How about less injury and more beauty in the world?

Kia ora koutou e te whānau

In the interest of trusting the mystery and curiosity I am going to write this blog post without focusing on a particular point… more to share how thoughts take me from one thing to another. Hopefully there will be an overall sense.

My last post was about how we are thriving at Massive Theatre Company, as artists separately and together. It was also about how we are staying curious at Massive as this is an essential part of our thriving.

It feels like this year so far has definitely been about sparking and pursuing curiosity through a variety of interactions at Massive. We have had a Massive Foundations workshop for rangatahi, company games session, The Office of Curiosity, Massive Nui Ensemble (emerging artists company), Curious Lab, and Morning Tea with Massive.

Even though we might sometimes work or be on our own within these interactions, we are ultimately with others, connecting in all manner of ways and this is a good thing, it’s the best thing.

It’s also about providing a structure to be curious in. It’s often hard to be curious on your own, at home. There is always something else to be done.

In our recent Curious Lab, where our professional artists came together for three days to pursue whatever artistic endeavour they wanted, everyone agreed that coming to the Massive space between 10am-4pm where there was structure but which allowed freedom was a necessary and much-loved experience.  

We would start with our beloved 4 Square, then move into a collective warm-up led by me and then into ‘chunks’ of work time. This was self-elected work. Everyone could work how they wanted, on their own or with others. There were several tables of books laid out to spark or feed into anything being pursued. People could share back their work if they wanted. We played fervent Charades after lunch and then settled back into another self-directed ‘chunk’ of work. Sometimes people would share their work and we would provide feedback that was directed by the makers. We would gather together before finishing and share what we were discovering, then leave. 

We all felt richer for the experience… so lots of beauty and definitely no injury. 

The quote I head this blog post with was what I shared at the start of our first day on Curious Lab, as a provocation for us all to consider. 

I rediscovered Diane Ragsdale’s wonderfully provocative key note talk Transformation or Bust, and in doing so I recommitted to the idea she reinforced in me then, particularly the statement, ‘How about less injury and more beauty in the world.’ This still is a driving reason I make theatre. It’s why I teach, direct and devise theatre. It’s why I believe in the arts as a force for good and why now, more than ever before I am committed to this pursuit of more beauty and less injury in our world. 

I want to delve into what it is that I am fundamentally curious about in my theatre making and what is at the heart of this. It’s interesting to delve into because what I am drawn to is not an analytical exercise or pursuit. It is a very felt and an innate pursuit. I have to deconstruct the ‘why’ in order to understand my own pull towards it all. 

I was talking with Dominic Ona-Ariki on our Curious Lab about why I love visual artist and author Maira Kalman so much. If you haven’t discovered her then have a look at her books of which these are my most loved; My Favourite Things, Women Holding Things, Still Life with Remorse and Bed. I love her reflections on life but it wasn’t until I made a show called The Island (co-directed by Miriama McDowell and devised by a cast of six emerging artists) that I really looked at what it was about her storytelling that captured me. Because we wanted our cast to think about Maira Kalman’s storytelling when creating their own solo pieces, I had to understand what Maira was doing in hers. 

I am, like a lot of artists, continually looking at the same story. Mine is that I am reflecting on what it is to be human and what it takes to live a life, but more importantly the curation of a life.  Are we consciously curating our life and how? How do we make choices and what affects them? It’s the mixture between the aspirational and the actual, and where does hope lie?

It’s the specificness of the details in someone’s life that fascinates me, and how they see themselves in the world and how this translates into the daily real. What meal is their favourite? And why? The why is always key. What do they see or feel when they walk into a room? What are daily ‘rituals,’ or like Maira Kalman, favourite things? How we describe? This is also paramount. Our own personal take on it all, the way we put thoughts together to describe something fascinates me. That’s why when I make shows I am interested in the mix of a cast who can know enough about themselves to articulate this. Like the chairs in my house, it’s an eclectic mix I am keen on. 

What I learnt from Maira’s writing was the ability to tell this BIG story through seemingly (at first glance) unrelated details. As you are reading you are seeing and reading these details (sometimes just one sentence and a beautiful illustration on a page) but not trying to make ‘sense’ of it all…