Two excerpts from the GHP Lab Manual. Ideas for how to work during a “show” phase and then for a “recapitulate” phase.
TOOLS: Making a move out of the frying pan: acts and in(ter)ventions
When the group is working in the Clearing, anything can happen. Define anything? What follows are suggestions for how one might begin to show something or to participate in the work of others using a piece of text or through invention. These are terms to provoke thought and investigation. If a word does not lead you anywhere, the Oxford English Dictionary is an excellent help.
WATCHING
GIVING YOUR GAZE
BEARING WITNESS
WHO’S THERE?
LISTENING
MEANING AND MUSIC
SPEAK
READ
UTTER SOMETHING
DESCRIBE, IN TERMS OF TIME, PLACE, EVENT, OBJECT, INTERSUBJECTIVITY, BODY
MODES OF DISCOURSE: JOURNALISTIC, POLITICIAL, SCIENTIFIC, POETIC, RELIGIOUS, etc
ANTI-CONCEPTUAL CHARACTERIZATIONS
COUNTENACE
ENCOUNTER
ENCOURAGE
CONDEMN
LIST
MIRROR
INVERT
INTERROGATE
PARANOIAC UNDERSTANDING
CONSPIRE
IMPOSSIBLE QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS
POLARITIES
IDENTIFY THE LACK
PUNCTUATE
RE-PUNCTUATE
UNDERLINE
EMPHASIZE
DISMISS
CONDENSE AND COMBINE
DISPLACE
SUBSTITUE
REPRESS
TAKE OUT OF CONTEXT
FEAST OF THE SENSES
SYNESTHESIA
METAPHOR
METONOMY
OTHER RHETORICAL STRATEGIES
CHANGE YOUR PROXIMITY
FREE ASSOCIATION
NON-VERBAL REPRESENTATIONS: DRAW, MAP, SCULPT, MUSIC, CHART
NAME IT, BECOME IT, DESTROY IT: JUST THAT
FORM FITTING: DREAM, RITUAL, CEREMONY, GAME, MULTI-MEDIA
RIDICULE
SATIRE
TRIVIALIZE
DEEPEN
APPLY CONVENTIONAL WISDOM, LOCAL KNOWLEDGE, CURRENT EVENTS
TOOLS: a forge for the (demi)urge.
Now what follows are some suggestions for the Recapitulation, in which the group works over material with an eye to some future performed statement. “Material,” in this case, refers to text, improvised text, creations which have emerged in the group, personal agendas transmuted into creative expression, traumatic laboratory creations, shadows, objects, messages from beyond.
MAGIC IF
MAKE A SCENE
FIND A CHARACTER
REALIZE AN INTENTION
OBJECTIVES AND OBSTACLES
BUSINESS CALLED SHOW
THE OLD SONG AND DANCE
CABARET AND CARNIVAL
SUB-TEXT
STRANGE ACTIONS: TO MAKE ONESELF BE EATEN, TO MAKE ONESELF BE INFECTED, TO MAKE ONESELF BE SEEN, TO MAKE ONESELF INTO A LEFTOVER, TO FIND OUT WHAT THE OTHER WANTS AND BE IT
PLAIN ACTIONS
FRAGMENTATION
DEFAMILIARIZATION
REPETITION
COLLAGE
MONTAGE
JUXTAPOSE
CUT AND PASTE
MIX MODES
MIXED MESSAGES
DUPLICATION
DISPERSION
ECHO
PATTERNS OF MOVEMENT
COUNTERPOINT
MUSICAL QUALITIES
FOUND OBJECTS
CONSULT AN ORACLE
AUTOMATISM
STORYTELLING
WEAVE A TALE, TELL THE TALE, TELL A TALE ABOUT TELLING THE TALE
SUBVERT
RITES: INITIATION, SACRIFICE, PURIFICATION, PACT, JUDGEMENT, CONTEST, DANCE, GAMES, ETC.
THE SUBLIME
THE NAVEL OF THE DREAM
THE ACHING MYSTERY
These words are meant to prompt you to make your own definitions and strategies. Gaining understanding may involve consulting other fields (art, psychology, rhetoric, sewage treatment, cooking, etc.) Some of these procedures seem sterile as words on a page, cold, arbitrary. However, as you begin to propose ideas and to participate in shaping events in the Clearing, the imaginative and emotional dimensions of your work—your grappling with these words (and others) as ways of showing and doing and thinking—will lead you to experiences, palpable ones, which will become the truth of your life in the group performance.