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Posted by DCA Theater on September 21, 2009 in July-December 2009 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Striding Lion Interarts Workshop

by Karen Louis, Pioneers co-director

When confronted with the change of circumstance, evidence and intent, true pioneers do not stop in order to move forward-they shift, adapt, contort and begin again in order to discover the familiar in the expanse of the future.  They bring with them the essentials of traditions, process, tools and each other.  So have we in our workshop of Directional Shifts, an introduction to our upcoming Night Roars Live Art series.  Our audience of third graders are now adults, some of our players have changed, the landscape has evolved into another challenge to conquer and understand in the quest explore, adapt, communicate and extend.

First item of business?  Leave.  Leave the space in order to explore what lays outside.  This is a variation of a mapping exercise I was given as a Interdisciplinary Arts grad student at Columbia College Chicago.  I sent the crew on their own journey to survey the atmosphere and forage a path based on a few simple rules:

1. Go outside and walk in one direction, senses completely open, city blinders off

2. When something catches you, change direction(ex. a color, a person wearing glasses, a horn honk, a street sign).  Set that thing as a rule, and follow the pattern of determining your path.

3. Chart your path by recording your journey physically, literally, or figuratively in order to create a map to share with the group.

4. Return with evidence of the journey. Sights, sounds, smells, patterns, observations, overwhelming senses, patterns.

This is one of my favorite exercises in my independent work.  Even in, or because of, the bustle of the city, it becomes a meditative practice, without taking itself too seriously.

Along the way-we found two lions!  Danielle Puterbaugh, one half of the dynamic duo, the Puterbaugh Sisters who has been on board with the Lions for Gerrymander(‘08) and Birdsongs(‘08, ‘09), serving as collaborator, muse, comic relief, and teaching artist.

and Renee Callahan, current managing director and company member since ‘04, when she came into the den with Ill Met By Moonlight, our adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and has been a collaborator, performer and dancer with every show since.  She has also has trained and performed in the Second City conservatory program, and is the certain glue of Striding Lion.

Upon return, we wrote,shared, wrote again, sketched, built, played,  layered, and…shifted…charting a path of patterns, associations and discoveries because it’s all part of experience. And it happened with laughter, awareness, motion and the desire to move forward.

Check out a snippet here!