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...