What future awats us?

What would Aldous Huxley (“Brave New World”), George Orwell (“1984”) or H.G. Wells (“The Time Machine”) say of today’s world? Who makes the decisions which determine whether there is war or peace, what happens to the environment, what food we eat, what clothes we wear, how we think about persons of other cultures or ethical backgrounds, how we get educated and how we view the world we live in?

Take the case of the United States, self-proclaimed world leader and champion of democracy and the free market. What kind of society is it whose top 1% owns 35.4% of private wealth, whose top 20% grabs nearly 90% of the wealth (According to U.S. sociology prof. G. William Domhoff) and whose bottom 80% barely has 11% of wealth? A society which proudly proclaims an end to the financial crisis set off by top sector speculation and which celebrates an unemployment rate of “only” 6% while, according to Gallop, 17.2% of the poor struggle to get enough to eat…

What kind of democracy is it that operates with but two political options, whose political campaigns are organized essentially by powerful advertising entities, which allows intelligence agencies to spy on practically everyone, whose agents are authorized to use torture methods on suspected terrorists, which assumes for itself the mandate of propagating its political-economic-cultural system around the world, which classifies other countries as “friends” or “enemies,” which carries on wars by decision of the chief executive without consulting the Congress or the people, whose lobbies paid by giant corporations are a key factor in the making or breaking of laws, whose …?

But it is also a society which vibrates with its admittedly extraordinary scientific and educational achievements, its diverse repertoire of film production, of art, of music…whose mass media champion freedom of the press yet their existence depends on the desires of the corporate interests that own them, favoring by turn Democratic or Republican views, whose cities and towns are clustered with churches of all denominations, whose inhabitants drive enormous cars and live in houses that are several times the living spaces of most of the world’s population, whose cities are crowded with ultra-modern sky-scrapers, whose outsized and corporate owned farms use genetic engineering to produce perfectly shaped and colored fruit and vegetables, whose private hospitals charge exorbitant prices due in part to the use of extremely expensive ultra-modern medical technology, which considers medicine a business and not a service…

It is also a country with a long brilliant line of writers and thinkers calling for introspection—from Henry David Thoreau who opposed the war against Mexico, refusing to pay taxes, to Howard Zinn, who has asserted that “it is possible for organized citizens to resist and overcome what seem like hopeless odds. The power of determined people armed with a moral cause is, I believe, ‘the ultimate power,” and Noam Chomsky, who noted in a recent interview (Dec. 8, 2013) that “In the US, for example, tens of millions are unemployed, unknown millions have dropped out of the workforce in despair, and incomes as well as conditions of life have largely stagnated or declined. But the big banks, which were responsible for the latest crisis, are bigger and richer than ever, corporate profits are breaking records, wealth beyond the dreams of avarice is accumulating among those who count, labor is severely weakened by union busting and "growing worker insecurity," to borrow the term Alan Greenspan used in explaining the grand success of the economy he managed, when he was still "St. Alan," perhaps the greatest economist since Adam Smith, before the collapse of the structure he had administered, along with its intellectual foundations. So what is there to complain about?”

Well. In the disturbing H.G. Wells movie we see a future in which the underworld rulers, the Morlocks, manage to reduce the inhabitants of the surface world, the Eloi, to a state of utter non-think serfdom: they have become devoid of the ability to recognize their subjection; with great docility they permit the Morlocks to “breed” them for the exclusive purpose of feeding their master’s stomachs. A fiction, true. Yet it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that reality and fiction merge at one point, while at all periods in history voices and movements appear to place a limit to power or to alter it—at least momentarily.

And you want me to pay off my debts...!?

You’re a British school teacher and you wonder how you are going to pay off your debts. Then you read that the government is still paying off the debt stacked up during the financial crash in 1720. You’re erudite. You know that the debt problem causes thousands of children to die every year in poor “underdeveloped” countries. And you know also that the debt—supposedly to “help” those countries develop—is increasing by leaps and bounds as the dollars come streaming back from straggling economies to fill the coffers of banks and financial institutions (which have had a hand in the ongoing financial crisis that makes it so difficult for you to get to the end of the month.)

Economics is not your favorite dish, yet you know that the world lives on indebtedness, some thriving on it, some struggling with it, some dying with it, some making enormous profits with it, some making sermons about while held in its chokehold grasp. You know that every time a debt is refinanced—something that happens time and again and is part of the business—the amount due mysteriously increases.

You open your computer, curious. Hm. The impoverished countries of the Sub-Saharan Africa spend roughly four times more on paying off their debts than on health care and education for their citizens. There’s that alarming statement by the former president of Nigeria, Obasanjo: ”All that we had borrowed up to 1985 or 1986 was around $5 billion and we have paid about $16 billion yet we are still being told that we owe about $28 billion. That $28 billion came about because of the injustice in the foreign creditors' interest rates. If you ask me what is the worst thing in the world, I will say it is compound interest.” (jubilee 200 news update)

So the whole thing about “giving” money to poor countries is a boomerang? To get more money in return? To get poor countries to offer tax reductions and other tit bits to get foreign investment to produce things that will be exported, while demanding the draconian payment of interest on their foreign debts?

What about this jewel by J.W. Smith (The World’s wasted wealth 2, Institute for Economic democracy, 1994): “The size of the debt trap can be controlled to claim all surplus production of a society, but if allowed to continue to grow the magic of compound interest dictates it is unsustainable. One trillion dollars compounded at 10 percent per year become $117 trillion in fifty years and $13.78 quadrillion in one hundred years, about $3.5 million for every man, woman and child in the Third World. Their debt is 50 percent greater than this and has been compounding at twice that rate — over 20 percent per year between 1973 and 1993, from $100 billion to $1.5 trillion [only $400 billion of the $1.5 trillion was actually borrowed money. The rest was runaway compound interest]. If Third World debt continues to compound at 20 percent per year, the $117 trillion debt will be reached in eighteen years and the $13.78 quadrillion debt in thirty-four years.”

You have a friend in the U.S.A. who tells you that each U.S. citizen’s share of the U.S. debt of $18,032,267,753,648.54 is $56,433.82. Woh! And the newspapers and Wall Street and the government say things are improving.

You have another friend who travels around Latin America and says that the debt is the headache of every government in the area, a headache that is also a political and social and cultural migraine attack. How are you supposed to “develop” if you have to dedicate most of your efforts towards paying off your debts? And what happens, as in the case of Argentina, when financial speculators buy up debt to resell it at exorbitant prices and pressure the government to open its doors to “market economics?”

Verse on the verge of eternity

About my death only the sun knows
I lie here embedded in the past

About my future only the stars know
I lie here alone and in wait

Now I sing my silent song of love
She is my rock, my foundation

Why lament the past, my love?
We are the living present.

My song is everlasting, full
Rock of my life: you are my wish, my will.

The winds may blow the planets may vanish
All is change; all is movement.

Here I remain eternally enthralled
Held in your arms, free and part of all.

My words are embedded in stone, mineralized
What can I say my love, but this:
Love is life's feeder, an eternal turn and return.

Heidi Hove, a Danish artist in San Telmo: "There is always something that surprises you..."

      San Telmo is full of pleasant surprises. One of them is an art studio at 1008 Defensa Street, where a young Danish artist, Heidi Hove, is working on a cartoon about a girl who sails away... Denmark seems to be a mysterious faraway place for most porteños, but Heidi is very enthusiastic about her visit here.  

--What brought you to Argentina?

--I am on a residency which I heard about through some other Danish artists who told me they were very impressed by the city. So I thought it would be interesting to go to a place so different from Denmark and northern Europe. Walking around the streets of Buenos Aires I have discovered a city quite at odds with what I know.

--True.You can see more people walking the streets in Latin America than in the U.S. or Europe…

--Yes, and you sort of have to because the distances are much longer here than they are in Copenhagen, for example. It’s a big city but we only have a million and a half inhabitants including the suburbs. There are only around 600,000 in downtown Copenhagen. So it has been fascinating to come here with my Nordic spectrum.

--What has impressed you most about San Telmo?

--As I walk around I take a lot of photographs and that helps me put together some of the previous notions I had. That has also happened to me when I was in Berlin, which has a much livelier environment than Copenhagen. What I really like about Buenos Aires is that you get surprised as you walk around. You can see a completely new building alongside a very old one, something colorful, something old grey and drab…there is always something that surprises you. That’s what I like about this place. That is also the job for the artist—to be surprised, to surprise people or put another perspective on things. What if we were to show this from another angle, from another perspective? How could we transform an object that is considered of little interest?

--Is this your first visit to Latin America?

--I’ve been to Mexico, that’s the only other Latin American country I have been to. There are many things in common but in Mexico City the streets seem to be even busier than here.

--You don’t see many people on the streets in Europe…

--No you don't but I like that and also people seem to be more outgoing. The talk more in public places, in the supermarkets, on the buses and trains. And you have your routines of going out to restaurants, something which is much more common here than in Copenhagen. People talk and it looks more as if they were a big family. In Denmark you don’t go out alone, as you do here. It is two people who go out to have a conversation in a café. It is also more expensive to go out in Denmark, so you usually cook at home. You only go out for special occasions.

--The coffee isn’t very good here but you can stay as long as you want at a café in Buenos Aires.

--Exactly.

--Not to change the subject but I have read that Denmark is supposed to be the happiest country in the world. Is that true?

--I don’t know. Maybe they take anti-depressant pills!

--Do people complain in Denmark?

--They probably say that Denmark is happy because we have a very good health system and it’s safe to walk around on the streets, day and night and for women. I think it has to do with safety. If you’re unemployed you don’t have any difficulty getting unemployment benefits, also retirement is very good. Everything is very, very organized and that’s what contrasts so sharply with things here. There are systems here but they have leaks.

--It is difficult to get continuity here.

--But when you can get together to do things you get fantastic results here and that makes life dynamic. If nobody organizes things for you, you end up doing them yourself. I came from a very small academy located on an island in Denmark. We were only 50 students. And we realized that we couldn’t do it alone: you can’t make it as an artist by yourself. You have to have friends, a network.

 --What is your project here? 

I am working on a story from my childhood. When I was around nine years old, back in the mid 1980's, I  watched a children's Tv program called Sally the Pirate, about this little girl who owns a giraffe. It is very basic, about this girl and how she plays together with her friends. She has a ship that she sails away and the giraffe sometimes becomes invisible because it takes up too much space. So I video recorded the series and have drawn it myself and have been creating my own film roll. It is interesting for me to go back and look at this cartoon I did. That has led to what I have been working on here. In the story there are two brothers who meet the pirate and she's the one who breaks the rules. She is also the one who sails away. That's what I have done: I have never been so far away from home. I see myself as Sally the Pirate. 

--Has your stay here modified in any way your original plans?

--Yes. I brought this cartoon with me in my suitcase but I didn’t know what I was going to do with it. And in this amazing place where I am staying the owner has a wood workshop. That called my attention, so I have begun to use the materials that are here for my cartoon. I also have changed my perspective of the story because I am an adult and I have been exploring new situations.

--The cartoon has to do with your own life?

--Some of them are characters directly from my own life. There’s the mother, the father and, well, there’s the little brother who always asks questions. That reminds me of my own little brother. It’s a silent movie. I chose not to have any sound and perhaps that has to do with my own life, coming from the Danish countryside.

--Can you live doing art in Denmark?

--Only very few people can.

--Is there State funding for the arts?

--Yes. I am also supported by the Danish government, by the Danish Arts Foundation. You can have an exhibition and then apply for support and then there is the residency program. I graduated in 2007 and have been out there long enough for them to pay attention to what I have been doing. And then the more you apply the more you get a feeling about how to write applications. But there are also many layers of activity and that leads to great variety in Denmark.

--What do you think about the art you have seen here?

--Well, I have been to the important museums but I think there is a lot more to see by discovering the small galleries and that’s more difficult. But the longer you are here the more you get to know your way around. A short time ago I was invited to a concert at someone’s home! Things like that never happen in Denmark. It takes time. I've been here two and a half months but that is not very much because there are so many things going on...

Heidi Hove                 http://www.heidehove.com

 

 

Rainbow love

Seated here on my dusty distant  thoughtful milkyway,

   your face evokes dazzling shredded past yawns.

Stretching here in the lazy unconcerned twilight of forgotten lore,

   I conjure up the quivering-quavering lights of our shadowy past.

 

In far-away peace I betake the wine of erupted mental fires,

    seated as I am on my dusty distant universal shore.

My drunken Lambic consciousness weaves its hermetic path

    along the time-worn fathomlessness of each everlasting moment.

 

I send rainbow messengers in search of your soul.

   Here, from my multi-coloured milky way bench,

Here from my dusty ethereal bench of nothingness,

   I embrace your multicolored beginnings and endings.

 

"The Merchant of Venice" at the British Arts Centre in Buenos Aires

Since Biblical times moneylending has been a source of profound conflict—and it continues to haunt financial, social and cultural life in most parts of the world. When William Shakespeare wrote “The Merchant of Venice” Christianity objected to charging interest on loans, an attitude that was not shared by the Jewish community. This gave way to numerous confrontations and was also used to flaunt anti-Semitism. Today, as well as in 1596, lending money gives the lender power to impose conditions on the borrower.

In Shakespeare’s play Bassanio, a young Venitian noble, is in love with the beautiful and wealthy Portia of Belmont, but having squandered his estate he needs 3,000 ducats to subsidize wooing her. So he brings his problem to his friend Antonio, a rich merchant who has often bailed him out of financial difficulties. There’s a snag, however, because Antonio’s ships and merchandise are busy at sea. So he tells Bassanio that he will cover him if he can find a moneylender. That’s where the Jewish lender Shylock appears, asserting he will not collect interest, as is his custom, but will demand a pound of flesh to be taken near the heart should the loan go to default.

As in all of Shakespeare’s plays, the plot gets enormously complicated, but what continues to be discussed is precisely the role of Shylock, whether he is to be considered sympathetically or as an opportunistic abuser, whether there is in this conflict a touch of anti-semitism.

In the opening night of the play last night at the British Arts Centre Sylock—played convincingly by Sean Wellington—approaches the audience in defense of his determination to collect the pound of flesh:  

“Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal’d by the same means, warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer as a Christian is?”

 

Does Shylock collect the debt? He defends his right to do so referring to the laws existing at the time. The hedge funds in Argentina's debt crisis also say they are acting according to the law. But we suggest that the reader see the play and conclude for himself or herself how the issue is resolved. In this version of the play directed by Alicia Vidal, the character of Sylock occupies an intermediate position between the scoundrel and the proper man of finance.

Vidal chose to break down the Shakespearean structure of acts and scenes into short and agile sequences stressing the essence with no other adornments than a table, a chair, some cloths and money boxes. The actors themselves bring on or take off the props, giving the show a participatory feeling.

Although the text and actions are abridged, they are maintained intact in their essence. The costumes are modern, yet retain touches of the Shakespearean era. As a result the play is entertaining, relatively light in substance and sustains good dramatic rhythm until the end, keeping the audience’s attention focused on how the conflict will be resolved. The young actors of the Pest Group give a fresh uptodateness to the play.

The Merchant of Venice, 19, 20, 26 and 27th of September at the British Arts Centre, 1333 Suipacha street, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Cast:

Antonio              Miguel Almirón

Gratiano             Paul Parsley

Bassanio            Guido

Nerissa               Tatiana Gurevich

Portia                  Bárbara Bernardi

Shylock               Sean Wellington

Launcelot            Franco Gariballi

Jessica                Ana Spagnolo

Lorenzo               Juan Pablo D'Aqui

Morocco/Tubal    Diego Romero

Director               Alicia Vidal

Production          Cecilia Verga

Voice Coach        Jorge Verga

Costumes            Natalia Bernardi

Subtitles             Natalia Bernardi

Lights                 Daniel Compaya

[e-mail]  o [e-mail] 

 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Peripatetic

Workshop on Monologues

Hello friends, actors and students! If you want to work on a monologue or short story, bear in mind our workshop at Mexico 926 (Phone [phone]), near the Independencia subway stop. Diction, use of body, projection, role-play, working the context and finding the secrets beyond the lines. You can find material at http://thehopkinstheatreworkshop.blogspot.com  and you may also work on your own monologues or stories.

We request that you confirm your participation previously at 4342 3588 or 4342 4936 or via email: [e-mail]

Hamlet and the Holdouts

To pay or not to pay, that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous buzzards

Or to take arms against a sea of holdouts,

And by opposing end them. To die--to sleep--

No more; and by a sleep to say we end 

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consumation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die--to sleep.

To sleep--perhance to dream: ay, there's the rub!

For in that sleep od death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of the buzzards,

Th' holdout's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of the holdouts and buzzards--

The undiscovered off shore financial paradise

From which no traveller returns--puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make all of us doubt,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

Workshop on Monologues begins in Buenos Aires

      Theatre   Workshop in English

               Sábados 17 a 19:30 horas,  Balcarce 1053,

               local 10, San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina                                  

 °   Un taller con coach norteamericano y show-muestra a fin de año.

°   Dicción, proyección de la voz, movimiento y uso del espacio,

    juegos dramáticos, role-play y escenificación de cuentos y monólogos.

°   La primera clase es gratuita, a prueba; luego $450 por mes.

°   Requísitos: mayor a 15 años y un nivel intermedio a superior de inglés

     Informes:  [e-mail] / 4342 3588 / 1562521028

     Web:  http://thehopkinstheatreworkshop.blogspot.com.ar

 

Playwrite Barry Kornhauser wins Orlin Corey Medallion for his work with children

 Barry Kornhauser, a playwrite and director of Millersville University's Ware Center in Lancaster, Pennyslvania, will receive the Children´s Theatre Foundation of America's Orlin Corey Medallion in a ceremony in Denver, Colorado on August 1. Although the award came as a surprise to Barry, he has dedicated his life to theatre for youth as playwrite, educator and administrator. He has long been respected for his imagination and storytelling genius.

        He has been working for the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster for the past 30 years, and likewise has been working intensely with children via the Youtheatre. Kids work creating plays and then under Barry's guidance stage them. Youtheatre, which won the Coming Up Taller Award in 2008, is but one of Barry's activities. He has written more than 30 plays. Kornhauser studied anthropology, psychology and teaching before falling in love with theatre. 

Contact:  

Ware Center

42 N. Prince Street
Lancaster, Pa. 17603
[phone]
[e-mail]

 

 

 

Playwrite Barry Kornhauser wins Orlin Corey Medallion for his work with children

 Barry Kornhauser, a playwrite and director of Millersville University's Ware Center in Lancaster, Pennyslvania, will receive the Children´s Theatre Foundation of America's Orlin Corey Medallion in a ceremony in Denver, Colorado on August 1. Although the award came as a surprise to Barry, he has dedicated his life to theatre for youth as playwrite, educator and administrator. He has long been respected for his imagination and storytelling genius.

        He has been working for the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster for the past 30 years, and likewise has been working intensely with children via the Youtheatre. Kids work creating plays and then under Barry's guidance stage them. Youtheatre, which won the Coming Up Taller Award in 2008, is but one of Barry's activities. He has written more than 30 plays. Kornhauser studied anthropology, psychology and teaching before falling in love with theatre. 

 

 

 

Theatre workshop begins in San Telmo (Buenos Aires)

       On your mark, get set go! The Hopkins theatre workshop opens its activities this year on July 12 at an enchanting gallery in the heart of the colonial district of Buenos Aires. Want to embellish your language, explore your creative self, exercise voice, body, memory, soul and get into the skin of a character that fascinates you? If you are over 15 years of age and have at least an intermediate command of English this could be the opportunity you have been looking for. If you are an actor or have acting experience, great! If not, no problem. We learn by doing at the workshop and everyone learns from everyone else!

          Whether or not there is a world cup soccer game, we will meet Saturday the 12th at 5pm. The address: Balcarce 1053, room 10. That´s just a hop, skip and jump from the historia Dorrego Plaza in San Telmo. Walk up the steps of a beautiful old gallery, zigzag to the left and hurrah you are there! Oh, if you are hungry or thirsty there is a beautiful restaurant kittycorner from the rehearsal room.

       

     This year we will be working on monologues, short stories or experiences, so if you know any bring them along. We have included some in this blog. The material we work on will be polished up every Saturday and worked into a year-end show. So each participant can work on his or her pieces at home, on the street, on the subway, while preparing supper or chatting with that loved one, and also at the workshop! We want you to first find your own voice and then explore how your character speaks. For that reason we will be working on breathing techniques and verbal fluency. We also want you to explore the expressive possibilities of your own bodies so that you can apply that to the characters in your monologues and stories.

       As we get to know each other there will be a process of meshing during which the creativity of your companions will stimulate you and vice versa. That in turn will lead to a magical and goodhearted exchange that will produce surprising and unexpected results. Who knows? Maybe the monologues and stories will turn into a drama or a comedy of errors! Some of mankinds most magnificent discoveries have come about on the heels of bloopers!

         During the first encounter we will get to know each other and discuss details including the monthly fee, dress (casual), work teams and the like. See you Saturday! Oh, if you can't make it on the 12th, come on the 19th. The first class is always free.

Messi, Belgium and a poetic bar in Argentina

In the "Poesía" they gather in mystery covered,
Bathed in anticipation, goose pimples quivering.
Poesía, a café of words written, of words spoken;
Heart and soul glued to the screen: Argentina! Argentina!

The girl in black lavishes her beau with choral arrangements,
The sound of sweet verses leaking from young untested lips,
Cheeks trembling, skin alert, heart with passion aflame:
"Messi will do it!...will he?...will we?...can we?"

The robust waitress clothed as Messi number ten
Passes, zigzags, throws furtive glances at the screen;
The ever bouncing ball comes and goes, as life, as love,
In eternal movement, seeking, exploring, wanting, counting.


"Goal! goal! goal! goal, not a Messi goal but a goal indeed!"
Arms seek the heavens, voices in folkloric rapture
"We did it! We´re in! Brother I told you we could!"
A gigantic smile wraps the bar in poetic communion.

And now to work, and now to pay or not to pay the vultures
and now to pay or not to pay the financial moneygrubbers
and now to feed the body, and now to feed the spirit
and now to prepare for the next challenge in the struggle to be.

Is journalism loosing its bite?

         David Sirota, who writes regularly for the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, says: "It's a concern when almost half of the news business does not support reporting news that the government and corporations don't want reported." (May 17, 2014)

          That is an astounding statement, in view of the often repeated affirmation that press freedom goes hand with democracy.

         Sirota continues; "Simply put, the path that avoids regular confrontation with power is often far easier, less risky and more lucrative in the news business. Thus, it has become the preferred path du jour, to the point where almost half of the news business does not support reporting news that the government and corporations don't want reported. And who knows? Maybe the nest IU survey 10 years from now shows a full-on majority of journalists saying news outles shouldn't publish without the express consent of the corporations and government."

       Mr. Sirota's observations raise a number of questions. Why is it that the vast majority of U.S. newspapers pipe the same line with respect to Washington's foreign policy? For example, why did the vast majority support the invasion of Irak? Why is it that the coverage of the financial crisis sounds as if it came straight out of some PR office? And why are U.S. newspapers so hard on supposed infringements of freedom of expression abroad? Finally, is it not significant that in the vast majority of U.S. cities the news is in the hands of only one or two giant corporations and that they play tug-of-war between the two predominant political parties in a balancing act that leaves other voices out of the picture?

Fracking: an ecological threat or a promise of jobs?

Fracking is innately a strong hazard for human beings, the environment and for the flora and fauna in adjacent areas, yet it has become a “gold mine” for bolstering up the U.S. economy, still staggering from the effects of the financial crisis set into motion due to speculation by corporate players.

The demand for petroleum products in the United States is an unending upward spiral due to the prevailing life style and consumerism. This is where fracking appeared as a quick medicine to increase gas and oil supply and provide jobs to thousands of workers seeking employment.

Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing. It is a process that is water-intensive involving millions of gallons of liquid—a mix of water, sand and chemicals, including some suspected of provoking cancer. The mix is injected underground at high pressure to fracture the rock surrounding an area known to have great shale deposits. This action releases extra oil and gas from the rock, so that it can flow into a well.

However, previously the land in the area to be exploited must be cleared to build new access roads, new well sites, drilling and encasing the wells, fracking and generating waste, trucking in heavy equipment and materials and dealing with vast amounts of toxic waste. This contributes to air and water pollution, the devaluation of land, implies the use of and contamination of enormous quantities of local water supplies.

Not surprisingly, many communities in the country have rebelled against fracking. Many communities have even passed resolutions to outlaw it. Yet those businesses which develop fracking continue to advance and argue that their activities provide jobs for workers at a time of persisting high unemployment.

Pennsylvania is a case in point. The Marcellus shale gas site, the second largest in the world, stretches across Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Ohio and Maryland and is estimated  to contain more than 410 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

There has been strong opposition in the state to the burgeoning fracking activities among environmentalists and important voices within the Democratic Party. But the head of the Laborers’ International Union (LIUNA) sees jobs in fracking. “The shale became a life-saver and a lifeline for a lot of working families,” he said in an article April 21 in the Intelligencer Journal of Lancaster. He claimed the huge quantities of natural gas extracted from vast shale reserves over the past five years has led to an important increase in employment: In 2008 union members worked about 400,000 hours; by 2012 the number of hours worked at fracking sites rose to 5.7 million.

What is more important: the economic benefits of fracking or its devastating ecological consequences for people in all walks of life?

In Lancaster, where plans are being developed for laying a 35 mile natural gas pipeline that would raze beautiful forest areas, there is active opposition to fracking from environmentalists, preservationists, landowners and even ordinary citizens.  The proposal is part of a $2 billion, 177 mile pipeline that would carry Marcellus Shale natural gas to markets other than Lancaster County and would forever alter the hills and forests and two natural preserves along the Susquehanna River. At least two citizen groups are chiming against the pipeline: SOUL (Save Our Unspoiled Land) and Lancaster Against Pipeline. Those who want to vent their spleen may visit the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s website at http://www.ferc.gov .

An additional argument against the pipeline is that a good part of the fuel would be marked for export—something that contradicts the argument that fracking helps the county in its struggle for energy independence.

 

 

10° Encuentro Nacional de Narrativa y Cuento Corto en Bialet Massé, Córdoba

El 10° Encuentro Nacional de Narrativa, Cuento Corto 2014 se realizará los días 15,16 y 17 de Mayo en Bialet Massé, provincia de Córdoba, Argentina. 

La fecha para la recepción de material es el 18 de abril, 2014. Se publicará una antología con los trabajos enviados, más una breve reseña curricular de cada escritor. 

Los mismos pueden ser enviados por correo postal o por correo electrónico a [e-mail] / [e-mail]  

La antología será distribuida en distintos establecimientos públicos del país, como así también en bibliotecas de varios países del mundo.

Barry Kornhauser talks about the use of theater for the marginalized and disabled

Barry Kornhauser’s life and passion is the stage, yet it seemed appropriate to start the interview in a more mundane way, so after shaking hands I said bluntly: “Hello Barry! Nice office you have here…Well, just to get started: who is Barry Kornhauser?”

 

The answer came accompanied by a wholesome smile. “A guy who likes this joke from Camus’ THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS: “On connait l’histoire du fou qui pechait dans une baignoire; un medicin qui avait ses idees sur les traitements psychiatriques lui demandait: “Si ca mordait” et se vit repondre avec rigueur: “Mais son, imbecile, puisquec’est une baignoire.”

  

That’s a good one! But tell me this: what led you into the labyrinth of theater?

  

I did not come to it early, having had few positive theatrical experiences where I grew up in urban New Jersey. In fact, my school mates and I were such bad audiences when taken to a student matinee of a play that we were effectively banned from most East Coast theaters for years. It wasn’t until I was a junior in high school during the Vietnam War era and was taken to a production of Henry V at Stratford in Connecticut that was staged brilliantly as an anti-war piece that I realized the potential power of the art to transform lives and the excitement possible in its presentation. Interestingly, that play was directed by a young man named Michael Kahn who went on to become the Artistic Director of the Tony Award-winning Shakespeare Theater in Washington, DC. And some 30 years after my being so deeply touched by his Henry V, he chose to direct my adaptation of CYRANO DE BERGEAC at The Shakespeare Theater. The production went on to sweep the Helen Hayes Awards that year, winning both Best Play but also Best Director for Michael, so I felt in some small strange way I finally got to thank him for drawing me to theater.

 

What is theater for you and what tendency or school of acting do you prefer?

 

Oscar Wilde once wrote: “The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life.” I think that beautifully captures what theater means to me, a place where all of the arts come together to explore humanity, and because it is live and visceral, when well done it can touch our lives like no other art form. I am not an actor myself, but I do like another quote made years ago by an American politician. He wrote: “I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, and my first fixed and unbending principal is to remain flexible at all times.” I believe this applies to schools of acting as much as anything else. I would say you should use whatever works for you, being flexible enough to take avail of practices from different approaches for different times and circumstances. A little bit of this, a little bit of that—good ingredients for cooking up a tasty character.

  

 Would you agree that theater training is not only a tool for preparing shows: it is also a valuable tool used uo open up creativity, to help disabled people deal with their specific problems, a means for bringing about social integration…

 

But don’t forget that people living with disabilities have so much to offer the arts. Because they are often compelled to live creative lives every day just to do what non-disabled people consider routine, folks with disabilities have a great deal to bring to the artistic table. By welcoming to that table, we enhance and enrich the art we present.

 

Could you describe your own work with young people of diverse backgrounds and nationalities?

 

More than 25 years ago I founded and still direct a youth theater program comprised of marginalized, disadvantaged, at-risk teens and those living with physical, sensory, and/or cognitive disabilities. They are referred to the program from juvenile probation offices, psychiatric hospitals, drug and alcohol centers, homeless shelters, refugee organizations, and school counselors. They create and perform original dramatic work based on social justice themes that have impacted their lives or that of their peers globally. The program has received numerous grants including from the National Endownment for the Arts and has been honored at the White House by the President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities. Now working at Millersville University in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, we have begun to build more such arts programming—both performing and visual—for underserved people of all ages in our community.

 

So you work not only with words, but with the body, not only the body but with images which flow from different social, cultural and political contexts…

 

All great fodder for art. Why on earth would we want to limit our stage vocabulary to the spoken work—whatever the language? We know from Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences notion, that we all learn differently, so why not present our work in multiple “languages”—not just text but through movement and image. Differing social, cultural and political contexts only compound the need to reach out artistically in many diverse ways.

 

Racism and discrimination of diverse sorts are latent points of tension in society, as A. Boal suggests. Do you believe that these and other social problems can be understood more profoundly by means of role play and eventually contact with an audience incorporated actively into the creative process?

 

Totally. I can think of no better way to examine such issues and to transform thinking about them than through some of the Theater of the Oppressed techniques developed by Boal, and certainly a good part of what makes that work such a potentially powerful driver of social change is the active involvement of the “audience” in the creative process. His use of the “spectactor” rather than just the “spectator” makes all the difference for is it not indeed true that we learn best by doing, not just watching or listening.

 

In Lancaster and in the U.S.A. today are there any exciting vanguard movements? Is theater and art perceived as a refuge to the finalcial crisis and the twitchings of the consumer society?

 

For a mid-sized city, Lancaster has a remarkably large arts community. There is a clear recognition that arts programming does indeed serve as a financial driver bringing more people to the area and improving everyone’s quality of life. It’s exciting to live in a place this size that gets it! And what is nice about its size is that there are 100 + arts venues all within walking distance and artists know each other and can and do work together creating some exciting projects such as an event called “36 Dramatic Situations” in which a dozen different artists and arts organizations collaborated to create an evening of five minute pieces each in their own art form around an exhibit of themed art work by a local visual artist, a three-year project. Lancaster City is the home of three performing arts centers as well as theaters, galleries, etc. and the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design as well as Franklin & Marshall College and Millersville University. The city just hosted its first national Roots & Blues Music Festival and more such events occur more and more regularly. It is also the home of the Poetry Path, an art installation project all over the city combining poetry and visual art works. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

 

Are there any groups doing theatrical activities in other languages in Lancaster or in the country?

 

Certainly in the country. Just a peek at the pages of AMERICAN THEATRE Magazine will give one an idea of the breadth and depth of the multiculturalism in America’s theater community. Not so much in Lancaster as of yet. While the city itself is more than 38% Latino, there is not a dedicated Spanish language theater. The same is true for the newer immigrant groups from Asia and Africa who are just getting a footing in this community. That said, here at Millersville University we are presenting bi-lingual and Spanish-speaking artists for audiences of all ages. In fact, in a few weeks the 3^rd annual Latino Arts Festival will be held here and in mid- April a Mexican theater company will come to Lancaster. This is Sena y Verbo Teatro de Sordos, which is an inclusive ensemble compromised of both hearing and deaf actors. So not only will we be hearing some Spanish, we’ll also be seing some Mexican Sign Language.

 

Aside from your work at Millersville do you have any projects or plans for the near future?

 

Millersville is keeping me happily busy with many University arts programs that are quite exciting. Outside of that I’m currently working on two play commissions—one for the Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis, America’s flagship theater for young audiences program and a Tony Award-winning regional theater  itself. That play, BALLOONACY, is designed for early learners, preschool-aged children and it will premiere in late March. The other is for a theater in Pittsburgh. That is an adaptation of the award-winning Holocaust novel THE DEVIL’S ARITHMETIC. Before its premiere in May we will actually be doing a staged reading of excerpts from the script at Millersville University’s biennial National Holocaust & Genocide Conference in early April with university student actors. Beyond that I need to clean the gutters on my roof and paint a bathroom!

Contact: [e-mail].  

Bio: BARRY KORNHAUSER recently joined the staff of Millersville University to spearhead the school’s newly formed family arts collaborative and to develop campus-community artistic initiatives.  Prior to this new endeavor, he served 30 years as the Playwright-In-Residence, TYA Director, and sundry other positions at the National Historic Landmark Fulton Theatre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Barry is a recipient of the American Alliance for Theatre & Education (AATE) Charlotte Chorpenning Cup, honoring “a body of distinguished work by a nationally known writer of outstanding plays for children.”  Other accolades include the Twin Cities’ Ivey Award for Playwriting (Reeling), the Helen Hayes Outstanding Play Award (Cyrano), Bonderman Prize (Worlds Apart), and two AATE Distinguished Play Awards (This Is Not A Pipe Dream and Balloonacy), along with Pennsylvania’s “Best Practices Honor” (for his HIV/AIDS prevention T.I.E. project,  All It Takes…) and the state’s first Educational Theatre Award “for outstanding service by an individual for the advancement of theatre education in the Commonwealth.” He has also received fellowships/grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, TYA/USA, Doris Duke Foundation, MetLife Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Pennsylvania Performing Artists on Tour (PennPAT). His plays have been commissioned and produced by such Tony Award-winning theatres as the Alliance, Children’s Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, and Shakespeare Theatre, and have been invited to such festivals as One Theatre World, NYC’s Provincetown Playhouse New Plays for Young Audiences, the international Quest Fest, San Diego Theatre of the World, the Bonderman, the Playground, and the Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New Voices. The Kennedy also commissioned him to author a piece (Of Mice And Manhattan) based on newly discovered children songs by Broadway legend Frank Loesser, and invited him to take part in and report on its 2012 “International Convening of Thought Leaders in Theater, Dance, Disability, Education, and Inclusion.”  Barry is one of three playwrights (along with David Ives and former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky) to be commissioned by The Shakespeare Theatre to create new “American” adaptations of lesser-known classic dramas.  He has also served as a guest dramaturg at the Denver Theatre Center.  In 2008, Barry was selected as the United States nominee for the “ASSITEJ International Award for Artistic Excellence” and hisYoutheatre program for at-risk teens and those living with disabilities was honored at the White House as one of the nation’s top arts-education initiatives.  For his work with this ensemble, Barry also received the AATE’s 2011 Youth Theatre Director of the Year Award. Over the years he has conducted theatre residencies everywhere from a one-room Amish school house to universities across the country, including several stints as the “Luminary Guest Artist” of the University of New Mexico’s Wrinkle Writing program endowed by A Wrinkle In Time author, Madeleine L’Engle.  (He was the only guest artist invited more than once).   A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, Barry has served on the TYA/USA board, various panels of the NEA, the Heinz Endowment, and three state arts councils.  Currently, he is an AATE State Representative, a member of the Dramatists’ Guild, and sits on the board of the Lancaster Education Foundation.  His lovely wife Carol and great kids Ariel, Sam, and Max (with Turkish bride Sena) complete his real-life cast of “characters.” 

Artist Loryn Spangler-Jones, a self taught artist concerned with the condition of women

Loryn Spangler-Jones of Lancaster, Pennsylvania lives in a rainbow of female colors. In a chat with Jaquematepress she explained: “I needed to fix me, learn how to make myself happy from the inside out.” That’s what painting is for her, a process that flows from the innermost reaches of the self. Self taught, she came upon art, not as an inheritance, not as the result of academic study; rather it appeared when her creative intuition found a means of expression.

“I started experimenting with paint and color in 1997 as a means of self discovery and liberated self expression,” she points out in a statement on her art. “I quickly learned mixing mediums within my work added both complexity and depth to each individual piece.”

Much of her inspiration comes from her personal experiences as a woman, “deconstructing the societal bondage of oppression and silence.” That meant venturing into an “unknown territory within the corners of myself, shedding layers of fear and doubt and embracing my own vulnerability and sensuality…”

Your paintings reveal a profound concern for women..

I believe my work to represent the strength found in all women, regardless of race, religion or sexuality. My work exposes the vulnerability of our imperfections through the use of texture and mark making. And through my blending of color I am able to bring to light the inner beauty all women possess.

Why do you think men have until recently exercised dominance in the plastic arts?

I think men have exercised a dominance EVERYWHERE, the arts included. It would be easy to blame Religion for our patriarchal society but in all fairness I think women are just as much to blame. For far too long we have allowed ourselves to be doormats and not taken advantage of our own creative power. As a woman and a professional artist, I believe it is my responsibility to intentionally participate in the revolutionary, RELEVANT, change in gender equality.

Would you agree that the creative process—whether in painting, writing, dance or theatre—is necessarily a sort of adventure into the self, into the intimate experiences, fears, passions, tastes and thinking patterns of each creator?

One hundred per cent!!!

If someone were to ask you to define your art, what would your answer be? Emotionally charged, challenging, relevant and always honest.

In your opinion what is the state of art today in the U.S.A. and more particularly in Lancaster?

That depends a lot on the location. For example, New York City, the city every artist wants to be able to say they have exhibited in: I feel it is highly competitive and unless you are willing to buy your way in or you know the right people your chances of representation are slim. Perhaps I am a bit biased because I am still trying to fight my way into N.Y.C. That being said, I feel incredibly fortunate to live in a city that is incredibly supportive of the arts. With over 30 galleries and First Friday receptions every month Lancaster continues to grow her art community.

Is there any predominant tendency?

I will let the viewers answer that question.

Do you feel that your art is taking a new direction? Does it take you there thanks to its own impulse or are you calling the cards?

I make it a habit to let my work lead me. I have learned the hard way. I just end up getting in the way of myself if I try to take over. I believe my work to be evolutionary and always autobiographical.

Do you practice any routine as a warm up for painting—yoga, zen, breathing technique, a special time and place—or do you paint only when the mood hits you?

In the beginning of my journey I would paint merely when I felt inspired. I no longer have that luxury. With more and more of a demand for my work, and scheduled exhibitions 12 months out, the creative process has now become a discipline. In the words of Picasso…”when inspiration shows up, it had better find you working.”

Have you published anything on your art? This is the third year in a row I have been picked up by North Light Publishers, winning an international mixed media competition for publication in a hardcover coffee table art book. The book is scheduled to be released in September of this year with the public unveiling of my winning piece in October at Elmwood Gallery for the Arts in Buffalo, NY. The title of the book is “Incite VII: Color Passions” and will be available on Amazon.

Contacts:

Loryn Spangler-Jones, artist. www.lsjmixedmedia.com 717.381.5032 Director, Annex 24 Gallery 24 W. Walnut St. Lancaster, Pa 17603 www.annex24gallery.com

Two Script Writing Seminars

Two Script Writing Seminars under the direction of Alfred Hopkins

 

What?               An adventure for actors, English students and writers

Where?             Aráoz 1666 (entre El Salvador y Honduras)

Who?                Upper intermediate or  superior English skills  No previous experience needed.

When?              March 5th and 12th from 7:30pm to 10pm

How much?     $380 for both seminaras or $2000 each.

Contacts:       [e-mail]

 

 [e-mail]

4342 3588 / 1562521028 

 

Description:

 

Each student should come prepared to describe a character or characters. We will use role play technique to enhance them. Then we will work on the problems or conflicts that they must resolve. The scripts may include monologues or short-short plays with no more than two or three characters. During the first encounter we will provide information on how to go about script writing, style, images, actions and action sequence and how to “find” the audience.

The second seminar will be dedicated to reading and analyzing the plays or monologues created by the participants. We recommend that you participate in both seminars. You may participate separately in either seminar, however if you decide to take part only in the second you must bring at least a rough draft of an idea you are working on.

 

Alfred Hopkins 

 

Mr. Hopkins is journalist, writer and actor. He is a graduate of the University of California and former teacher of diction and theatre at Lenguas Vivas. Hopkins has frequently prepared workshops and solo performances for schools and English institutes in Argentina. He coaches an acting workshop and often does seminars and workshops at English congresses or for schools, on acting, role-play, writing and creative activities for teachers. He has published books in English and Spanish, including "Tea for Two, a Tale for You."

 

Contacts: [e-mail] / [e-mail]

4342 3588 / 1562521028 / 4863 1146

Acting: an experience that goes beyond reality

    It takes energy, impulse, determination and faith to achieve even what we might consider to be insignificant goals, on stage or in everyday life. What is essential, however, is the process leading up to the realization of those objectives.  Peter Brook put it this way: "Acting begins with a tiny inner movement so slight that it is almost completely invisible." It then grows, turns into energy, energy into impulse, impulse into desire, desire into determination; for achievement to take place we need faith, we need to believe in our actions and in the possibility of success.

      Is that not also what happens in a love relationship? First an inner movement appears. A message emerges in our most innermost self. It manifests itself in the form of excitement, a surge of energy causes our heart to beat faster, an impulse brings our hands to feel the warmth of her arm; if the impulse receives a go-ahead signal the caress takes on more determination and becomes a hug, the hug a kiss: both bodies become possessed with desire and believe in the need to consummate the act of love.

     Each character an actor attempts to enliven has different levels of energy according to the circumstance or persons with which he or she must interact. She is seated gazing out the window. Suddenly she gets up, picks up the telephone receiver and dials a number. What led her to do that? Had she been carrying on an interior discussion concerning whether or not to call? Something caused her to act with determination, although she might also have repressed her movement stopping short of lifting the receiver.

    In real life we rarely plan our movements with the decisiveness with which an actor organizes his actions. However, everything an actor does on stage is considered by the spectator as purposeful. If the woman is looking out the window, it must be for some reason; if she suddenly picks up the telephone receiver, it certainly is because she has taken a decision.

     The beauty of the acting experience is the richness of meaning which the artists puts into each action, the realization that each action is interconnected but fundamentally different from the previous movement or the subsequent action. Acting is about transcendence and is dialectical in nature. Every action is the continuation and elaboration of a previous action which then gives way to yet another and in the process of exploring these different stages the actor seeks transcendence, transcendence based on the characteristics of his character and the script he is working on.

     “A slight movement of the spine, a change in the direction of a look, can tell something about the inner life of the character and project his thoughts,” says Sonia Moore. Acting indeed is an extremely complex process, as is life itself. An actor speaks not only with the words he says but with the tension or relaxation of his body, with his silence, with the tone of his voice, with the expression in his eyes, with the images which surge in his mind, with the memories which flash in his consciousness when he straightens his tie or examines his face in the mirror.

    Yet there is great generosity in acting. What is done on stage is not for the actor’s stage companion; it is for the audience. Whatever the characteristics of the play might be, the purpose is to allow the spectator to “participate” in his or her own way in the actions, in the emotions, in the search for a solution to the conflict and in the thought processes of the characters on stage. The actor’s energy, impulses, determination, will power and belief are transmitted to the viewers, who in turn re-elaborate them. Thus acting is a powerful communicative experience which allows players and viewers to leave commonplace reality behind for a while and enter into a world charged with new significance.