Sunday, September 28, 2008

Unicorn Mountain Awaits You


Well hello my loyal readers. This post is dedicated to Lydia, who represents half of my readership, and has requested a post on Unicorn Mountain, though I must admit it was prompted by Jacob, the other half of my readership, "giving me shit" to post since I have so much free time from not helping Fever move today. So here we go.
I don't know if anybody else in Fever would admit that this is how the Fever empire began, but my memory goes like this. We are standing around in a dressing room--I am curling my hair, Aurora is applying make-up, Patrick is probably in his underwear, and Jacob is donning eyeliner.
I say something like "we should all move to Portland after we graduate and start a theater company". There is general goodwill, like "yeah, that sounds great!" I want to believe it, but I have an overflowing bucket of "things we said we were going to do that would have changed the world, just a little bit, but we never did them" stored in my memory, and I don't get my hopes up. Yet, somehow, whether by fate or persistence, the four of us ended up in Portland a year later rehearsing "The Fever" in the living room of a tiny two-bedroom apartment that is shared by four people.
So I know what can happen if I stick to my guns, and if the idea is good enough to change the lives of everybody involved. I think Unicorn Mountain might be just such an idea.
There's also a chance that it is just my self-absorbed view of the universe. So okay...what kind of artistic mecca can be built if I draw the right people into my world next year? I have been working on a few of them; Amber, who was practically born to be in this MFA program, Andy Start, who is like a young Wendell Beavers and also belongs in my MFA, Lydia will come to pursue her dreams of equestrian therapy, and maybe even Joel will come and teach these Boulderites a thing or two about bicycle safety. And we will all live together on Unicorn Mountain, the place where dreams come true. Perhaps this will be an actual mountain, of which there are many in Boulder, or perhaps more of a metaphorical mountain, like a symbol to put on the welcome mat. This is all about bringing together the right elements--each of us might seem like an unassuming force on our own, but together we will make waves. Is this how cults begin? One person becomes obsessed with convincing others to join them on some quest, and before you know it we will all be wearing unicorn horns on our heads and hiding out from the government. That's actually not too far from the potential future here at Unicorn Mountain. The government hates it when forces come together that are stronger than them, and the potency of our self-realization will drive them crazy.
So, do you have what it takes to live on Unicorn Mountain?

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The Empty cyber Space

Well at least two people have mentioned my lack of blogging in the last week, and since it has been noticed I suppose that gives me motivation to go on (you know us performer types--we always need an audience to find our motivation). Actually, I have spent the last week exploring empty cyber-space, waiting for something to arise from nothing. Empty space has been on my mind a lot, since I have been re-reading the book with the same title by the brilliant Peter Brook. I read it in college but did not know or care what he was talking about, really. Reading it again I find every word to be gospel. Here's a quote, just for kicks: "to comprehend the visibility of the invisible is a life's work". Wendell also presented his first "lecture" this week, on the history of Viewpoints, which really turned into a talk about how Buddhism and Eastern thought have affected Western art, and how the idea that everything came out of nothing is the Buddhist creation myth. He says this is also the concept that we are working with in our theatrical empty space. The empty space is ripe with all of the potential there can be.
Today I had a Fever conversation with Jacob during my lunch break, and when I came back to class I actually felt feverish. I had this same reaction when I talked Fever with Amber last night. Perhaps Fever actually is contagious! During my feverish period while I was trying to focus today I thought about all of these people in my class, some of whom have brought their partners, dogs and lives to Boulder with them, some who have left it all behind. I am one of the latter, though my Feverishness proves I haven't really left it all behind. I think I was trying to do an experiment with empty space in my life, one that I have never done before. I empty out my life so that I can see the potential of it. I don't have a good capper today, so I will end randomly with another quote from The Empty Space by Peter Brook:
"The theatre is the last forum where idealism is still an open question."