Emily dickinson and protestantism

Emily Dickinson often modeled her poems off of the structure of Protestant hymns. I still need to figure out which ones she liked the best, but this could be great for our piece. I know my dad knows a lot of protestant hymns because for a while he sang with a church to earn money. Also Edward's mom is a minister.

God-war-poets play? It seems like we could be moving in this direction as far as the center of our play's focus. Also, if we DO do move in this direction, some things we should consider (maybe not now, but soon)
--I think 1 musician would make a great bard/m.c., with maybe a banjo, a fiddle, something that we associate as American. This doesn't mean there can't be other music (harmonium, piano, guitar, etc) but to have one musician m.c. could be neat.
--if we decide to do this in Russell House, how big of a cast do we feel could fit there? At this point I could envision a piece on this theme with just the three of us plus an m.c., but that depends on what direction we want to take it.
--One that note, if it's just about Rainer and Dickinson, who would other cast members be in relation to them? I'm not saying they have to be huge historical personalities, but we should consider what their relationship to the material and the space is.
--If we do pursue the poet/god/war triumpherate, I think Joyce (irish identity, easter uprising of 1916, catholicism, sexual repression) and Virginia Woolfe (gender and domesticity before and after world war I, depression and domesticity in post-Victorian England) would be great candidates of sources/characters to add to the pile.
--Joe Hill would be a neat musician to consider because of his relationship to the labor movement in america and his response to immigration industrialization in the wake of world war I
--Stephen Foster is the quintessential white American composer (cause really, slave songs and spirituals were the first post-settlement reindigenized American form of music. we could also look to what these offer.)
--Civil War v. WWI? Also, I couldn't help but notice that Emily Dickinson is from the U.S., Virginia Woolfe from England, Joyce from Ireland, and Rilke from Germany. I don't know what that means, but it's interesting. Both Dickinson and Woolfe had very queer relationships with the non-human world, gardens, trees, etc.

Sorry if these questions are pushing us ahead of ourselves; it's the way my directorish brain works. And even if we don't answer any of these questions/proposals now, I think it's good to get them in the air. I'll stop before I overdo it more than I already have.

The Rilke text is wonderful. So wonderful.

I am getting SO EXCITED!!!! Like even more excited than I was before.

Love,
Gedney.

Poets – Ranier Maria Rilke, Poland and Summer, Advent & Other Holidays

My dear friends.

I have been thinking that something that keeps coming up is poets. So maybe we want to do a play about poets, or a poet? Poets have lives that are full of good twists, difficult spots.

Both Emily Dickinson and Ranier Maria Rilke had extremely interesting lives, with depressions, spiritual leaps, imprisonment, reactions to the war torn world. T.S. Eliot is also fascinating, although maybe more known and less sensitive and impressionable. Rilke journeyed extensively but always felt imprisoned. Dickinson literally was imprisoned. Both were obsessed with death in different ways. I don't know what to say exactly, but I think there's something significant here.

Maybe we want to do something with these people? I really love both of their work and think that maybe they have something to teach us.

Rilke is best in Stephen Mitchell's translations. I will get you this for some winter advent holiday.

Did you guys ever do Advent Spiral? This is a very beautiful ceremony that comes from early christianity, really pre-Christian pagan traditions.

http://www.waldorffamilynetwork.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/adventspiral2003.jpg

It's also a Waldorf thing. Candles are placed in apples and brought into the center and lit, then brought out. I think it was something that got deep in me, influenced me a lot. If Annie sees this she'll know...


Speaking of which, there are some things.

Grotowski Texts:

Holiday
Tu Es Le Fils De Quelqu'un [You are someone's son]
Performer

All are really good and important for different reasons.

Another word about Holidays, look at this:

http://free.art.pl/teajty/pliki/english/etresc.php?go=4

Very interesting Cultural Lab in N. eastern poland. Doing interesting work with carols, carolling in the old sense. Check it out.

Good 'ol:
http://www.grotcenter.art.pl/

Maisternia Pisni:

http://www.maisternia.com.ua/site/index.htm

A good way to see what they're about besides the DVD Claudia has is to read Sergey's "Krai" although it's translated pretty poorly. In the photos section are photos of Brzezinka
and area around, which is the forest base.

I wrote Nini from ZAR, so we'll see if that can happen (or something), if you guys are still interested in going to Poland.

I think what would be great is if we could go somewhere and sing for a while – this could happen with Village Harmony, or with ZAR, possibly, and then see some theater in Poland and do some work sessions together to learn training, etc.

Also, next semester I am starting to learn the harmonium, and I'd definitely like to start playing with this in singing – it's really absolutely the most helpful thing in learning to sing together in multi voice.

Also, on wednesday at 1 pm at well being house I am performing Indian music, come if you like, there are lots of people performing so no pressure.

I know this week will be crazy, but let's find some time to just talk and hang out some time soon. I have house things tomorrow night until 8 or 9 but I'm free after.

I am also making mixes for you guys.


Love

Asa

Dude, in our play can I be Emily Dickinson? Can we use her poetry? No really I think her poems are really interesting. Here are a couple I just found:

These are the days when birds come back,

A very few, a bird or two,

To take a backward look.

These are the days when skies put on

The old, old sophistries of June,--

A blue and gold mistake.

Oh, fraud that cannot cheat the bee,

Almost thy plausibility

Induces my belief,

Till ranks of seeds their witness bear,

And softly through the altered air

Hurries a timid leaf!

Oh, sacrament of summer days,

Oh, last communion in the haze,

Permit a child to join,

Thy sacred emblems to partake,

Thy consecrated bread to break,

Taste thine immortal wine!

-------------------------------

I felt a funeral in my brain,
And mourners, to and fro,
Kept treading, treading, till it seemed
That sense was breaking through.

And when they all were seated,
A service like a drum
Kept beating, beating, till I thought
My mind was going numb.

And then I heard them lift a box,
And creak across my soul
With those same boots of lead, again.
Then space began to toll

As all the heavens were a bell,
And Being but an ear,
And I and silence some strange race,
Wrecked, solitary, here.