In a discussion at The Applied Improvisation Network [http://appliedimprov.ning.com/forum/topics/status-stress-and-social] on "Status stress and social structure" I contributed the following comment:

Every person, on-stage or off, should act to create the optimum environment for right relationship. I find it interesting that you write, "acting provides a safe fake world, a refuge ..." You go on to comment on how "real life colleagues ... have not chosen to enter/create."

Doesn't the whole concept of "status transactions" deal with perceived reality? Resolution of "status stress" is found in how one plays status oneself. If I insist on playing a certain status without regard to the other who is facing me, then I will find myself under more duress than if I am more willing to adjust my status to the other (Keith Johnstone makes this very clear in his book). Of course, one must be sensitive to the other, something those on the autistic spectrum find difficult.

Entries in an anarchist's journal

These are entries scribbled in the journal of the anarchist character I am playing in SS ELISABETH:

Whoever lays his hand on me

to govern me is a usurper

and a tyrant, and

I declare him my enemy!

Anarchy is ORDER!

To be GOVERNED is

to be watched, inspected, spied upon,

directed, law-driven, numbered,

regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated,

preached at, controlled, checked,

estimated, valued, censured,

commanded by creatures who

have neither the right nor

the wisdom nor the virtue to do so.

To be GOVERNED is

to be at every operation,

at every transaction noted, registered,

counted, taxed, stamped, measured, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished.

It is, under pretext of public utility,

and in the name of the general interest,

to be placed under contribution,

drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized,

extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed,

then, at the slightest resistence,

the first word of complaint,

to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed,

hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned,

judged, condemned, shot,

deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed,

and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored.

That is government; that is its justice;

that is its morality.

Property is theft!

destroy property!

take away task of production from proprietors

give to worker’s association

Let property wither away!

Marx infected us with Hegel

thought only of revolution

You must have a god, a religion, a dictatorship, a censorship, a hierarchy, distinctives and ranks.

For my part,

I deny your god,

your authority,

your sovereignty,

your judicial State,

and all your representative mystifications.

Government is

an association of men

who do violence to the rest of us!

They have made

a revolution without ideas.

Their movement is being drowned

under waves of argument.

There are no ideas in their heads.

There is anxiety but

the muddle is now inextricable.

They are a mob of lawyers and writers

each more ignorant than the others,

who squabble for power.

No place for me in all that.

Stupidity upon stupidity.

Governments are by their very nature incapable of revolution

– immobilist, conservative,

refractory to initiative,

counter-revolutionary.

Performing acts of anachronistic anarchism

I am presently preparing to play the part of an anarchist who is part of a group of survivors from catastrophe aboard the ship on which he had been the engineer. The production, SS ELISABETH: EXHIBITION OF LIVING HISTORICAL ARTIFACTS by Gerhardus, will take place at Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia on September 7 & 8. The SS Elisabeth was a small steamer hauling passengers and parcels from New England to the Carolinas – in 1870. Its battered crew, and traumatized passengers are on display in the Independence Seaport Museum. Through interaction and dialogue the audience will discover what happened before it sank.

SSelisabeth's Blog

sselisabeth.wordpress.com

PERFORMATIVE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE

The performance metaphor has significant potential for the revitalization of biblical interpretation.

Performative interpretation draws from the discipline of performance studies

to offer an integrative conceptualisation of the task of scriptural (and indeed theological) hermeneutics.

It is only in the practice of interpretation that theories of such can be developed.

Scripture is not as a constitution or lawbook, but as a place of encounter with God.

The orthodoxis dimension attends meaning; the orthopraxis dimension attends to practice.

The continental hermeneutical tradition is perhaps best summarised by Derrida:

In the beginning is hermeneutics.

With texts all we have is interpretation. There is no immediacy between interpreter and Scripture.

As James K. A. Smith, one of America’s foremost interpreters of continental hermeneutic theory, puts it,

Interpretation goes all the way down.

Interpretation is not a result of the fall, but part of God’s good creation.

It is this traditionedness that is denied in immediacy models, particularly in evangelical theology,

which proposes to read Scripture apart from the ‘distortion’ of presuppositions or biases

and which claims that ‘Scripture itself’ can stand over and correct our presuppositions.

There is neither a single nor infinite number of interpretations,

but a multiplicity, a set of well-read inter-related construals,

each requiring an act of faith to move beyond undecideability to interpretation.

This is not to be decried but celebrated as the gift of intersubjectivity given by God to creation.

The Trinity itself is the perfect interpretative community, sharing and receiving in pure love

and hence perfect comprehension.

Gianni Vattimo says it simply, ‘The Trinity is a hermeneutical structure par excellence.’

There are limits to and rules of interpretation, which bank this river of interpretation somewhat severely:

the text itself, cultures and languages, ethics, humility ...

But the limit — or better, the authoritative text/drama — is God revealed fully in Jesus of Nazareth,

‘in whom the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily’ (Col. 2:9).

The incarnation means that

a true, authoritative revelation of God is made in history, in our materiality and culture.

That is, the limits to our interpretation are the same limits taken upon God in kenosis.

Neither matter nor subjectivity... thwart God’s self-revelation.

What faculty does interpretation require?

If reason only means rationality, then this is insufficient.

The hegemony of cognitive knowing dominates Western tradition.

Given creation, incarnation, and resurrection, ‘a Christian epistemology accords equal status, if not primacy, to the senses and imagination.’

Scripture is a given, shaping orthopraxis and orthodoxis.

Tradition is interpretation, from creation to eschaton and beyond.

Reason is metonymy for the whole person

— embodied, sensate, cognitive, spiritual —

in a stance of self-aware, critical discernment.

The Spirit ceaselessly whispers

with the wounded polyphony of Babel and Pentecost

to the true Word of God, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.

Drama can provide the conceptual richness and robustness necessary to do justice to the whole person in community as interpreter and actor.

Drama also naturally incorporates ritual and liturgy, two quintessentially performative activities.

In theology and drama, the towering figure is the Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, in his monumental five-volume Theo-Drama ^(1973-1983). Recently, the evangelical theologian Kevin Vanhoozer has also argued for a similar approach.

Drama is ‘nothing less than the missing link between right belief (orthodoxy) and wise practice (orthopraxis).’

Drama is intrinsic to Scripture and theology, and not an imposed analogy.

This apologia is largely due to

the neglect of performative approaches to Scripture and theology,

thanks in no small part to

Augustine’s and Tertullian’s unhelpful disparagement of theatre.

Balthasar in fact spends 600 pages justifying such an approach,

which Aiden Nichols succinctly condenses into nine keywords:

incarnation,

history,

orthopraxis,

dialogue,

political theology,

eschatology,

structuralism,

role,

and freedom.

The ability of drama to combine praxis and meaning is also widely recognised by performance theorists.

The success or failure of performances, both secular or sacred,

can be considered in terms of

the authenticity of the actors and audience

and the degree of fusion between script, actors, and audience.

A successful performance conveys meaning and prompts appropriate action.

If love is the rule, then the ‘how’ of reading Scripture

together is as important as the ‘what’.

Scripture will thrive

as performative, liturgical, enacted, evocative dynamism

is experienced and embodied, interpreted and believed.

The challenge is to train faithful dissidents

who direct their congregations in the ‘public service’ of liturgy, for and before the world,

under the guidance of the Trinitarian God, together studying the Script(ures)

in order to stage faithful, innovative, local performances of God’s drama of reconciliation.

Christian interpretation is an embodied, communal event, taking place in and through Christian life and worship.

Christian communities comprehend the speech of God through and in their embodied lives.

The Bible has a surplus of significance for Christians. It contains the command to perform.

Habakkuk the Faithful Dissident: A Performative Hermeneutic for Anglicans in Australia

Matthew Anstey / St Mark’s Review, No. 203, November 2007 (2)

WHAT WOULD A PERFORMANCE OF THE GOSPEL OF MARK HAVE BEEN LIKE?

Scholars have long understood that

the texts we now know as the Gospels were read aloud in the Greco-Roman world,

but few have actually envisioned

what a performance of the Gospel of Mark would have been like in the first century

and how it would have shaped the experience of its audience.

Proclaiming the Gospel shows us.

Oral performances in the New Testament world were lively affairs.

In the performance of Greco-Roman theater,

readers lose their voices from the stress of emotional passages.

Audiences cheer for philosophers as if at a rock concert,

and in law courts, they are paid for their responses.

Storytellers compete for attention with jugglers,

and some speakers must fend off hostile crowds.

Congregations at churches and synagogues cheer as if at the theater.

Shiner reveals the ways that

Mark wrote his Gospel to compete in this arena

and how his audiences would have responded:

applause for the miracles of Jesus,

then an altogether different response at the cross.

Proclaiming the Gospel, First Century Performance of Mark. Trinity Press International, Harrisburg,PA.

Whitney T. Shiner, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Undergraduate Coordinator, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

Perfecting Performance: The need for rehearsal and direction

No one is born a lector; those who are selected to be lectors ought to be trained. If the lector is perform ministry to the glory of God, one will practice and seek out constructive criticism: “Was I loud enough; could you understand the text; was I reading in a tone that is good for my voice; did I read too quickly; what did I look like when I walked up …”

Voice Matters: Breath, Posture, Articulation, and other Physical Aspects of Reading

The English speaker normally uses three pitch levels, and a fourth for special emphasis:

1. The first level is the one which signals the statement has come to an end. If there is no difference between this ending level and the pitch level at which the speaker began the statement, it would be monotonous.

2. The second level is the normal level at which a speaker begins a statement. This is higher than the ending pitch.

3. For emphasis, a speaker, at a certain point in speaking, pitches the voice higher than the rest of the statement.

4. A fourth level of pitch will signal extra emphasis.

Starting to speak, one pitches the voice comfortably and goes on to complete the statement.

· MONOTONE:

Starting to speak, one pitches the voice comfortably and goes on to complete the statement.

· NORMAL w/emphasis:

Starting to ^speak, one ^pitch-es the voice ^comfortably and goes ^on to complete the state-_ment.

· NORMAL w/ extra emphasis:

Starting to ^speak, one ^pitch-es the voice ^comfortably and goes ^on to com-^plete the state-_ment.

Two other things to consider in terms of pitch:

inflection (which describes a pitch or glide within a particular sound)

and intonation (which refers to the pitch pattern of a sentence or longer unit of utterance).

Consider how the use of pauses, or phrasing, sets off units of discourse. The pause

· gives one a chance to breathe;

· gives the speaker time to consider the next phrase or sentence;

· gives the listener a brief moment to absorb what has been said;

· provides a clue to meaning.

It is best to speak conversationally when reading. This advice

· emphasizes the idea carriers rather than unimportant words;

· emphasizes the new idea or the contrast rather than the old idea;

· emphasizes causal or conditional relationships;

· emphasizes the main thought rather than parenthetical phrases.

Any word that can be omitted without significantly changing the meaning should not be stressed.

Consider articulation – moving the tongue, lips and teeth to precisely form sounds.

Try the saying the following phrase, increasing the speed each time while continuing to speak precisely as possible:

“The tip of the tongue, the lips, and the teeth.”

Projection is a function of both loudness (breath control using the diaphragm) and articulation.

· Breathe more from the diaphragm to force air through the vocal tract; pause often enough to breathe.

· Measure speech to avoid running sounds together.

· Concentrate on reaching listeners at the farthest reaches of the space.

Be alive to others when speaking! Look at those who are listening, letting eye contact cooperate in communication.

Identify with the characters being quoted and visualize what is taking place, projecting the experience to the listener.

Fully utilize all vocal and physical resources to bring to life that about which one is speaking.

Gordon C. Bennett’s Readers Theatre Comes to Church: A New Form of Christian Communication for Worship, Teaching & Evangelism

Giving Attention to Reading: The Lector as Minister

The lector is one who ministers to the congregation through the reading of Scripture. At one point in church history, the lector, or reader, was considered one of the minor orders in which persons were formally acknowledged for the exercise of gifts, or charismata, they possessed. Although reading is nowhere explicitly cited as one of the charismata, its exercise is as significant as preaching and teaching; we read in 1 Timothy 4:13: “Give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhorting, to teaching.”

Reading the Word of God aloud can bring blessing to the one who reads and to those who hear. How is such blessing brought about? It is first of all a gift of grace. Reading is a charismatic act when done in the context of true worship – that is, when words are read aloud in spirit and truth. A worshipful act of reading is no mere playback of recorded inspiration; prophetic reading breathes again the truth present in the text being read. This representation is a poetic act of mimesis which resounds with the breath of life. The Bible does not speak for itself; God has chosen to speak through the reading of His Word. God became incarnate in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh; so does the Church continue by the Spirit of Christ to be the Body of Christ to the world as each Christian in his or own person presents the Word of God uniquely, whether individually or with other Christians.

The reader becomes the letter of Christ written with the Spirit of the Living God when words of prophetic proclamation are processed through the whole person. The Great Commandment, to love the Lord God with all one’s heart, soul, and mind, and to love others as oneself, is to be applied to reading as much as to all things in life. Anything less than reading with one’s whole person, in loving submission to God and others, strangles the Spirit’s flow.

Competent charismatic reading prophesies life to those ready to hear the Word of the Lord. The Christian reader is a minister of the new covenant, not of letter but of spirit. The Spirit gives life – this then is the criterion by which prophetic reading is judged. Lifeless reading is a mocking impersonation of presenting the Gospel – still born words sound monotonously ineffective and reflect gloomingly off veiled and captive minds of hardened hearers. However, reading full of the Spirit is transformative – the image of God, figured in reading the Word of God, is set in one’s imagination as an example to be followed with others as faithful disciples of Christ.

Faith come from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Blessed is the one who reads aloud words of prophecy and blessed are those who hear.

TRUE TELLING, GOOD ACTING

Life lets one live mimetically and diegetically by way of one's imagination - at the moment one acts, one's conscience is at once considering one's action while ready to judge what was done and what is to be done next. This conscientious judgment may be considered the running narrative that accompanies contemporaneous conduct.

Mimesis is no mere copy of an idealized past but an effort to create an ideal present-to-come. Diegesis sets the conceptual framework within which mimesis acts, describing what is to be done.

Mimesis	Diegesis
(Greek `imitation' or `to copy')	(Greek `to narrate')
shows rather than tells, by means of action that is enacted.	the telling of the story by a narrator.
represents	reports
embodies	narrates
transforms	indicates
knows only a continuous present	looks back on a past

Doing is always present tense. Once something takes place, mimesis is necessarily replaced by diegesis. This is the dynamic of rehearsal – one considers what is to be done, one does it, then one discusses what was done so that it can be done again, whether the same way or better or perhaps just differently.

Discuss, do, discuss.

Perhaps this nexus of diegesis and mimesis is an aspect of love that lets two individuals act as one – the two hold in common an imaginative narrative that constrains each one's actions to follow a similar direction; one is constantly considering the other, doing what the other wills as well as one can. We learn to work with others in such a way that, given the intimacy of our relationship, we become aware of one another's non-verbal narrative that may not necessarily be explicitly expressed. We know one another well enough to have a good idea of what one another may very well be thinking.

Actors do this more easily when they have a script to follow and much rehearsal prior to performance. People do this when they have been working together over time – it defines a dynamic essential to teamwork.

Living the truth in love, as Scripture commands (Ephesians 4:15), demands that diegesis and mimesis be congruent; otherwise, one is in danger of hypocrisy – one does what is not consistent with what one thinks. We are called to be imitators of God (the Greek word behind imitators, mimetai, gives us our English word "mimic" or "actor"). However, we are admonished severely not to be hypocrites (the Greek word hypocrites also meaning actor).

Counter to how our current culture prizes effective presentation without regard to truth, Christians are called to do what is true - it is simple as that.

DISCUSSING DRAMA (a segment of conversation)

As an actor, I must insist that

we know Hamlet best through

an actor's portrayal of that character.

This is why I despise

"Drama as Literature";

one misses the essential element of "seeing" that is Theatre;

drama is doing, not merely reading!

And

whatever a human does, is done

in the context of relationship.

"It is not good for a man to be alone."

As Christians,

we have been made

a theatre to the world

to reveal Jesus Christ.

The call to become imitators of God

compels us

to act out our own portrayal of

the character of Christ

in the daily drama of life.

Personal preference for practicing with paracletal performers

I want to lead a troupe composed of performers willing to act while teaching others to act as well. The troupe will study theory, then collaborate in putting theory into practice. Although my personal theology will take priority for practice purposes of leadership, covenantal compromise for the sake of community will be highly valued. Open communication demands that any compromise must be examined closely. Right relationship always has highest priority.

[NOTE: I coined the adjective "paracletal" used in the title for this post. It is based the Greek term paraclete which can be translated "one called alongside another to help/counsel/comfort/advocate. My intention is that I will find other like-minded performers who will come alongside me in my own calling to do what I do myself.]

Sample story of STATUS

The Victorian political rivalry between

Benjamin Disraeli

and

William Gladstone

is legendary.

Once, coming from opposite directions,

the two met in a narrow alley.

It was clear that one of them

would have to step into the gutter

to let the other pass.

Gladstone drew himself up

and huffed

"I never step aside for scoundrels!"

Disraeli, with a sly smile,

stepped into the gutter

and replied

"I always do."

“Acquaintances become friends when they agree to play status games together.”

I recently post this quote of Keith Johnstone, from his book on IMPRO. When a friend inquired as to what it meant, I offered the following explanation:

Status games are behavioral transactions that take place whenever people come together. Some folk play high, others low; some are quite aware of where they stand, others just don't know. Strangers who meet while walking on the street will begin to size one another up and down, considering what is to be done next - the higher status person will manage to win one's own way, while the lower status one will yield.

Friends find it fun to play around with this. Neither cares which one is high or low; the only thing that matters is that both can continue to go to where they want to get. Like the auld Scottish song, "You take the high road and I'll take the low road - we'll both get to town anyway!"

Jesus was a master status player. He knew how to play low or high, depending on the one with whom he happened to be interacting. The Gospel invites us to join in on His game, playing it like He did. Consider Mary's Magnificent Song in which she declares:"He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble."

The hymn in the second chapter of Philippians tells us something similar in yet another way: "He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Leading into that hymn are these wise words: "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus .."

I have found this concept of playing status to be very fruitful for teaching theology and theatre. Actor who learn how to play status well become better actors; other people who learn to play status well can become better persons.

My friend than commented: “That all sounds very complicated to me. I am just me and I am just honest and try to love people unconditionally, which sometimes causes me to be hurt but to me that is a price worth paying most of the time. If I am hurt repeatedly then I simply retreat. There are some people who do not like honesty and turn away but to me that is their choice. I have been lied to in my life and that has hurt so I do not do that to others. I think I have grown up to have a simple brain!”

I responded:

Having grown up, you know better now how to be "just" you. You are mature enough to properly value the cost of right relationship - as you yourself posted in your note: to you, "that is a price worth paying most of the time."

Playing status properly, one considers one's own status in the context of the whole relationship with another. One does not strive to be higher or lower than another, merely with the other, letting the situation signal when certain status postures are called for (for example - high status tends to be more still, low status tends to stutter; high status is more open, low status is much more closed; high status may be bold, low status is probably hesitant; etc., etc., etc.).

Future posts will continue to discuss the concept of status, both on stage and off.