Listening in depth to stories of real people is another thing entirely. In this retreat, by exploring the nature of the human energy field, we'll learn to "hear" each other with more than just ears and intellect. We'll listen with a greater richness and depth to tales - both real and imagined - that we will then begin to embody and express.
We'll use some simple theatre tools, as well as skills from storytelling and the healing arts, to take in and "perform" stories and energies that are different from our own. An actor's primary "research material," of course, is the great, complex fabric of human nature, the patterning of humor and pain, courage and weakness, light and shadow in each unique individual. Opening to this complexity in another's reality - not only with mind, but also with heart, body, spirit, and voice - is a way of stretching our own skins, of acknowledging and honoring in our very bones both our connections and our diversity.
Deborah invites us to approach performance as a spiritually healing
act, whether we've ever acted before or not. Through exercises, meditations,
discussion, and the creating and telling of stories, we'll play with the
idea of becoming, for a brief space, another being.
Deborah Lubar is an actor, writer, teacher, and practitioner of healing who focuses on the interface between spiritual healing and performance. Her one-woman shows have toured widely to critical acclaim. She has been on the faculties of Oberlin, Rutgers, and the California Institute of Integral Studies; she left her tenured position as professor of theatre at Smith College after 11 years to write, to travel widely to perform, and to teach healing through performance. She is writing a book called Acts of Courage: Performance, Spirit, and Heart. Her newest play, Naming the Days, was inspired by her trips to Bosnia where she worked with Bosnian women refugees after the war. It opened last year to rave reviews."So many people tell me `I don't have a story, ask someone else!' But you just start asking questions, and then you listen - and a few hours later, they say `Oh my God, I have a story!'" - Deborah Lubar