ארכיוני המרכז הוקמו בתמיכת קרן אוסטרובסקי וארטיס

This description was written by Dr. Richard Flantz

            THE SCENES

Doll

Chairs

Shower

Charisma

Smile

Hard-Boiled Egg

Finale

This performance deals with a subject that is emotionally charged: a kind of experiencing which is most difficult to speak about or to name. If throughout history “getting high” has been a means or a goal of theater or ritual, in this performance it is the subject.

This is theater in which each of the creative participants gives independent expression to the subject in his or her own particular medium. The theater comes into being in the meeting of the different structures created in each of these media, and does not attempt to offer a single or uniform interpretation of the subject.

Similarly, there is no attempt here to create a unifying experience for the audience as a group. The intention is to build a theater-event in which each individual can construct his own personal set of responses to the aggregate of images presented through the dynamics of the meeting.

The scenes of movement-play were conceived by Adina Bar-On, and serve as the point of departure for the whole performance, which has developed into the present form through cooperation amongst the participating artists.

Adina Bar-On appears in the six scenes of movement-play. In one of these, “Shower”, she also sings, with Richard Flantz, and a taped backing of singers. In another, “Charisma”, she also performs wordless vocalizations.

The movement-play and the choreography in each scene are a dynamic abstraction of a visual image of a human being in a specific situation. The movements are not dance as much as they are abstract extensions of the body movement of the image. The same principle applies in the wordless vocalization of the “Charisma” scene. The images themselves are drawn from various levels of everyday life. The succession of movements constitutes a personal and organic expression which derives from observation, impressions, and associations, and the specific energy in the movements generated from the performer’s identification with the content.

The poetry was written by Richard Flantz, who speaks his verse on stage in most of the movement scenes, and in one solo scene. He also sings with Adina Bar-On in the”Shower” scene.

The poetry is in English (the language the poet mainly writes in), and relates in various ways to the subject of the performance. It is spoken in various distinct “voices”, in verse-form, language-registers, and rhythms that range from classical through modern to jazz-rock, and its content is good-humored, general, historical, abstract, and personal (intra-personal, inter-personal, trans-personal). The text is structured around Adina Bar-On`s scenes, sometimes meeting them in different ways, sometimes responding as an audience, sometimes building independent associations and images.

The music was composed and recorded for the performance by Yossi MarChaim, on 3 synthesizers connected via a computer. The computer also controls the amplified sound during the performance. The music is rhythmic and electronic, and much more minimalistic than the composer’s usual work, in order to deepen the background and to emphasize the movements and the texts. The overall sound is built on the contrasts between the music and the human voices of Adina Bar-On and Richard Flantz, whose voices will be heard both on the sound-track and live through the microphones, as well as undergoing musical electronic processing. The result will be a meeting between music which is naturally colder, and the warmer human voices.

The decor was designed and executed by Yehezkel Yardeni, who also co-ordinated its movements during the performance.

The design of forms and the use of materials derived from contemporary conceptions of painting and sculpture. There are two kinds of decor. The elements in the space where the audience is seated are fixed and do not change during the performance. The elements in the space where the performance occurs constitute a component which is not background, and in which the forms and significances change in the course of the performance. The decor adds yet another dimension of images to those evoked through the other media.

The lighting was conceived by Judy Kupferman, who has control of the lights during the performance. The lighting is an element in the performance which at times creates emphasis or focuses the audience’s attention, and primarily makes its own distinctive contribution to the creation of the atmosphere.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

One of the songs and one of the texts:

“Words You Feel You Want to Find” 

Music, Arrangements, Production: Yossi Marchaim

There are words you feel you want to find

For rainbow feelings in your mind

For flower fingers in the air

And silent streams that lead you there.

The Wrestler

Lyrics: Richard Flantz

I lied: We wrestled not one night, but years.

And times I feared he’d gone for good, to spurn

me, for in despair I rested from the spears

of srife. Long days I’d long for his return:

I saw myself his victor, famed, proclaimed

with the timeless name, the only one I

sought. But when it was time, I shuddered, tamed:

I feared the searing hand upon my thigh,

the taut arm around my neck; I dreaded

the exhaustion I knew would come, doubted

I could hold him long enough that he might

breathe the secret name into my ear, bless me

with the sight I was not sure I’d seen or see:

that ladder rising endless into the night.

When they flow through you

like a flight of seagulls before sunset

in playful dance before a rest,

as alien, as familiar,

the words.

ארכיוני המרכז הוקמו בתמיכת קרן אוסטרובסקי וארטיס

ארכיוני המרכז הוקמו בתמיכת קרן אוסטרובסקי וארטיס