The Nightingale

• he is a fickle lover
• believes he is a true/best lover and knows everything about love
• he loves a rose. However, the rose never lasts for very long and does not care about the nightingale
• he is drugged with passion
• does not realize how much he's been cheated of love

The Valley of Annihilation

• "Here, all is nothing and nothing is all"
• "The world is drowned, those who know they're null/ Are submerged then dissolve in joy and peace"
• " impure/ Souls remain as stone and aloe, hard and bitter things,/ Vainly resisting existance's fate, they're insecure/ And opaque, no light shines in them, they cling/ To the hook of self"
• "those who submit and merge/ With the greater whole retain their beauty, purge/ Themselves so they are when they cease to be./ This the mind cannot hold no matter how it tries to see"

Main Idea: those who are impure will cling onto their bodies as their souls try to leave, those who are pure will let their souls leave their bodies to join a greater energy, pure souls will purge themselves when they die because they are gaining something greater than themselves, the mind cannot understand it

The Valley of Astonishment

• "Bewildered into this unseen world that's the sum/ Of low spirits"
• "fire does not warm, depression/ Is your qualification in this domain, no higher place/ Seems to open to you"
• "The Valley of Unity was grace:/ It taught you to forget all, emerge and dissolve./ You start from the depths where nothing is known/ Neither the inviolable middle nor the remote resolve/ Themselves in you. All sense of self has flown"

Main Ideas: Only love survives, you are unsure of what is in your heart but you want it to be read, you are lost in emotion

The Valley of Unity

• "In this valley all is broken into your sight/ Then restored again into the One"
• "Ten thousand heads from a single source/ Are raised"
• "But that confusing number rises from one force/ That makes ten thousand again, thus begun/ The whole you perceive becomes a multitude"

Main Ideas: everything is in one and one is in everything, this is a reference to the Simorgh, saying he is one, yet within all of us

The Valley of Detachment

• "When the soul and body join together to render/ The world a distance, a gaze of non-attachment"
• "In this valley nothing has value old or new"
• "If a thousand souls drowned in a mighty sea/ They would be but a flea despatched in a drop"

 Main Ideas: everything we see and know is nothing because there is a greater universe, you cannot take life for granted

The Valley of Understanding

• "Its origins as sure/ as a firefly in the marshy distance"
• "To see the Way you must work to become whole,/ Disperse inattention and sloth, avoid death/ Of spirit"

Main Ideas: Nothing is clear or easy to understand, once you understand you should not be self-obsessed because you cannot reach knowledge otherwise, you must focus

The Valley of Love

• "Love is not something to be borne./ To work out, to reasonably apply"
• "try to hear the cry/ Of a wolf baying at the candid moon/ And you shall sense the nature of love"
• "To love be transparent, ready to give all/ Or else you have none of love's flame"
• "You are ruled by your senses, a pall/ Of reason chokes your will to give/ Yourself whole"

Main Ideas: devoting yourself completely, reason prevents us from giving ourselves, you cannot feel love fully if you do not give your all, love can be too strong/destructive (compared to a raging fire) if you are too taken up by love, love is not easy

The Valley of the Quest

• "You shall be assaulted by pain and doubt"
• "Tidal waves of confusion, none will hear you shout"
• The only way to save your heart is to "bind/ Yourself to the search"

Main Ideas: Freeing yourself from mortal distractions, refining your soul to a more pure state by seeking to answer a Holy question that has no defined answer, reaching out of your comfort zones, facing extreme pains, confusion, not receiving any help

Here is a very useful video to help understand the TCOTB more clearly.

I will be abbreviating "The Conference of the Birds" as TCOTB

Another Set by Karl-Ernst Herrmann

The set for "Mignonne, alors voir si l'arrose.." performed in the Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels

More on Le Songe d'Une Nuit d'Ete

Please click this link to watch a related video

Le Songe d'Une Nuit d'Ete

Last night I had the privilege of seeing Le Songe d'Une Nuit d'Ete at the Theatre de la Porte Saint-Martin. The play is an adaptation of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and is in French. Although my French is not fluent at all, there were a few things I could take a way with me. However, I am a strange thinker so I will do this in lists.

THE SET:

• main colors were black, white, gray, and some brown
• a lot of the material was reflective
• there was a rising platform at the center and back of the stage
• the main shapes were circles (at least I noticed)

THE COSTUMES:

• the play was set in a 60's-70's time period
• main colors were black, white, brown, pink, red, blue and green
• the females wore go go boots and had their hair tied up tightly (mostly) and wore dresses from the fitting time period
• the men wore business suits or very colorful clothing

THE LIGHTING:

• it was very flashy during the choreography
• there were themes of colors
• it was used to mark specific spots the actors had to go to
• at one point it was used as lighting or magic striking Puck

Karl-Ernst Herrmann

Herrmann's Clemeza di Toto

I'll start by sharing some links I read first:

http://www.goethe.de/kue/the/bbr/bbr/hl/her/por/enindex.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jul/20/artists-artist-theatre-set-designers

IB Aspect: Acting

Alright, last year I helped with set for "Love's Labour's Lost" and therefore had two other aspects of Theatre left to explore.

This is the main reason I am acting in "The Conference of the Birds" this year. I am playing the roles of the Nightingale and an Old Man (Well, old lady). I have only played the role of "narrator" in previous plays, so this is somewhat of a big step for me.

Difficulties I am having so far:

• Keeping a voice I invented for a character
• Always remembering to move like a bird
• Being aware of how to read out my lines and in what tone

"No amount of skillful invenion can replace the essential element of imagination" - Edward Hopper

What comes to mind when I read this quote is that the best skill you have is your own imagination. Having the skill of invention may be useful, but what one does with that skill is also important. To me, skillful invention requires a bit of creativity and a lot of academic knowledge or common sense. However, imagination requires more. One has to be creative and be able to think of the impossible as entirely possible in any situation whatsoever. I actually have a difficult time with a quote like this because I mostly feel my answer more so than think it. I cannot always phrase it.