spirituality is a quest for truth, Ultimate Truth. Whereas the world of the theatre has to do with characters who have well defined characteristics, who live in a private personal world in their mind that includes others, and with whom often they find themselves in conflict, all while aspiring to a world of happiness. That portion, the happiness, is the spiritual portion that appears by its absence. And truth is changeless and eternal and hence non-human. But the theatre expresses the actual world, and its contribution to spiritual awareness could be the realisation that the theatre represents the world in which we think we live. Even theatre presenting very different modes of thinking is essentially akin to what we believe to be the case in this world. People, interests, changing situations, fear, these are all elements of the theatrical drama, just like in our own world. The theatre is a part and a representation of the world: the opposite of the spiritual world which is immaterial, but where, nonetheless, the invisible quest for happiness has an all encompassing existence, and that existence is the call for love. It is the desire to be greater than a single character or not a character at all. If one could see the theatre as a means of showing us what we have chosen to believe, we could understand the analogy that: we could believe in a world different from ours, and perhaps different in all aspects. So the theatre tells us that we create different worlds but that essentially they are similar. It also tells us that we do not like the world in which we live, in other words, we feel that there is always room for progress. The spiritual says that there is a world, right now, where everything is perfect.

But in order to be more down to earth, I will suggest an exercise given very often in groups – try it in your classes:

Exercise 1: Greeting as yourself

1. Go around the room and greet some people

2. Go around the room and play your own character while greeting people. Be conscious that you are playing a role.

3. Quick discussion: Which is one your true character? Were you acting when going around greeting people the first time? If not, how come you did it on command? What was your motivation? What is the difference between the two versions of greeting?

If you are interested in these matters, you could see that we are always playing and the obvious question is who are we? Our identity links us to this world, how about the spiritual identity? And which one do you prefer? (In all modesty, this is a great question.) Perhaps we get what we ask for. But the theatre sometimes told us that we were victims. Which one do you prefer? Spirituality answers clearly that as spirit we are not only powerful but we are all and we have all - in other words, we want everything. Yet in the world of the theatre we are interested in very specific things – a girl, money and vengeance. (Remember that spirit is neither man nor woman.) That is, the goals portrayed in the theatre amount to very little, because all of these things bring only temporary satisfaction whereas Truth is eternal.

So if we are interested in a spiritual world we are interested in letting go of our investment in this world. A good step is to un-identify and disengage from our own person or character. Any theatre exercise that seeks to neutralize our body in other to make it an instrument for playing characters different from ourselves could advance our spiritual understanding – because it gives us an inkling that we could shed off our particular personal identity and be available for a spiritual one.

Exercise 2: Your arm as a puppet

Stand comfortably, move your right arm forward and allow it to come back to its resting position by itself. Repeat this several times, but each time move the arm less than previously. When you concentrate on making the smallest movement verify if you have a breathing pattern at the onset of the movement: do you breath in? out? Do you arrest your breathing? See if you could reverse your breathing pattern while moving your arm forward.
Repeat the exercise toward the right, backward and finally leftward.
Your arm will now be hanging as if it was not a part of you. You can swing it in any direction by moving your trunk and torso. Play with the spatial patterns that you can make by swinging your arm. It is now neutralized, as if it was not part of you making it available as an object of communication.
Use your arm and hand as a puppet and greet the other puppets. You can add sounds, words and even phrases. Find a friendly puppet communicate a goodbye to her and go back to your seat.

If you are interested in spiritual lessons notice that you can use your body as if it weren’t yourself. That, in fact, your body is a mask, which is the actual Latin meaning of “person”, and that you can modify the behaviour of your personal character. And if you can look at your body as not being yourself you are ready to envisage the spiritual experience of having a non material existence.

If you are now able to withdraw your investment from your personal character you are open to communicate through fictitious characters. When you do this, you find that except in form you are just like the other characters. You may not be black but you understand what it is like to be racially different, or simply different from the other. You may not be Othello, but you understand jealousy, loss and despair, you may not have killed a person but you understand anger. Notice that now I am talking about being human - not a spiritual being. The human condition is that of individuality, defending our uniqueness and being pitted against situations and relationships that often do not support us. So where can we find the spiritual lesson? First of all by realizing that identifying with individuality is the making of our theatrum mundi and that as long as we do that we relinquish our spiritual identity which is the opposite of our personal identity. The theatre allows us to identify the non-spiritual world and to realize that 1. We adhere to it by identifying with it, which paradoxically shows our spiritual power; 2. That our lives in this world never truly satisfy us, even when we get what we want, because satisfaction is linked to circumstances which could constantly change, which shows our spiritual yearning.

So what do we want? The wonderful thing with spirituality is that it is simple. In this world we want worldly happiness: abundance, health, success, pleasure, fame, love and happiness in our relationships, and you can complete the list with more specific and personal things. This is the stuff of dreams, or rather of the theatre, that is, of our world, of a complex and mysterious universe which never seems to quite pan out because satisfaction is never perfect, conflicts constant and joy temporary. But if the world is complex spirit is simple, it is the truth, it is changeless, it is complete, it is unified so it must be joyful, peaceful and loving, in our world it is symbolized by the concept of salvation or enlightenment. Doesn’t it sound boring? If it does, you adhere to the precepts of our world, which is fine, as long as you understand and accept its shortcomings, including decay and death. But if you find that unhappiness is a part of life in this world and that you are interested in an alternative you may be interested in observing the mind-set that produces this world, and theatre is an acceptable model of an individual and bodily existence.

I have heard the story of an American lady who called herself “Peace Pilgrim” and who walked tens of thousands of miles for almost thirty years while trusting that shelter and food would be provided without asking. If you ask me, that would be an example of a wonderful “spiritual performance”. Her criteria were: when you see strife give peace, when you see falsehood give truth and when you see evil or hatred give love. What are your criteria when watching a play, analysing a plot and playing a character? Do you use the theatre to get or to give? Peace Pilgrim said that the world is a mirror, when you give peace you get peace. Is that a criterion that we use in the theatre? If we use the theatre in order to feel closer to our fellow beings the theatre does become a spiritual tool. When you play a conflicted character do you see spirituality lying behind it and begging for peace? Do you distinguish our personal truths from Higher Truth? Do you perceive a desire for innocence behind hatred and a call for love behind evil? Because if you do you are applying spirituality in theatre training.

(1) « The Ego and the Self in Actor Training », Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, 1,1,March 2000, http://www.aber.ac.uk/~drawww/journal/.