An argument against piddling.

Excerpted from a letter written by Charles Bukowski, the American poet and novelist, to the editor William Packard, dated 8 November 1991, 11:29PM.

"I believe what we have to fear is the feeling of the general public toward poetry and/or art. They have no idea what it is but they have the thought that anybody can do it if they feel like doing it. They feel that way too--they can do it, after Jill and Bobby finish college and the mortgage is paid. In fact, many of them already label themselves as Artists. "Oh, Bobby paints...Jill writes..." And they even might have little stacks of listless and off-hand work about. They may even have attended classes. They are the piddlers in the field and most of the field are piddlers. These won't lay down any blood to get their work done, they won't gamble with madness, starvation in their need to get the work done. They don't feel it that way. They want fame and name but they won't give up their comforts and their securities. They claim to be Artists and somehow feel that it will all come together for them. Meanwhile, they might live on hand-outs from relatives instead of having the guts to score for an ugly 8 hour job and to try to break the walls from there. The public has this big soft toad concept of Art, they see it as being done by nice scrubbed intelligent pretty folk with French, German or especially English accents. They have no idea that it can be done by a bus driver, a field hand or a fry cook. They have no idea where it comes from. It comes from pain, damnation and impossibility. The blow to the soul of the gut. It comes from getting burned and seared and slugged. It comes from being too alive in the middle of death. It comes from...new and awful places and the same old places...It comes..."

Session 2

Attendees:
Mauro
Lea
Caitlin
Ariana
Rasheeda
Hedva
Hugo

Activities of the Day:
The Five Sentences for next week were introduced to the group then assembled. These are listed below.

Both Mauro and Lea presented their responses to the Five Sentences from last week. Mauro's response consisted of two monologues that were meant to be inter-cut. He decided that he would continue to develop the writing by using the Five Sentences for this coming week. Lea's response consisted of a short piece of writing, discussion of purgatory, and some images she both found and created (to be posted soon).

Ariana presented and explained a rough storyboard for a piece of theatre she is trying to create. The piece would include actors staged live, as well as the possible use of film or projections. Much discussion about airports, immigration lines, and limbo ensued.

Hugo asked if it would be all right to bring outside people to The Space, and it was decided that this would be fine, provided that said individuals were there with a specific purpose or offering, not simply to fill their time as spectators.

Wonderful feedback from all in attendance.

The Five Sentences for this week:

SENTENCES ASSIGNED TO BE SHARED FRIDAY, 6 FEBRUARY:

1. Finish this statement: "I have faith in..."
   
2. The work must have a list.
3. You must use a chair in an unconventional way (ie: do not just sit in it).
4. You must read and use the Oxford English Dictionary definition of "congeniality." Any edition. [Here's the online version.]
   
5. All art is personal and autobiographical.

"Freedom"

Freedom is not following a river.
Freedom is following a river,
though, if you want to.
It is deciding now by what happens now.
It is knowing that luck makes a difference.

No leader is free; no follower is free--
the rest of us can often be free.
Most of the world are living by
creeds too odd, chancy, and habit-forming
to be worth arguing about by reason.

If you are oppressed, wake up about
four in the morning: most places,
you can usually be free some of the time
if you wake up before other people.

--William Stafford

Session 1

Attendees:
Mauro
Lea
Loukia
Hugo
Max

Activities of the Day:
General explanation of the purpose of the Space. The Five Sentences are given for next week's presentations. It is decided that these things will be e-mailed to the course at large so as to reach anyone who wasn't able to make it do to a scheduling conflict, or for those who are still by and large too curious to have committed to this session. The e-mail content is below.

The Space is broken up into five scheduled categories:

1 - Restrictions - (You get offered 5 sentences each week that will inspire you to create work to be shown the following work)

2 - Lectures (Tell us how much time you need and come to talk about a topic that interests you - teach us something, get feedback, new ideas)

3 - Workshops - (Want to try out a workshop?? Need a group of people to try it out? Just let us know)

4 - Development - (Have a piece that you want to develop, need collaborators, or just ask where to go next?)

5 - Feedback - Want to show your latest work and just want people to tell you what they think?

Everything is valid. Just tell us what you want, how much time you need and we can book a slot.

The Five Sentences for this week:
We start with 5 sentences. The following week, you have 15 minutes to show a piece, a monologue, or an idea for work--bring a picture, draw a picture, whatever! The idea is to SHARE.

SENTENCES ASSIGNED TO BE SHARED FRIDAY 30TH:

1. The words "once," "upon," and "time" must be used.
2. Honesty is key--it must consider what makes you human.
3. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
4. I'm not good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.
5. All art is personal and autobiographical.
   

Let's start with a little exposition, shall we?

Central School of Speech and Drama's MA course in Advanced Theatre Practices is made up of several different strands. Each one of these strands varies in focus/discipline (performing, directing, scenography are but a few) and number of artists--anywhere between one (writing and visual media, respectively) and sixteen (performing). Over the course of the first term, in various lab assignments, we were all mixed about each week, and sent off to work in small ensembles to fulfill whatever assignment we were addressing. (See that picture at the top of the page? That's several of us, hard at work during week four on the stage of the Embassy Theatre.) The hope was that by the end of the first term we would have gotten to work with everyone else on the course, have a sense of their aesthetics, artistic interests and agendas, and know each other pretty well.

This was not entirely successful.

As it happened, many of us found we'd missed a connection somewhere (and not in that creepy or romantic Craigslist way), that we hadn't gotten a chance to work with someone we thought we'd mesh with, or were left feeling we didn't know the full potential of our classmates. The frustration that sprung from these issues brought a few of us together at the end of our first term, during an Open Space session modled off of Improbable's Devoted and Disgruntled event. Our answer was:

The Space (in) Between: Let's not be strangers!

(The subtitle is optional.)

The Space was set up as the ultimate sharing ground for our course, where people can throw out any ideas they may have, develop them a bit, rip them apart, and maybe start over from scratch. The Space is safe and supportive, and in these ways we hope it will be also productive. The Space respects that we are eachother's greatest assests. It's a way to keep the creative juices flowing, even when we think we're all dried out from the research during our second term. It's also a great place to start thinking about festival work that we'll be producing and mounting at the end of our third term. So stay tuned and up to date on this forum of the things going on, but understand: all the action is happening first hand in the Space--so show up and join in! It's there for you, and the door is always open.

Provided, of course, that you practice Advanced Theatre.