Seven Deadly Sins New Year's Eve Launch Party

The Internationalists present

The Seven Deadly Sins

New Year's Eve

Launch Party

The Spoon Theatre

38 West 38th Street

(enter via 5th Avenue)

Monday, December 31st, 2007

9:00PM - 3:00AM

$35 in advance online

$50 cash only at the door

Free Booze - Music - Dancing - Roof Access

Lusty Kissing Booth - Massages for the Slothful -

Greedy Live Auction - Wrathful 'War' -

Envious Gift Exchange - Prideful Caricatures -

Gluttonous Chugging Contest

'Come and Embrace your Sins!'

RSVP at www.theinternationalists.org

Kurt Cobain Rehearsal

Esther and Taylor

John and Ryan

Peca and Ashley

Website

The Internationalists launch their new website.

www.theinternationalists.org

NY Meeting

So I've managed to book us a space on Monday, August 20th from 5:30-6:30pm EST at the TACT Studio, 900 Broadway (at 20th St.), Suite 905. Though Indy will have just left, Matteo and Ana will be in town. For those folks abroad, we will try to figure out some Skype solution. We will also have someone take notes and type them up for the blog. As we only have one hour before Matteo's workshop begins, please be on time. Look forward to seeing everyone.

Doug

Intersections

It didn't dawn on me until just this moment how ironic it was that Tamilla and I ran into each other at 5:30 in the morning last week at the airport, only to find some 45 minutes later that we were flying the same airline, to the same city, and sitting in the SAME ROW, NEXT to each other (Okay, we split the aisle, but that still counts, right?). We, of course, had different final destinations, but this was our arrangement to the halfway point of our respective trips. Strange coincidence: doesn't it have something to do with what we're trying to accomplish here? In this vast global society, our boundaries continually push further and further out, drawing each of us closer to our international companions, and stretching us further from our companions at home. It's at these rare intersections (Tamilla 34C, Jeremy 34D) (Hah, hah. Yeah, I already thought of that joke), that we are reminded that we A.) Have to take better advantage of our rare times together, to harness the spark of creation and benefit mutually from collective brainpower and emotional presence, and B.) Have to work on our global communicative strategies. I'm having a hell of time getting all of the performers in my permanent ensemble all together right now, and yet all of you are reading this, posting, and effectively making great strides in communication across many international borders.

And speaking of communication, I just read all of my gmail inbox. Haven't looked at it since I sent that email with that TERRIBLE idea of meeting at Grasroots. I logged into that account that day because I it's the only email account I could access on those dinosaur machines they had in the blogging room. I never check this account, though, and I've missed out on a lot of emails. Now I've read them all, though, and I'm back on track, and I'm really sorry that I haven't replied to any of these emails that I didn't get until now.

YOU: "Okay, is this guy ever going to get to the point?"

ME: "Yes. Here it is."

It's really great that so many of you are taking the initiative to go forth and talk to people about this and sell it. I think we all definitely need to be on the same page about what it is we're "selling," however. What I would like to hear us discuss, is the nature of this(these) first project(s) at 45 Bleecker, and Edinburgh(?). Doug listed COMMUNITY, EXCHANGE, AND COLLABORATION as three primary functions of this group. They all can work independently or together, and I'm interested in knowing what the function of all three will be. I think there's probably an exchange camp and a collaboration camp in this unique group of people (Everyone wants community), and I would like to make sure that everyone's needs get fulfilled. I guess I would like to open up the conversation on artistic content a little wider. We might have space and support. Now, what do we do with it?

It's already been noted that this is not a Theater Company, but a collective. I understand that, and agree full-heartedly with it. I do not think that that precludes us from artistic collaboration, however.

I'd like to propose, then, that the formation of a collaboration group begin, which over time creates a project that is then integrated into the overall scheme as an exchange project. What does everyone think about that, and who would be interested in participating in it?

I'll openly admit that I'm very inexperienced at founding/forming an official group, and more importantly, I'm really scared of it. Luckily, some of you are amazing at it (We all know who you are), and I'm very thankful for your work. That said, I'm very willing to work in whatever way is needed to make this thing go forward.

And yes, let's do this Skype conference. Except, let's not use skype, because only five people can be on a skype conference call at a time. I suggest that everyone get a username at stickam.com. I (Or someone) could set up a private session, and then we all could be invited into that room. That's the only way I can figure out getting 17 people in on a video (Or just audio) conference call (Oh, yes, it will be chaotic). Someone suggested sending in three possible times we could meet. Perhaps I'll just suggest first that we do it on a weekend day. It could start in the morning for west coast, early afternoon for east coast, evening for Europe, nighttime for Asia. August 4th or 5th?

-Jeremy

Email to Anne

Dear Internationalists,
I hope this voices our concerns and how Anne could possibly help us at this phase.
this is the email Pia and I have send to Anne.



Dear Anne,
Thank you again for the interest and support you have shown in our proposed collective. We shared your email with the group and have come to a mutual understanding about the next step in our development.

At the moment there are 17 of us committed to and excited about this venture. Whilst our time at the Lincoln Center was invaluable to get to know each other, we need the opportunity to build this core collective, understand each other’s work and crucially find a collaborative structure that will accommodate our goals
(establish an international network of venues and a community of collaborators) and enable an efficient method of working.
This seems to us like phase 1 in a multi-phased process.
There has been a group consensus that inviting others to join at this stage will complicate the decision making process. Our aim remains to incorporate many directors from around the world (thus continually expanding our venue network as well as our community) but we cannot achieve this until we have laid strong structural foundations. We see the growth of the group as part of the next phase.
Whilst we all agree that many of the questions you raised are fundamental and need addressing, our primary concern is how we can transform our idealistic visions into a practical functioning network.

Are you able to help us explore the different structural /management methods? Can you put us in touch with people who have experience in this area and will be able to illuminate different approaches?

One of the questions that you posed was the difference between communicating in cyberspace and real space. We are all agreed that whilst skype conferencing, blogs and emails are vital tools to our international collaboration there is an undeniable need to be able to interact in real space both as a group of directors and with our advisors.

Is there still potential for Lincoln Center to host our first phase, including inviting mentors and advisors?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts,

Athina and Pia (and the Internationalists)

Choosing the collaborative model

from Michel van der Aa

Dear friends,
Sorry to not have jumped in sooner but I was away for a bit.
I agree, the first thing we need to do is choose what kind of collaborative model we want to use. I don't think its a good idea to invite 50 more directors as Anne suggested. I would almost say the opposite, to make the group smaller rather than larger. It will be impossible to come to any sort of decision with 70 members.

During our Cooper Square meeting it became clear that everyone wants slightly different things. Maybe its a good idea to compare the list we made during that meeting and see where our interests overlap and take it from there? (Doug?) If I remember well there were two basic interests; some people wanted a very practical collaborative structure, to start an international theatre group and the other group was more interested in sharing the process of making theatre and to have a private bouncing board for idea's and practical work related problems.

Hope you are all well, love from Amsterdam
x Michel

thoughts on model

So some of you have heard me (already) toute the efficiencies and deplore the deficiencies of the co-operative system but overall I am in strong favor of this model as applicable to theatre organization. I feel that it may work well for us because A: it establishes a leadership team (Artistic Director and Associate Artistic Director) through votes as well as the other board posts (PR, accounting, etc) thereby aborting the weaknesses that arise from consensus operation and B: this leadership team is rotated through an organization by periodic re-voting and accountability to the mission statement. C: membership in the organization is confirmed by a certain number of hours contributed, i.e work on shows or in administration (one board member is in charge of keeping track of hours) and D: the co-operative model is trans national and not "commercial" in the American sense of corporate model. The board may be established for each production/project and need not be a timeline (monthly, yearly) post. In any case, that is my thought on organization...
P.S Dina and I couldn't wait and are collaborating on a project for November some time...we decided to jump first and ask questions later and are more than willing to be guinea pigs for the organization regarding how well this kind of idealism "plays" (ha ha) out.
P.P.S I will take time off to write grants if this is needed, I really truly believe in this with all my heart, and the mission statement thing is EXCELLENT in my opinion.
P.P.P.S I have a blog called the Panoply Theatrician if anyone wants to read a bit on the process of building a play called ORGANS/ORIGINS...that was a side note. (ASHLEY??? Are you back from Greece?)
Love, Esther

(Porno) Graphic

4 POINTS FOR DISCUSSION - from London

The blog is an extremely powerful tool in ensuring freedom of information, to ensure that everyone is aware of the processes at play and feels included. It is vital that important documents and drafts be shared by this medium. To this end, it would be beneficial for minutes to be taken of any meetings and for these to be made available on the blog. Not only will such minutes provide us with templates for running meetings (and highlight cultural differences in how they are managed?!) but they will ensure that when we speak for the rest of the group - we speak in the knowledge that we know what we are saying on each other's behalf. Sound possible? Work intensive I know, but everything is complicated by our distance...

It struck us in London that there seems to be some confusion over the nature of our group. We are not a theatre company but a collective. We are a community rather than a producing company. If this is not the case, then there are many, quite complicated issues to process. Where do we see the company as based? WIll we be following international company laws or the laws of the country in which the company has it's main base? How will that work for the other countries? This then goes into many issues of finance etc. which we can't ignore indefinitely...!

If we see ourselves as a community we will be able to stall those questions for a little while, although they probably do need answering. Like any community (or company) however, we still need to create the bylaws by which we can function. We need a means of creating those laws, and a means of making those laws accessible to the community. Without them, aren't we in danger of creating dictatorships?! (melodramatic analogy I know, but I hope that this makes sense!)

Which leads us to the first of our four suggested topics of conversation and questions to be solved:

1) Creating a management structure
- how as a group can we make decisions? Can we post ideas on this and start discussions on this?
Do we want to follow Anne's suggestion and invite more people to join or do people feel that we need to lay foundations first?
Is there worth in getting Anne to help us develop this management structure? Do we need help creating it?

2) Developing our mission statement
- this seems a crucial step in the conceptual phase of our process and necessary to have undertaken and canned before we proceed any further. Are we all on the same page on this? Are we agreed that our collective success and collaborations will bolster our individual success rather than the internationalists being predominantly a means for us to promote our individual work and agendas? Getting the right wording of our mission that meets our different cultural contextual needs is key to selling ourself internationally. How wonderful to present a paragraph of our vision and ideals to theatres and funders, that has been translated into all our languages, from Deutsch to Mandarin Chinese and that we all agree with? At present there is a working paragraph: "The internationalists was formed expressly to build a network of venues under one alliance in order to promote the exchange and collaboration of trans-continental theatrical ventures and to develop an international collective environment of new work across the globe." This was taken from the Ashley and the Esther's blog and reduced to one sentence by Tamilla. Not an easy task! Is it clear? Does it encapsulate us?

3) Branding ourselves.
- we need to choose how we market ourselves and to ensure that we are internationally attractive. This must involve international feedback on our ideas regarding -
1. Name of the company (Agree with Tamilla should basically be something that describes who we are and to which the consumer and donor community respond positively. Are we happy with Internationalists?)
2. Logo (needless to say having a visual symbol is advantageous. Symbols are important and powerful (and often have different cultural connotations). Should we be getting ideas and then finding graphic designers to develop them? - a global competition of sorts?
3. Press releases - we need to think about how we want to launch ourselves onto the global stage - how do we sell ourselves on a local and global stage? Again - there will be a need to tailor this to our specific countries and get local expertise - but it will be so much more powerful if the press is blitzed en mass. Also, how do we strategise the release of information to the press?

4) Can we start posting models of how productions are run and budgeted in our various countries? If we start to share our systems, we will have a clearer understanding of the collaborative possibilities. Additionally - if people have collaborative project ideas, perhaps it is time to start posting them?

It is necessary to have a more detailed and immediate conversation about these topics. Would everybody be able to arrange access to a skype conference call? If we each post 3 options of preferred dates and times and take it from there...?

Hoping that this is clear and sending much love (and reaffirming my joy and admiration!)
Missing NYC a whole whole lot on this rainy London morning and looking forward to hearing from you.

Pia and Athina
xxx

Anne's response

I will attempt to write another more informal paragraph following Anne's advice.
Please feel free to post further suggestions, comments or disagreements.
this is Anne's email to us:


Hi Athina
Thanks for sending this along
And it was great to meet with you and Tamilla
I also talked to Indy about this as well

Might I suggest you ask Tamilla to help you draft this excellent
proposal in a slightly more informal way - so it says something like

We, the dozen or more directors from abroad who came to the 2007
Directors Lab this summer, have been meeting and dreaming of making a
network across the globe of new work, made by young artists. Who are
we? How do we share our work? Do we have access to theater spaces? How
can we communicate in cyberspace and in real space? And how can we
begin to bring our realized work to other countries to play for new
audiences? We dream of setting up a new international network.

Anyone want to join our quest? Who are you? Where are you from? What
are your thoughts? What are your resources?

Signed,

Your names, your countries, your theaters


Jill and I can forward this to about 50-60 other international directors
-
We should think about making a new email group called The
Internationalists so you all can communicate - and we (who?) should
gather names and ideas and contact info...

Can you pass all this on to the others? You're welcome to use the
language I wrote above or of course amend or use your own. I would make
it a little more informal, and open the idea to the suggestions of
others....

Excellent work - look forward to hearing from you
anne

1 out of 22

I'm going to assume that everyone has had an opportunity to throw in their suggestions for a name. Unless anyone has any final submissions, I think we should put it to a vote and begin to narrow it down. - Doug

The World Theatre
Zeitgeist
The Internationalists
Transnational
International Theatre Alliance (ITA)
United Nations of Theatre (UNT)
Nowhaus
Outpost
International Directors Collective
TransL/Nation
The Transnational Directors Collective
ANTIC (Artist's International Theatre Institute for Collaboration)
Shared Space
Global Stage
Navigator
Expeditionists
Embedded Theatre
Global Stage Alliance
axis/allied
Interhuman Theater
Earth Theater Alliance
Global Performance Lab

Mission - work-in-progress

Dear all,

After lots of rewrites Pia and I have come to this paragraph:

The internationalists (working title)

Mission:

We are a community of international theatre makers looking to exchange theatrical currencies on a global stage.

Through broadening the exposure of both individually and collaboratively initiated work, we invite our audiences to enter an intercultural dialogue, expand personal and political perception and impact our creative processes. Building a network of venues under one alliance, we can offer one's theatre to another's community. By exploring means of linking artists, audiences and spaces, we want to ensure that an array of international work is readily accessible to audiences worldwide.

We have send this to Anne, since we need to get the ball rolling, but I made it clear this is a a work-in-progress. DON'T panic if you have further suggestions - things are flexible.

What we need to do is use this paragraph - or versions of this mission to attack HOME RESOURCES - find as much information as possible about international organisations/festivals/funding/network - anyone who can give us some information or is interested in helping us with our mission. GOOD LUCK! let the research begin!

xx

name/mission

From Jeremy Lydic

what's in a name?

allied/axis - A jolting name? Hmm, it definitely brings something specific to mind, but it's also a transparent reminder that the world is full of alliances between places that go to war, or at least are at odds, and yet coexist in harmony, discordant harmony, yes, but a necessary global harmony. Also, axis denotes 1.) the spinning of the earth, 2.) an intersection (between countries, artists, ideas, people, you get the idea), maybe I'll revise the name with a slight flip:

axis/allied - ahh, that's better.

humans
Interhuman Theater
Earth Theater Alliance
Golbal Performance Lab

I'm just riffing here, names are hard!

Mission Statement idea:
To create a microcosm of the international theater community in order to see and understand how our global art ecosystem works, and to take advantage of the benefits of golbalzation while striving to maintain global diversity.

I like the idea of a microcosm. It's like we're a reduction of the entire world theater community down to 10-20 people/companies, come together with a common understanding and desire to benefit from interglobal communication.

Sorry I can't be more succinct. I guess I'm just Process Oriented.

Quote o' the Day

We can no longer speak of ‘outsiders’. It once was possible for the ancients to say, “We are the chosen of God!” and to save all love and respect for themselves, projecting malice ‘out there’. That today is suicide. We have now to learn somehow to quench our hate and disdain through the operation of actual love, not a mere verbalization, but an actual experience of compassionate love, and with that fructify (to make fruitful or productive), simultaneously, both our neighbor’s life and our own.

Joseph Campbell
Comparative Mythologist
(1904-1987)

Embedded

Jake Witlen (New York)

In terms of names, I have been kicking around the idea of "The Embedded Theatre" for a long time and give it to the pile for consideration. It takes its name from the sense of "embedding" reporters in the field, and I think there's something nice about the inclusion of all inside of the form.

As our world gets smaller and smaller it becomes increasingly important to find the interconnectedness of us all. Through the ever present technology we share, what are the means and possibilities of morphing them into a theatrical event? What happens if an audience in New York and Berlin experience the same show, simultaneously, but the actors share scenes from across the pond? If we harness the power of internet/satellite hook ups, we allow audience members 3000 miles apart to share the same air, be together in more than just spirit. These connections bring us together, remind us that we all share the same space on this tiny planet, and survival is shared equally among all of us. The connections between people and culture becomes paramount in our new theatre, for as we grow closer together in spirit, our minds sometimes grow further and further apart. Theatre is a breeding ground for people to come together. It's time to come together and breathe the same air, share thoughts, and discover each other as we all are-- human.

Look at those Brains Storming

Early chat session at Cooper Square June 25th (pictures from Meghan)

More names & update on mission/vision paragraph

Athina Kasiou (London)

Hope everyone is doing well.

Pia and I have some more suggestions about names.
We have also been working on the paragraph... it is taking a lot of time but it will be up by this weekend. We have been taking things on the blog and trying to weave them into the paragraph so if you have any more thoughts express them in the next day or two.
kisses to all and this is our list:

SHARED SPACE
SHARED
GLOBAL STAGE

EXPEDITIONISTS
ALLIANCE
NAVIGATOR

C'est la personnalite qui conte!

"There is no such thing as 'National' art. There is only art. The art of the Hindus is of the same wonderful beauty of the art of the French Gothic artists because the spirit is the same. There is no patriotism in art - the whole of our destiny forms the flower of our work. Its beauty and its vitality depend on how we are nourishing the ground on which it is supposed to grow."

Antoine Bourdelle
French sculptor and teacher
(1861-1929)

What's in a Name?

So I'm putting this out there to start the nomination process. Here are some of the current suggestions for 'what we should call ourselves'. Please add to the comments section any of your ideas.
I think we should do it French election style. We vote once to narrow it down to 2 and then vote again to choose a winner.

Proposed 'Company' Names
The World Theatre
Zeitgeist
The Internationalists
Transnational
International Theatre Alliance (ITA)
United Nations of Theatre (UNT)
Nowhaus
Outpost
International Directors Collective
TransL/Nation
The Transnational Directors Collective
ANTIC (Artist's International Theatre Institute for Collaboration)

Deadlines

Due Friday, July 6th

1. Thoughts/ideas/comments about mission statement
2. Bios (long and short form)
3. Company Name proposals

At our second meeting, we discussed the difference between a vision statement and a mission statement. Essentially, the vision is the why (the dream, the plan, the goal, the statement of impossibility) and the mission is the how. As of right now, we divided our potential activities into three categories: 1. Community 2. Exchange 3. Collaboration. We are well on our way to accomplishing the first.

Here's another (by no means complete) list of things I heard.

Festivals
Home Sources
Union Issues
Reinvent the system
Find others who do this similar work
Think outside the box
By celebrating our diversity, we discover what unites us
Create a new global tradition
Destroy stereotypes
Shared audiences
'What's my culture now?'
Eliminate the 'other'
Theatre as a natural resource
Value - Trade
Cultivating a Global Community
Outposts
Satellites
Transnational
Theatrical Currency

What Theatre Means To Indy

Indy Lee (Hong Kong)

One day, I count what I get from my life, friendship, family, working partners, money, achievement, love, pain, enjoyment, suffering, learning, expression, connection, discovery, exploration, good time, bad time, loneliness, living overseas, struggle, surprise, realisation, awareness, self-esteem, care, ambitious, humble, respect, creativity, passion, openness, self-indulgent, myself....... all those things are from the 'place and space' - theatre, where I work/live/stay in.

I cannot deny, if there is no theatre, how come we could come together and make dream for the future? How come we could respect each others with those different point of views in one thing? Theatre is not only creating a better life for the future. It is a starting point for us to live for the future. We are not solving problem, we are creating problems here. You see, when we come together to talk about the 'collaboration', it is a problem. Why do those people have so much time and effort to do this 'less return but demanding' thing? Because we have not enough, all of us want to get more, know more and live more. I can use the lens of theatre to see the world. The world connected is not only by technology, but the life we live - theatre.

The most important point to me is if I only work in theatre for money, then this is not 'theatre' to me.

A few more questions...hoping to get to the root of our mission???

Esther Neff (New York)

Donald Kuspit argues that art has lost its aesthetic import and that "postart" (Alan Kaprow's term) values the banal over the enigmatic, the scatalogical over the sacred, and cleverness over creativity. Is this true? And if so, is this necessarily entropic? In terms of theatre, have we reached Blau's "vanishing point" where theatre and action are synonymous? Are we killing our own form by losing theatrical aesthetics?

Alexander Mitscherlich writes that art is "[a] scrap of critical freedom of thought against external pressure to conform and internal fear" to which Donald Kuspit adds "aesthetic experience is the momentary, personal, exhiliarating form of this fearless scrap[...]it transforms alienation into freedom and adversariness into criticality"

It is this last bit that perhaps speaks loudly to our mission: theatre must create an aesthetic "other space" from which we may view our own shared space with an analytic eye; International discourse provides us all additional political, cultural, and personal perspective and it makes immediate sense that a global theatre should emerge to make sure that theatre as an art form does not merge with didactic "postart" action and VANISH but instead evolve as an artistic study of human behavior and aesthetics...

Cooper Square

(Top Row L-R) Andy Vitolo, Karina Bes, Michel Van der Aa, Jeremy Lydic, Lauren Keating, Meghan Arnette (Middle Row L-R) Ashlet Kelly-Tata, Dina Keller, Doug Howe, Tess Jamias, Indy Lee (Bottom Row L-R) Esther Neff, Tamilla Woodard, Athina Kasiou

(not pictured) Ana Margineanu, Matteo Tarasco, Michel Melamed

It Begins

I know we were told in our playwriting workshops never to preface our comments, but screw it. I am going to do my best to recap what occurred today at the meeting. As I am not a professional stenographer, forgive me for paraphrasing (or totally missing) your points. Feel free to correct or comment on anything that you think needs to be clarified.

The List of What Doug Heard

COMMUNITY - EXCHANGE - COLLABORATION

New Digital Age
Back to Nostalgia
Moving, roaming community
Use technology to our advantage
Collaborate to investigate the individual
Publication
Centralized Organizer/Curator
Collect and compound information about influences
Time and Place for Shared Moment
Public and Private - History of Politeness
Exploration of/with language barriers
Spectacles that unify
Language
Commonality
Public vs. Private
Music is Language
Origins of Communication
Mythological Force
Same Theme, Different Countries
Music - unifying factor
Community Development
One play, different interpretations
Projects and Deadlines
Find/Share Communities
Exchange
Simultaneous Global Sharing
Commercial - think about the audience
Puppy Penguin
Artistic Feedback
Think Tank
Expansion of Audience (touring/interactive)
Collaboration after getting to know individuals and qualities
International Directors Lab - practical technique/styles
Simutaneous, same cast, digital
Gesture Investigation across cultures
Share Legends/Myths of Creation
Pick a story/play and explore different ways of telling it
Subjective vs. Social Identity
Myth - Religious Code
Icon, Index, Sign, Symbol
Commitments (own job, life, projects)
Common Resting Place/Retreat (once a year?)
Money
Combine Cultures
Multi-lingual medium - exploration of meaning itself
Apprentice/Assist/Co-Create with individuals
Expand audience
Simultaneous space/time - togetherness
Time - Rhythm of Life
Travel to other countries
Help each other to produce in our own countries
Info about each others shows - Knowledge
Specifics of Process
International Directors Community
Super Size - Insane Projects
Risk
EU Funding Program
Verschleppung (Telephone Game)
2 week retreat
Big Company flight miles
Monumental Ideas
Globalization of Theatre
Group Workshops (internal and external)
Web Cam Meetings
More questions than answers
Anne and Lab involvement
Touring model
Star Alliances
Promotional
Hopscotch

All State Cafe

Ana Margineanu

Doug Howe and Indy Lee

Michel Van der Aa and Athina Kasiou

One at a Time

Doug Howe (New York)

So to get things rolling, in an attempt to answer three of the most essential questions any theatre artists can ask, I will respond to them one by one, in as short and simple a way as possible. (Plus, it's already past midnight and I'm tired.)

#1 - What Theatre Means to Me

Simply put, theatre gives meaning to my life. I've never thought the question should be 'what is the meaning of life?', I think it should be 'what is the meaning in life?' I believe life itself is without meaning. It is us who bring meaning to it. Just being alive is the meaning. As Jung wrote, "Every carrier is charged with an individual destiny and destination, and the realization of this alone makes sense of life."

Theatre allows me to experience both life's pains and pleasures. It generates a sense of awe and wonder that propels us forward. Theatre turns spirit into matter, and in this communal act, these staged stories gives us clues that unite the forces within us. It builds a bridge between our intellectual consciousness and our intuitive subconscious. By creating theatre, I create myself.

Launch Pad

These are 3 questions posed by Indy Lee (Hong Kong) Sunday around 1 a.m. after a couple of beers at Bar Nine in Hell's Kitchen.

1. What does theatre mean to you?

2. Why do you use theatre to speak your voice?

3. What does theatre mean to your audience?

Hello

Bunã ziua
Olá
Ni hao
Ciao
Guten Tag
Bonjour
Hei
Hallo
Dobrý den
Nei Ho
Zdravei
Parev
Ahalan
Mirëdita
Shalom
Aloha
Namaste
Jó napot
Halo
Xin chào
Merhaba
Hej
Salaam