Muddy Stories

Bill shared this story with us via email today.  It is from a book called Black Elk Speaks.

Even while we were singing thus, the heyokas were doing foolish things and making laughter. For instance, two heyokas with long crooked bows and arrows painted in a funny way, would come to a little shallow puddle of water. They would act as though they thought it was a wide, deep river that they had to cross; so, making motions, but saying nothing, they would decide to see how deep the river was. Taking their long crooked arrows, they would thrust these into the water, not downwards, but flat-wise just under the surface. This would make the whole arrow wet. Standing the arrows up beside them, they would show that the water was far over their heads in depth, so they would get ready to swim. One would then plunge into the shallow puddle head first, getting his face in the mud and fighting the water wildly as though he were drowning. Then the other would plunge in to save his comrade, and there would be more funny antics in the water to make the people laugh."

"When the ceremony was over, everybody felt a great deal better, for it had been a day of fun. They were better able now to see the greenness of the world, the wideness of the sacred day, the colors of the earth, and to set these in their minds."

So we basically just need a big pile of mud.

Tension Builds

Tensions are high in the Heyokah cast, and not just because Jim is making us do dances with ropes.  As we approach our opening night, rehearsals have become less about playing and experimenting and more about staging, rehearsing, and finalizing the show.  Because I am about to plunge into my personal feelings, I must issue this disclaimer: the following views are not necessarily representative of all members of the Heyokah cast.

In the early rehearsal process, rehearsal was basically playtime.  We spent hours finding cool things to do with shadows, writing goofy stories, and drawing pictures.  Any suggestion given by a member of the cast was embraced and explored.  There was little pressure to produce something "good" and a lot of drive to create something interesting.  It was basically creative bliss.

Now, because of deadlines (I think...), we are beginning to feel pressured to do things "right," to make a "good" show.  Suddenly we no longer have time to explore every idea, and so we have to fight to make our ideas heard.  Because we are fighting, we are no longer listening, and our creativity is evaporating as a result.  For example, today we worked on the opening piece; the story of the clown at the church (see the post "A Real-Life Heyokah Story").  Jim told us to spread ourselves out onstage and begin eiffeling (a mime term that involves leaning the body in different directions).  This seems like a simple direction, but it took us FOREVER to actually begin doing so because each person (myself included) had to give his or her input about where to stand and how to lean and what everyone else should be doing.  That which might have been a 3 minute "try out this idea" session became a 2 hour "listen to why my idea is better than yours" session.

I know that this seems to be a negative evaluation of rehearsal, and it is, but I think that rehearsals like these are part of the devising process; growth is difficult without pain.

A Warning

Here's a taste of Heyokah mischief:

Everybody lives,
Everybody dies,
You could be next,
So you should open your eyes!

Heyokah, you'd better watch your back,
Heyokah, the Grim Reaper will attack!

You could get struck by lightning,
Or drown in a lake,
Get smashed by a semi,
Or impaled by a rake.

Invisible Boundaries

Before I describe today's rehearsal events, I would like to take a minute to answer a question posed by a loyal reader: "Why don't we do spelling like this in school?"

After much deliberation, the cast and I decided that the best answer is: "because you do not attend a school that is run by heyokahs.  Aka, your school is boring."

I hope that was helpful.

Today we explored the idea of boundaries; physical boundaries, mental boundaries, societal boundaries, emotional boundaries, etc.  Who creates them?  Why? What purpose do they serve?

We talked about boundaries for a few minutes and then broke into groups of two.  Each group had to create two short pieces about boundaries, and then present them to the group.  Kaleena and Stephen did both of their pieces about accidental boundaries (what happens when someone is unaware of a boundary that he or she created?), Birgitta and Hossein did a piece about selfishness and personal space, and James and I created two pieces about bureaucracy.  So now we have an additional five sketches to include in our show.  Or not.  We'll see how it all goes.

Jim is supposed to spend the weekend reorganizing our script-mess into a rough outline.  I will share that outline as soon as it becomes available.

Also, stay tuned Sunday for pictures of some of our Heyokah costumes!

How do you say HEYOKAH?

After Bill's show on Saturday night (an incredible mime show about silence), several people approached Bill and asked how to pronounce the word "Heyokah."  Because of this, Bill realized that we should probably include a "pronunciation guide" in our piece.  But instead of standing around and saying the word over and over so that the audience can hear it, we decided to create a dance.  Here are the highlights:

 You begin by saying "HEY!" As in, "Hey you!  Bring back my wallet!"

 Next, say "O!" Like, "O my, it sure is a beautiful morning!"

 Finally, say "KAH,"  Like the sound a crow makes.

 Put them all together, and you have HEY - O - KAH!

 Spelling has never been so much fun!

Is there anything that you are curious about?  Do you want to know more about the Heyokah?  Or about the rehearsal process?  I will do my best to answer all of your questions!

How a Heyokah Knows

So now we know that a Heyokah is a two-spirited being that works to keep the world in balance.  But how does a Heyokah know that he or she is a Heyokah?  How do parents know if their child is a Heyokah?  These are the questions that we asked and answered in today's rehearsal.  Bill read us this account of Lakota Sioux Heyokah testing:

a child who is believed to be Two Spirit is placed inside a brush enclosure, with a man's bow and arrow and a woman's woven basket.  The parents then set the enclosure on fire, and whichever object the child chooses to bring with him or her as they escape the flames is indicative of their spiritual path.  If a boy comes out with a basket or a girl comes out with a bow, then he or she is Two Spirit and possibly a Heyokah.

This story seemed so absurd to us as a cast, and to me it seemed almost like the Salem Witch Trials; "Think she's a witch?  Throw her into the river.  If she floats, she's a witch and must be killed.  If she drowns, she's not a witch, and she died in vain."  However, regardless of how absurd we perceived it to be, we realized that it is an important part of understanding the Heyokah, so we worked in two groups to portray the Two Spirit Testing event.

Birgitta, Hannah, and Stephen told the tale as a fable with very specific and very fluid movements.  I loved their honesty and straightforwardness.  Kaleena, James, Hossein and I gave the story a more modern twist and turned it into a game show: the Bow and the Basket.  Originally, we kept the premise basically the same; a child had to go into a hut that was subsequently set on fire, choose either a female or a male item, and then emerge to grateful parents.  

After our group presentations we had a discussion about the feasibility of each piece as part of the final show.  Many of us were concerned about the inclusion of both pieces because we thought that the show might become repetitive.  However, Bill and Jim raised an interesting point: each piece could show the idea of the Two Spirit in two different time periods.  In the Lakota Sioux world, a Two Spirit being was well respected, and parents of a Two Spirit being were proud.  In the 21st century, however, we are not so sure that parents would be excited to learn that their boy chose the "basket" or that their girl chose the "bow."  We all agreed that it might be interesting to take another look at the Two Spirit Test stories and adapt them to complement each other.  So we will do that in our spare time.  Hah.

We are starting to feel the pressure...

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO????

We are 2 weeks and 3 days away from the opening night of The Heyokah Project and this is what our script currently looks like:

I am not kidding.  Our script and performance plan is just a series of handwritten post-it notes that are taped to a white poster board.  WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?

That question was the basis of our rehearsal today; what exactly do we want to do for the show?  We have spent almost 2 weeks playing and experimenting with the idea of the heyokah, but now is the time to create concrete performance pieces.  After a 3 hour discussion, we concluded that our show is probably going to explore the question "what is a heyokah?" 

Yes.  That is what we took 3 hours to decide.  Devising theater is not the most straightforward of all art forms...

No Rehearsal :-(

Today was the first of two days without rehearsal.  I felt so utterly lost that I spent most of my day exploring this website:

http://www.dancingtoeaglespiritsociety.org/index.php

playing my ukulele, and looking at some rehearsal photos. 

I do not have any idea what I will do without rehearsal tomorrow.  Die probably.

Into the Shadows

We have been playing with the idea of shadows a lot lately because they are so integral to the idea of the Heyokah.  Bill said the other day that the Heyokah makes light of difficult issues; the Heyokah lights up the darkness that we try to hide, and also lightens the mood so that we can laugh at our mistakes.

Shadows are scary because they are unknown, they are dark, they are mysterious.  In just about every campfire story I know, creatures lurk in the shadows, ready to strike.  Shadows are also deceptive; a tiny mouse can cast a giant shadow, the shadow of a tree can look like the shadow of a human, and so the Heyokah's job is to shine a light into the darkness and to help people see the truth.

This idea of shadows resonates very deep with me because I know that there are certain situations that make me very uncomfortable, but instead of shining a light on them to see why they make me so scared, I just avoid them at all costs.  Thus, my fear of those situations builds irrationally and causes me to miss opportunities to make friends and to have fun.  For example, when I was in sixth or seventh grade, I watched the episode of Full House in which DJ and her friend Kimmy go to a "real party" with alcohol.  Kimmy wears a beer hat, gets super drunk, and then DJ and Kimmy are kicked out of the party.  For some reason, the episode made me very uncomfortable.  I never wanted to be in a situation in which I had to deal with someone like Kimmy who was out of control and making very poor decisions.  Thus, from that day on, I avoided any situation that I perceived could potentially turn into a "Kimmy party."  I didn't go to middle school dances, I avoided places that played popular music, and I only hung out with band kids.  Although it was true that I didn't end up at a "Kimmy party" until my roommate brought home a keg in college, I also missed out on a lot of life opportunities.  I was so scared and judgmental that I lost a lot of my ability to relate to my peers, an ability that could have helped me avoid my stress and anxiety at Rice.

Anyhow, we have been playing with shadows, both literally and figuratively, and spent an entire afternoon using an overhead projector, two flashlights, and several sheets exploring the different ways to cast shadows and to use shadows to tell stories.  I wish that I could show you pictures, but it is extremely difficult to take any good ones in a shadow-focused setting.

Thus, you will have to come see the show in order to experience the fruits of our labors!

The Shields We Carry

Sorry for the posting delay!  This is what we did at rehearsal on Wednesday the 19th:

As the show begins to develop and take shape, it is becoming more and more evident that each cast member should present a personal piece of some kind.  For example, one of us might do a monologue, another might write a scene, another (probably Kaleena) might write a poem.  But something that I have really been struggling with is how to create that personal piece; how do I decide what to share?  How do I present it?  How can I keep my piece from being indulgent or fluffy?

Apparently Bill sensed that many of us were struggling with the same questions, and so he asked us to do a visual art project to generate ideas.  We each had to create a "shield" out of paper.  The shield had to be divided into four parts (North, South, East, West), and in each part, we had to use symbols, colors, words, images, etc. to show:

North - where we are going
South - where we are from
West - what we are leaving behind
East - what we are taking with us

Here are some pictures of the shields.  I will leave the interpretation up to you.

Sara

James

Stephen

Vanessa

Kaleena

Birgitta (and yes it does say SHIT...)

 

 

Hossein

Hannah

Can you believe that we are all going to come together to make a cohesive show?  I can.  I love that we are all so different, and yet we work so well together. 

This cast is really becoming a family.

A Real-Life Heyokah Story

Bill read us this story at the beginning of rehearsal today, and it helped me to understand exactly how the Heyokah worked to mirror society.  It is from a book called Daughters of Copper Woman by Anne Cameron, and is a story that a grandmother told her granddaughter about the sacred clowns. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did!

  "The most famous clown was a woman who wasn't even one of us.  She lived on the other side of the island with the Salish people.  Or maybe it was the Cowichan, I guess I'm not too clear about that.  Must be gettin' old.  Anyway, this woman had been a clown all her life.  Ever since she was a girl she'd been able to imitate people, how they walked, how they talked, so she was trained to do it properly for the right reasons, not just to get attention."

     "The Christian people were dividin' up the island.  This bunch got this part and another bunch got another part, and they built their churches and set about gettin' us into them.  There's people say that it used to be the Indians had the land and white man had the Bible, now the Indians got the Bible and the white man's got the land, and when you look at it, that's not far from wrong, except lots of us don't even got the bible.  Anyway, the'd built this stone church on a hill, with a ross on top of it pointin' up at the sky, and the preacher, he was gettin' people to come by by givin' out little pictures and mirrors and such, things we didn't have. Might not seem like much now, a mirror, but they were as rare as diamonds, and it's bein' rare makes a thing worth a lot.  Like roses are worth more than dandelions because there aren't as many of them, but they're both flowers."

     "So the people started goin' to this church, and pretty soon it was just like the same old story.  They started gettin' told what to do, and what to wear, and how to live, and this particular preacher, he was big on what they ought to wear.  He didn't want the men wearin' kilts, he wanted 'em in pants, and he didn't want the women in anythin' but long dresses that covered'em completely.  And he kept tellin' everyone to learn to live like the white man, dress like the white man."

     "Well, one Sunday didn't the clown show up.  She was wearin' a big black hat, just like a white man, and a black jacket, just like the white man, and old rundown shoes some white man had thrown away. And nothin' else."

     "Well, the white preacher, he just about had a fit!  Here's this woman more naked than not, walkin' into his church, and what's worse, the people in the church are all lookin' ather real respectful, not mockin' her or laughin' or coverin' their eyes so they wouldn' see her nakedness.  And she moved to the very front and sat there and waited for the church service to start."

     "Well, that preacher, he ranted and raved about nakedness, and naked women, and sin, and havin' respect for God, and then he came down from that pulpit and he grabbed ahold of that clown to throw her out on her bum."

     "The people just about ripped him apart.  You don't put violent hands on a clown!  But the clown, she stopped them from hurtin' him, and then she went up to the front where he'd been, and she spoke to the people in their own language.  She said we were all brothers and sisters because we all had Copper Woman as first mother, and were all descended from the four couples who left after the flood.  And she said different people had different ways of doin' things, and that didn't mean any one way was Right or any other way was Wrong, it just meant all ways were different.  And she said we ought to think how we'd feel if we were far from home, to put ourselves in the white man's place, how would we feel if there were only a few brown faces and lots of white ones, because maybe the preacher felt that way about bein' almost alone with us.  And she said that just because he'd done a forbidden thing and got violent with a clown didn't mean that we ought to get jut as mixed up and do a forbidden thing like get violent with a religious man.  And she said we all had to find our own way in the world, we all had to find what was true, and what Meant somethin'.  She said there was more than one kind of mirror."

Heyokah gets serious and silly

Today was pretty intense; we shared stories about being the outsider, discussed conformity vs. unity, and learned a lot of new things about each other.  For example, I learned that Stephen has been experimenting with lucid dreaming, Birgitta's siblings told her that she was an adopted mosquito, Hannah identifies herself as an upside-down sheep, Vanessa didn't know that she was black until college, James was a heroic second grader, Hossein stole fruit from an Iranian farmer, and that Kaleena thinks in poetry.

All of those are very silly, isolated snippets of what we did and learned today - we spent five hours rehearsing together - but I think that those snippets are the best way to express the Heyokah experience.   Besides, as the cast also talked about today, silliness and comedy are often the best ways to process difficult information.  And that is why the clown/fool/outsider character has been such a big part of history, because he or she can use comedy and humor to show society its faults without making society resent the clown or deny the accusations.

So now this makes me think of Heyokah characters that we might have today.  Is Jon Stewart a Heyokah? Stephen Colbert? Do we have any Heyokahs?  Or do we just push outsiders so far outside that we forget to listen to what they have to say?

Sorry about the scattered nature of this post; I am a bit scattered.  I am so exhausted, energized, full of ideas and overwhelmed with this project that it is difficult for me to stay focused tonight. 

Tomorrow will be an awesome day.

Translating Clown

I would like to begin this post by apologizing for my lack of blogging yesterday; I was without internet and extremely tired.  But now I am back and so is the blog!

We took the weekend off to refuel and re-energize before week 2 begins, so I intentionally left some material out of Friday's blog post so that I could use it today!

After the SNOWBALL OF DEATH on Friday, we began exploring our clown voices; some of us (Stephen) were better than others (Sara), but we all made valiant efforts.  The exercise that we did was as follows:  one of the clowns was a very important person who was giving a speech about something in gibberish.  The other clown's job was to play the drum for the important clown's entrance, and then to translate important clown's speech. 

 

All of this clown work has been awesome and humbling for me; clowning around is no joke (not that I thought that it was...).  A clown has to be an improviser, a performer, a child, a wise man, an experimenter, an adventurer, and a fool all at the same time.

Join me again tomorrow when we explore even more about other-ness!

The Snowball of Death

Today was the Heyokah Project cast's first danger-filled day.  Jim introduced us to "The Snowball of Death," a very important, very heavy ball that we were tasked with taking care of.  Jim then divided us into two groups and asked us to carry "The Snowball of Death" through a treacherous mountain range.  Here is what happened:

And then Sara, Stephen, and James tried their luck:

I apologize for the unequal number of pictures for each group; Kaleena is a much better photographer than I am.

We ultimately learned that it is funny when expectations are reversed.  For example, Hossein worked so hard to dig a hole under the green ladder, and then Hannah just walked easily around the ladder. 

Thus far, all of our clowning has been silent, but soon Jim says that we will be able to graduate to using our voices!  I am so excited!

Talk to you tomorrow!

Heyokah cast clowns around

"The Heyokah is a contrary clown who holds total wisdom and teaches

people through laughter and opposites. Laughter opens you up to what
the spirits want you to learn." - Bill Bowers

Because the Heyokah is a type of clown, today Jim taught the basics of "clown theory."  We each picked out a special red nose and then created a character out of that nose.  Each nose was extremely different, each actor was extremely different, and so each character was extremely different.  Here are some pictures of an exercise that we did.  Jim told us to come out onstage in groups of two, to sit in the two chairs on the stage, and to discover the audience.  Here is what happened:

Hannah's character was trying to seduce both Hossein and the audience.  Notice as she shows off her long legs...

Hossein was very playful and innocent.  When Hannah showed him her leg, he shook her foot, and completely misinterpreted the flirtation.

James was very much the "straight man" in this scene between him and Stephen.  James instructed Stephen in what to do, and corrected him periodically.

Stephen just wanted to make James happy, even if that meant that he didn't get to hang out with the audience.

Vanessa was very obviously Birgitta's caretaker in this scene.  She tried unsuccessfully to get Birgitta to sit down on the chair.

Birgitta misunderstood Vanessa's body language, and became convinced that Vanessa wanted Birgitta to rub her bottom.

Kaleena's nose kept falling off during this scene, and so she had to balance her focus between keeping her nose on and keeping Sara away from her.

Sara loved Kaleena and her nose and wanted to be near to her at all times.  Except when the nose fell off...

I'm sure that these scenes have lost a lot in translation, but please believe me when I say that the rest of the group was in stitches during each of the scenes.


We will hopefully be using some of these clown characters that we created today in the Heyokah performances, so stay tuned as these ridiculous characters develop!

Other-ness: Day 1

Today we began what I am sure will be a long conversation about being "the other" or "the outsider."  What does it mean?  What does it feel like?  Is it always a good thing?  Always a bad thing?  Who decides whether or not someone is an outsider?

We explored this concept through an exercise that Birgitta fondly calls "The Puzzle People Game."  The cast breaks into groups of two people: Person A and Person B.  The game starts with Person A making a shape with his or her body.  Person B then looks at that shape, and adds him or herself to it, making sure to fill as much of the negative space as possible.  Person A then breaks away from Person B, looks at Person B's position, and fills in the negative space.  Eventually, the partners become so good at anticipating each others' moves, both are able to move simultaneously, filling in negative space at all times.

"The People Puzzle Game" quickly evolved into a group exercise; more than two people were working together to fill in the negative space, and a majority of the group had become an amorphous blob.  Bill then stopped the exercise and gave the people who were not part of the blob the objective to become part of the blob.  However, he also told the people inside of the blob that they did not want anyone to join their blob.  And the outsider experiment began.

Through the course of the experiment, just about every person was knocked out of the "main blob," but this "outsider-ness" affected every person in a different way: Birgitta got angry and started her own group, Stephen was sad but determined, and Vanessa fought her way into the center of the blob.

We may use this exercise in our performance, so don't miss the chance to see an 8-person blob-fighting match!

Check in tomorrow to read about what happens when The Heyokah Project cast learns to clown around!

Where does a Heyokah come from?

Today we created short movement pieces about the heyokah story. 

According to Lakota Sioux tradition, each being is made up of two spirits: one that is male, and the other which is female.  When a person is born, either the male or the female spirit leaves the spirit realm and becomes human.  Through the human's life, he or she is connected to and guided by the spirit self.  When the person dies, the human part of his or her spirit rejoins the spirit that had remained in the spirit world.  The process then repeats for eternity.

The story says that this human/spirit dichotomy worked for a while, but eventually the humans became distracted and stopped listening to their spirit halves.  The world fell into chaos.  To stop the chaos, the spirits from the spirit world sent an entire being to earth; a human was born with both the human self and the spirit self, the male self and the female self.  This "whole-spirited" human was called a heyokah, and functioned to bring light to the hidden problems in Lakota Sioux society.

Bill read us this story, divided us into four groups, and then gave us fifteen minutes to create physical representations of the story.  Here are some of the results:

 Birgitta and Hannah used only their hands to tell the story.  In this picture, Hannah is descending to Earth and beginning to transform into a human, while Birgitta remains in the spirit realm.

Vanessa and Hossein performed a rhythmic dance that was both musical and silent at the same time.  In this picture, Vanessa, the human spirit, is trying desperately to reconnect with Hossein, her spirit-world counterpart.

Check back tomorrow for more pictures and info!

The Project Begins: Devising 101

Tonight we had our first Heyokah rehearsal.  Actually, it was less of a rehearsal and more of a series of games designed to introduce us to each other and to the process of devising performance.

So what is devising? 

Devising is variously….

A model of cooperative and non-hierarchical collaboration

An ensemble

A collective

A means of taking control of work and operating autonomously

A commitment to total community

A commitment to total art

Negating the gap between art and life

A means to reflect contemporary social reality

A distrust of words

A means to incite social change

An escape from theatrical conventions

A challenge for theatre makers

A challenge for spectators

An expressive, creative language

Innovative

Risky

Inventive

Experimental 

Non-literary

I'm sure that answers all of your questions... right?  

But seriously, a devised performance is a performance that is created without a preexisting script by the same people who ultimately perform the show; Bill, Jim, Birgitta, James, Vanessa, Hannah, Kaleena, Hossein, Stephen, Ben, and I will both create and then share our Heyokah piece.  

Check back tomorrow for more about our specific project!