The Secret Art of the Performer

Once upon a time, I was in a bookstore in Harvard Square with my friend Cindy and she picked up a book and said to me, “This is the best book on theatre that I’ve ever read.”

And it was.

I had done musical summer stock a few years prior, and Cindy was in that company; and all of those performers seemed like die-hard musical theatre people. You know - Pippin, Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Miss Saigon, etc. So it was surprising to me that, not only was the book not a musical theatre book, but it wasn’t even about American theatre. It was an extraordinary compilation of essays and photos about world theatre by Eugenio Barba and Nicola Savarese.

The Secret Art of the Performer. You can buy it on Amazon.

I receive no royalties!

A completely chance occurrence brought this book to my attention and it changed my life. The mind reels.

Eugenio Barba in 2010
Photo courtesy of Odin Teatret and ISTA / Photo by Tommy Bay

I had heard the name Eugenio Barba, but I didn’t really know who he was. So I bought the book there and then. The book was about something called The International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA) which Barba ran. And - oh look! - they have symposiums. And - oh look! - anyone could apply to go to them. 

I had no idea what they did at ISTA, but if they produced this book, I wanted to be a part of it. Such was my inclination to run headlong into something with really no information.

I applied for the next session, which was to take place in Sweden, and I was accepted. So in May of 1995 I set out for Lövånger, Sweden, which was 130 miles south of the Arctic Circle.

One view of the arctic circle

Eugenio Barba, (who is Italian) assisted Grotowski in Poland for three years during Grotowski’s “Theatre of Productions” phase.

Jerzy Grotowski and Eugenio Barba in 1971
Photo courtesy of Odin Teatret and ISTA / Photo by Roald Pay

In 1964 Barba founded the Odin Teatret in Norway, and subsequently moved the theatre to Denmark, where it has been for the last 56 years. He founded ISTA in 1979.

Lövånger

The ISTA that I attended was held at a retreat in Lövånger, (the final five days in Umeå) which was extremely rural, with dorms for sleeping and several buildings for work. It was May and we were so far north that night never fell. Although it did get a little dim around 2 in the morning.

Other than the artistic staff (performers) and the scientific staff (scholars) there were 80 participants (who, like me, had applied to be there), and only four were from the US. Eugenio invited five performers (and their companies or musicians) from five different performing traditions:  

Sanjukta Panagrahi (Odissi Dance, India)

Kanichi hangawa (Nihon Buyo, Japan)

Thomas Leabhart (Decroux tradition, USA) 

I Made Djimat (Dance drama, Bali)

Augusto Omolú  (Candomblé tradition, Brazil). 

Sanjukta Panigrahi, Kanichi Hanayagi, Thomas Leabhart

I Made Djimat, Augusto Omolú

He also had his company actors from the Odin Theatre. There was over 100 attendees in total.

The sessions were conducted in English. And for those who spoke no English at all, there were translators.

Barba describes ISTA thus: “A multicultural network of performers and scholars giving life to an itinerant university whose main field of study is Theatre Anthropology.” The object is “the understanding of the fundamental principles which engender the performer's ‘presence’ or ‘scenic life’.”

Although each ISTA had a theme, the subject of every ISTA writ large is the question, “What do all performers have in common?” It is easy to see how a kabuki dancer and a mime and a Balinese performer are different. But how are they the same? This was Barba’s ongoing exploration and what constituted organizing ISTA sessions for 40 years. And his exploration is the subject of that book The Secret Art of the Performer.

Barba directing at an ISTA in 2005.
Photo courtesy of Odin Teatret and ISTA / Photo by Francesca Galli

So all of these master artists did performances for us. But also they did demonstrations and Eugenio would question them about everything having to do with their art form: How they trained, how they approached physicality, how they manifested their truth. And asked what in these five performance traditions was the same. The answer to that is what Eugenio calls “pre-expressivity.”

While there, Eugenio created a theatre piece which he called Theatrum Mundi, (Theatre of the World) where these five performers shared the stage and interacted with each other.

Theatrum Mundi

One of Eugenio’s actors told me that this was really liberating for some of these performers, as what Eugenio had them do is outside of their rigorous forms. (She actually said, “forbidden in their art.” That sounds much more dramatic…)

In addition to this work, the performers held master classes. And other participants shared their special knowledge. For example, Gennadi Bogdanov, a practitioner of Meyerhold’s biomechanics (and was trained by the man who trained Meyerhold’s original company!) gave demonstrations. 

I’d also like to point out that every one of the 80 participants was a seasoned theatre practitioner in some way. And this was not a situation where someone lectured, and you took notes. It was extremely invigorating to be in a roomful of artists, all with different backgrounds, who passionately argued and debated what theatre is, what performing is, and what art is.

In particular I remember the British director who said, remarkably, “I don’t go in much for truth.”

Fernando Tavianni pointed out that theatre has no scientific language. We just have jargon. For example, a word that we use all the time - like “energy” - has no agreed-upon definition. To make that point they asked everyone what the definition of energy was, as applied to theatre. Among the 40-odd responses were these:

Sanjukta: “I concentrate on spirituality, and it is manifested in the body.”

Augusto: “A change of impulses.”

Roberta Carreri: “A stream that goes through the body that I mold.”

Kanichi: “Love of dance.”

Iben Nagel Rasmussen: “Coming against a resistance.”

A Butoh Dancer: “The power from dead people.”

•••

ISTA was one of those experiences which changed the way I look at theatre. 

ISTA, Lövånger

Afterwards, we had a session where we were able to give feedback on the experience. There was a wide range of attitudes. But I’d like to quote one of the participants, with whom I pretty much agreed. She said:

“I lived through about three miracles a day here - and that’s what I came for.”