A Director Prepares, Anne Bogart (again)

In case I forget:

• Artists are individuals willing to articulate in the face of flux and transformation. And the successful artist finds new shapes for our present ambiguities and uncertainties. The artist becomes the creator of the future through the violent act of articulation. I say violent because articulation is a forceful act. It demands an aggressiveness and an ability to enter into the fray and translate that experience into expression. In the articulation begins a new organisation of the inherited landscape. pp 2-3.

• The function of art is to awaken what is asleep. How do you awaken what is asleep? According to Schklovsky, you turn it slightly until it awakens. To be awake on the stage, to distort something – a movement, a gesture, a word, a sentence – requires an act of necessary violence: the violence of undefining. p.53

• When you begin a picture, you often make some pretty discoveries. You must be on guard against these. Destroy the thing, do it several times. In each destroying of a beautiful discovery, the artist does not really suppress it, but rather transforms it, condenses it, makes it more substantial. What comes out in the end is the result of the discarded finds. Otherwise, you become your own connoisseur. I sell myself nothing. (Pablo Picasso). p.54

• In an interview with The New York Times, one actor, William Hurt, said, ‘Those who function out of fear, seek security; those who function out of trust, seek freedom.’ These two possible agendas dramatically influence the creative process. […] I am convinced that the most dynamic and thrilling choices (in the rehearsal room) are made when there is a trust in the process, in the artists and in the material. […] In the face of terror, beauty is created, and hence, grace. p.83

• The creation of art is not an escape from life but a penetration into it. p.88

• Every creative act involves a leap into the void. The leap has to occur at the right moment and yet the time for the leap is never prescribed. In the midst of a leap, there are no guarantees. To leap can often cause acute embarrassment. Embarrassment is a partner in the creative act – a key collaborator. If your work does not sufficiently embarrass you, then very likely no one will be touched by it. p.113

• When in doubt, when you are lost, don’t stop. Instead, concentrate on detail. Look around, find a detail to concentrate on and do that. Forget about the big picture for a while. Just put your energy into the details of what is already there. The big picture will eventually open up and reveal itself if you can stay out of the way for a while. It won’t open up if you stop. You have to stay involved but you don’t always have to stay involved with the big picture. p.135

• Compression makes expression possible. Without compression there is no ex-pression. Expression happens only after compression. Expression is the result of containing, shaping and embodying the excitement that boils up inside of you. The Japanese word tameru in Noh drama defines the action of holding back, of retaining. p. 144

• When you feel ten in your heart, express seven. (Zeami) p.144

• Attitude is the key. […] Try not to think of anything as a problem. Start with a forgiving relationship to laziness and impatience and cultivate a sense of humour about them both. And then trick them. Start a task or an activity before you are ready or after you are ‘not ready’. For example, if you don’t want to sit down and write, start to write before you can begin talking yourself out of it. Or, when impatient, slow down and speed up simultaneously. One foot presses the accelerator while, simultaneously, the other foot steps on the breaks. p.148

• Allow me to propose a few suggestions about how to handle the natural resistances that your circumstances might offer. Do not assume that you have to have some prescribed conditions to do your best work. Do not wait. Do not wait for enough time or money to accomplish what yo think you have in mind. Work with what you have right now. Work wit the people around you right now. Work with the architecture you see around you right now. Do not wait for what you assume is the appropriate, stress-free environment in which to generate expression. Do not wait for maturity or insight or wisdom. Do not wait till you are sure that you know what you are doing. Do not wait until you have enough technique. What you do now, what you make of your present circumstances will determine the quality and scope of your future endeavours.

          And, at the same time, be patient. p.155