Proquest Dissertations

Distilling and Taming the Tiger Within. Research Paper for the play, The Bundle

Jack Grinhaus

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF FINE ARTS

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN THEATRE: ACTING YORK UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ONTARIO

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Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to use the role of Tiger from Edward Bond's play, 'The

Bundle', to explore my artistic challenge of 'Distillation' on which my thesis is based. Tiger is physically animalistic, monosyllabic in speech, and nearly devoid of thinking. His reactions are quick, passionate, truthful, and instinctual. His connection to his animal is exactly what I require within my own artistic challenge as I intend to work on connecting to the visceral organic actor animal in me. My Artistic challenge will be to tap into the body, externally and internally through the work, so that I can feel the world around me physically and allow the sensations to drop me deeper into the acting I do. This will hopefully yield organic release that can then guide my performance and/or rehearsal process. I realize that the intellectual work I do on a role is strong, possessing an abundance of training and knowledge in that arena of performance. But if I rely on that solely, I can come up with just that... an intellectual performance, devoid of moment to moment discovery and full body response.

In the working of my artistic challenge of Distillation, I found that the work was primarily needed during the rehearsal period. It was throughout that time that I desperately needed to fight against old bad habits so that a true distillation, not in the work, but through it, could occur. Once I allowed release and ease to effect my preparation and working process, things started to really happen. Tiger required a deep bottom to both his internal and external life and that only started to show itself when I was able to connect to my own animal through deep breathing and faith in simple connection and freedom from internal-outside eye. Once I began to work in this way the process opened up, leading to some growth towards and through the performance. V

To Lauren. For your inspiration and un-ending support vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statement of Artistic Challenge 1

Research:

Psychological and Sociological Factors 2

Tai Chi and Meditation... 6

Movement Workshops ...9

The Playwright 13

The Play 16

The Character 22

The Plan 25

Journal Entries ...31

Conclusion 44

Appendix A - Script Excerpt 51

Appendix B - Text Analysis 55

Works Cited 57 1

Statement of Artistic Challenge and Research

Distillation is my challenge. I have not been able to consistently settle my acting work into my whole being. This is a product of 'intellectual acting' which keeps the work at a surface level, and me making decisions on things too quickly, rather than allowing the work to settle deeply into me. As Howard Barker's book, The Theatre of

Catastrophe, puts it, theatre should be "a release from self rather than a moment of profound self-consciousness". My Artistic challenge will be to tap into the body, externally and internally through the work, so that I can feel the world around me physically and allow the sensations to drop me deeper into the acting I do. This will hopefully yield organic release that can then guide my performance and/or rehearsal process. I realize that the intellectual work I do on a role is strong, possessing an abundance of training and knowledge in that arena of performance. But if I rely on that solely, I can come up with just that... an intellectual performance, devoid of moment to moment discovery and full body response.

I have been told to: 'slow down your thoughts', 'allow the images to drop in',

'breathe deeper into the body', 'allow the work to drop into the body' and to 'take time for the work to germinate'. I had trouble assimilating these concepts for a number of years. What I next encountered was the fear that I would lose myself in 'slowing down.'

After a year of clarifying and exploring myself and my work, I now feel I have a better understanding of the issue. I believe the term that is most useful for me is not 'slowing down' but rather, 'dropping in'. 2

So the challenge, I believe, is to play against the habit. By forcing the work away from the 'safe zone area' of the mind and into the body, image and breath, I can evolve as a performer in a state of being I am currently unable to truly work in consistently.

Dropping in is the distillation. It is taking the time to allow for a full discovery to occur as the entire body system goes through the experience of every moment a character lives in.

(A great notion has been for me to allow the image of the text to drop into my body fully when spoken and then, sensing it drop into the audience, allowing it to then return to me to drop in once more before moving on to the next image or piece of text - Heather

Davies, Grad Director, and I came up with that one and it has helped.)

Distillation is my most pressing artistic challenge that may ultimately determine whether I am an actor who can evolve into a richer performer or not. This, in my view, is what I am going to attempt to figure out during the work on my thesis.

Research

Background: Psychological and Sociological Factors

The challenge stems from various sources. One of which is that my thoughts rush at such a high rate that I am unable, at times, to drop in or feel like I have the time to drop in. When I was young my parents took me to a therapist who told them I was 'hyper' and my father put me through army-like workouts to calm me down. In 1984 Attention

Deficit Disorder didn't have a name to it (Nor did it until 1994) and so 'hyper' was the best diagnosis one got. I searched and found a number of links between my own 3 personality and those of people possessing A.D.D. While doing a test from a book, I realized that many of my own traits fall into the category of people with this condition.

Some interesting links between A.D.D and my personality: 1) More tenacious and persistent than most people 2) More sentimental than many 3) Fidgety when having to sit

for a long time 4) Go off on tangents easily 5) Mind goes a mile a minute 6) Not only thinking outside the box but have trouble thinking inside the box 7) Offending people often without meaning to because filter on thoughts is not good 8) Family and friends complain you often interrupt before they are finished 9) Carry an anger and frustration that comes out at the drop of a hat.

These are just nine of the eighty nine questions, of the one hundred and twenty eight total questions, I answered yes to in a self assessment in Delivered from Distraction.

I followed this by setting up a series of appointments with specialist Dr. Spinztdel at the

York University Health Centre. During that time we realized that while I did possess many attributes related to it, I did not possess A.D.D or A.D.H.D but possibly an anxiety disorder. The chief difference between the two is that a person with A.D.D does not have too many thoughts going on but rather an inability to focus the mind on any thoughts at all.

Looking into types of anxieties, I found that they broke down into a number of categories. 1) Generalized anxiety disorder 2) Panic disorder 3) Social anxiety disorder

4) Specific phobias 5) Obsessive compulsive disorder 6) Post traumatic stress disorder. 4

Among the six mentioned only one seemed plausible. Generalized anxiety disorder is

described as being, "...characterizedby persistent and inappropriate anxiety, with motor

tension, autonomic hyperactivity, apprehension and vigilance'''' (Lader, 15). This may

have some effect on my behaviour and seems like something I may have adapted to over

time. Though as I continue this research I feel the issue is not likely due to a

psychological or chemical imbalance within my behaviour. From studying these disorders

there seems to be a physical reaction within each of them that coincides with the

psychological factors. These include dry mouth, heart palpitations, trembling, heavy

breathing, itching etc.... I have never experienced these things and thus believe my

artistic challenge is likely not related to a clinically diagnosed psychological imbalance as

of present study.

I started to look into my own past to see what possible sociological factors may

have contributed to my challenge. I recalled the first acting training I ever had at The

Second City Conservatory program. It was there I was taught improvisation and various

other stage etiquettes; which was a wonderful experience for me. I was quite young when

I took the conservatory (only 15 years old in my first two levels and graduated to the final

level six when I was 18). It was a highly nurturing environment and I gained a lot of

confidence there. I learned basic tenants of theatre during this training like listening, being alive in the moment, and not stealing focus. The main theory of the training was that, in the end, it was the scene that was most important and not the actor. Over time I

may have assimilated the concept, bastardised it, and perhaps unknowingly, convinced

myself that slowing down was an act of self indulgence and was 'bad form'. So I tended 5 to try to get through the story and not slow down. This may have had something to do with my moving quickly through various moments. I had created a sense of shame and guilt in regards to taking the time to let things drop in during performance or rehearsal. I believed that this was the wrong way to perform and began to really overlook moments that required more time to be spent on them. This habitual behaviour has likely contributed to my artistic challenge.

I also began to look outside of my own experiences; to other artists I related to or admired, to see if their challenges as artists were similar to mine. I was amazed to see that some of the people I had always felt an affinity with or admired - Anne Bancroft,

Beethoven, Terry Bradshaw, John Lennon, Dustin Hoffman, and Rodin - were all quick thinkers, very passionate, had explosive personas and minimal attention spans (all recently accused of having A.D.D). They all had trouble focusing and calming the fire within them. John Lennon, in particular, tried everything from Yoga, to heroine, to scream therapy. It caused many of them to work out ways around their quick thoughts. I found many of them had to re-train their own sense of working process to battle with the issues. In, Actors on Acting, Sam Waterston discusses his first tendency when getting a role:

It's something I wish I could avoid doing, but that I do automatically, and that is, I figure it out. (The role) Then I spend a long time correcting all the mistakes that I made by going ahead and figuring it out... this facile analysis... it's easy to figure things out, and it may be perfectly valid... without busting it open, without having it breathe. But you find out that you're wrong soon enough.... Finally, with all you've absorbed from what you've figured out and from what's been pouring into you during rehearsals, you achieve a third state-just doing it without thinking about it (Kalter, 149). 6

Tai Chi and Meditation

I began confronting my challenge practically by findingway s to drop into my body and out of my head. I started to take an interest in Meditation and Tai Chi; both geared toward centering the breath, clearing the mind and encompassing the sensations of becoming more connected to the body and the earth.

As a student of Martial Arts, with a Black Belt in Karate and Jui Jitsu, I realized early on that the work was rooted in health and self improvement; with forms and postures that encourage connection to the self and the universe around them by tapping into a greater power within. These forms and postures arose from the study of movements of various animals, one of which was the Tiger. (This will assist me tremendously while trying to inhabit that character)

When the monks of India first formed these postures they were primarily sitting postures that eventually began to move. The breathing and meditation began to fuse with the movements to create, still postures (Yoga), fast moving power postures (Karate, Kung

Fu etc....), and slower flowing postures (Tai Chi). The styles developed as these forms travelled throughout China, Japan, Thailand and Okinawa. Tai Chi is geared in:

...improving, and progressing toward the unlimited... and emphasizes the development of mental and physical ability, natural meditation, as well as natural body movements propelled by an internal energy which would be developed at a certain level of achievement (Waysun, 11). 7

Some call Tai Chi a form of moving meditation because focusing the mind solely on the movements of the form purportedly helps to bring about a state of mental calm and clarity. A term used in Tai Chi is "Zuo Wang,\ Zuo means to sit, while the character for

Wang is in two parts. The upper part means to lose or escape, while the lower means heart or mind. For the Chinese the heart was the source of the emotions. Zuo Wang, therefore, means to sit and escape the mind.

My classes at the CMAC Hasu Dojo in Toronto consisted of opening with the exercise, The Beijing Short set. This is a series of slow movements that are related to focusing on the energy and tension between the limbs of the body, thus disengaging the mind and living in the sensation. After the set is a prolonged meditation and stretching period, followed by some Monk Walking, Mountain Chi- Kung and Iron Shirt work. The exercises, though quite slow, require incredible focus as the tempo allows for far more intricate and detailed movements. As in some of the movement work of my first year at

York, the focus is in the breath connection, energy and detail of action. The mind cannot try to cloud the way with ideas. The meditation is much easier in this context as it is led and I can just focus on what is being spoken and follow direction, focusing on breath, body and sound.

Attempting to meditate on my own has been a far more daunting task. I have had trouble all year trying to keep it consistent. Meditation has been invaluable in helping many people find a sense of calmness and peace. In my case it allows the millions of 8

speeding thoughts to take a break while a deeper connection to my body begins to occur.

I am searching for, as my Sensei puts it, "The silence behind the thought". For:

In emptiness, forms are born. When one becomes empty of the assumptions, inferences, and judgements he has acquired over the years, he comes close to his original nature and is capable of conceiving original ideas and reacting freshly (Holmes, 16).

I started on a system of meditation from the book, The Power of Stillness, which

sets up a thirty day program that had each day attempting to find another 'way in' to meditation for beginners. One of the most effective ones for me arose from the first day's mediation, Thought webs -The importance of Focus. It comes with a post script, "You can't stop the birds from flying over your head but you can stop them from building a nest there." The exercise was simple. Sit for five minutes and repeat to myself, "I have thoughts but I am not my thoughts". I am still using that one the most. I connect to the breath and every time a thought comes in my head that is different than that one I allow it to be present and then try to go back to the exercise. In the last few weeks of doing this I have actually found moments when I am only in that statement and nowhere else.

Afterwards I feel very focused and relaxed. I believe this, over time, will be key in finding my still spot and very effective in helping to deal with my challenge.

The current fight I am dealing with is trying to not become frustrated when a thought occurs during meditation. A meditation guru said to me, "...make a deal with your thinking. 'Leave me alone for now and I'll check back with you later'. The secret here is that you are not trying to get rid of your thinking permanently, only temporarily. 9

You directly ask your thinking to leave you alone—to suspend judgment, gossip, and

commenting so you can meditate—and agree to get together afterward to listen to what

your thinking has to say." This is where I am currently in that process.

Movement Workshops

Developed by internationally acclaimed director, Tadashi Suzuki and the Suzuki

Company of Toga, the Suzuki Actor Training Method's principal concern is with

restoring the wholeness of the human body to the theatrical context and uncovering the

actor's innate expressive abilities. A rigorous physical discipline drawn from such diverse

influences as ballet, traditional Japanese and Greek theatre and martial arts, the training

seeks to heighten the actor's emotional and physical power and commitment to each

moment on the stage. Attention is on the lower body and a vocabulary of footwork,

sharpening the actor's breath control and concentration. As instructor Michael Greyeyes

asks, "Western civilization is always geared towards the psychological stakes in theatre.

But where are the physical stakes?"

The Viewpoints is a technique of improvisation that grew out of the post-modern dance world. It was first articulated by choreographer Mary Overlie who broke down the two dominant issues performers deal with - time and space - into six categories. She called her approach, the Six Viewpoints. Since that time, Artistic Director Anne Bogart and SITI Company have expanded her notions and adapted them for actors in the theatre by adding three more to make a total of Nine Physical Viewpoints for theatre. The 10

Viewpoints allow a group of actors to function together spontaneously and intuitively and to generate bold, theatrical work quickly. It develops flexibility, articulation, and strength in movement and makes ensemble playing really possible. Michael Greyeyes describes the purpose of The Viewpoints as a means to, ".. .find ways to remain present for longer periods of time."

Both these styles are geared to, primarily, allowing actors to escape their own heads and ideas about how things should be done and instead act truthfully and alive in the moment. They help working from the outside in and that is very beneficial for me.

The first workshop I took was with Volcano Theatre's Conservatory, taught by

Professor Michael Greyeyes. We spent mornings doing Suzuki training which consisted of squats, stomps, marches and walks. Each one of the exercises was detail heavy as well as physically exhausting. The amount of attention and focus required, as well as pure willpower, creates an animal like response in the body, totally devoid of mindful thinking. The work taps into the survival instinct and is athletic in its training methodology. Each class dealt with pushing the body to the threshold of its physical limitations in an effort to pull the true 'animal actor self out of the 'self conscious actor self. It is very powerful and invigorating work that drains the mind and body so the raw truth is all that remains.

The Viewpoints portion of the day, a four hour evening class, dealt with the nine

Viewpoints: 1) Spatial relationship 2) Tempo 3) Duration 4) Repetition 5) Shape 11

6) Gesture 7) Kinaesthetic Response 8) Architecture and 9) Topography. Each one of the

Viewpoints has its own qualities to work on that helps create impulsive and organic movements for the stage. These qualities force the work to arrive from the outside of the self rather than from the intellectual brain. By creating mini 'containers' and a clear vocabulary for the work, actors are relieved of the burden of'trying' to 'do' things because there are basic rules and structures to follow that help alleviate the un-natural need and tendency of western theatre actors to, 'be interesting'.

The second workshop I took was with founding SITI company members Anne

Bogart, Ellen Lauren and J. Ed Arazia. As this was the company that developed both these techniques, I was able to get a more rounded and comprehensive training regimen that was also advanced, as the process is one that is in constant development and therefore is at its most sophisticated in its most current instruction.

Ellen Lauren, who taught the Suzuki portion of the workshop, said that there were three things that needed to be present when training an actor. Those are: 1) breath 2) centre of gravity 3) energy. The training is a way to raise the standard of the actor, find out where the limitations are within and to measure these three areas of necessity within the actor. Ms. Lauren believes that there was a time when actors were considered specialists and there was a measure of standards that was lost in the last fifty years. By creating a method of teaching that challenges the body and the will, the Suzuki method attempts to separate the voice and the body to train them, independent of one another, to help the actor clarify and raise the standards within themselves. 12

I made some valuable discoveries in this workshop; as much of what I had been trying to comprehend intellectually was made clear to me physically. I have a great deal of trouble with needing to 'get things right' and that has hampered my training in the past because it kept me mentally struggling with succeeding with form over actual work.

During the workshop I had the opportunity to make a clear distinction between the

'conscious intellectual mind' and the 'conscious body mind'. This is to say that I had a successful series of moments where I was totally attentive of my body, in a physical

sense, and not in my mind about it; so much so that I had a profound loss of thought during a speaking period of the work. We were put through a series of rigorous basics followed by a long stomping period and culminating with a collapse to the floor and rise up from the ground using the whole core of the body. I struggled a great deal as we practiced this during the first part of the week. On the final day I fought hard through my mind and ego to concentrate solely on the work and pushing myself through the limitations of comprehension. The result was a full awareness of my body from within.

At that point I was asked to speak a pre-memorized text and though I know I did speak the text, I had no relationship to listening to the voice and can't recall what or how it was said.

While I, ideally, should have been able to concentrate fully on both, I felt successful in finallyhavin g a full concentration on the body with the exclusion of the mind. It was a freeing feeling that made me believe that I had made a breakthrough in the search within my artistic challenge. 13

After a laborious summer of study and practice, I felt that the culmination of the intellectual and physical understanding of the challenge has given me the confidence I need to find a way to work towards dealing with it within the context of a role in a play.

As Ellen Lauren said on the final day of the workshop, ".. .actors' problems never go away, you just find ways to identify them accept them and find ways to support the work with them."

The Playwright

Edward Bond was born on July 18th 1934 into a working class family in

Holloway, North London. As a child during World War II he experienced war first hand during the bombings of the German Luftwaffe, "...there was suddenly this enormous sort of bang which one can't describe... a noise almost inside of you. I went along to the park and saw all the trees stripped bare, and picked up this little bird with its head blown off

(Davis, 14).

He was evacuated to the countryside where this exposure to violence and terror of war shaped themes in his work. '7 write about violence as naturally as Jane Austin wrote about manners. Violence shapes and obsesses our society, and if we do not stop being violent we have no future... It would be amoral not to write about violence (Bond, 1988, iii). 14

After dropping out of school as a teen, Bond worked several odd jobs and when he returned from Vienna, where he had spent two years with the Allied Army of

Occupation, he began writing poems, short stories and plays. In 1958 he joined the first writers' group at the Royal Court Theatre (with a group that included Wole Soyinka and

Arnold Wesker) in London after submitting two poetic plays, The Fiery Tree and Klaxon in Atreus'Place. His first play, The Pope's Wedding, was produced in 1962. He wrote about his own existence and understanding of society from the perspective of a working class citizen.

The working class survived through self repression. They enforced it on each other by scorn and guilt. Both were used subtly because they had to do a lot of work... scorn gave satisfaction but at the same time it made for anger. You learnt to turn your need for freedom into defense of your prison... (today) ...mass culture is everyone's entitlement. Your prison is your fun place.... We take less care over meaning than any society in the past. (Davis, 5)

In 1965 he received his first major hit that established him as one of the foremost playwrights in Europe. Saved was a brutally honest portrayal of working class South

London teens, who, "...suppressed by a brutal economic system, have lost sight of their humanity and become immersed in promiscuity, co-dependence and murderous violence "

(Bowen, 1).

Controversy surrounded the play from the start. To show the apathetic nature of the youths, Bond wrote in a scene that showed the teens beating and stoning a baby to death in its carriage. The Lord Chamberlain's Office and its censorship act called the

'Theatres Act of 1843' sought to halt the play pending changes to the overall violent 15 nature of the piece. Bond refused to alter a word, claiming that removing this pivotal scene would alter the meaning of the play. The act and the censorship eventually collapsed as a result of the defiance and the play remained intact. The attention brought

Saved and Bond worldwide critical success.

His works continued to flourish over the years and the question of violence, politics and the brutalization of society formed the basis of many of his plays including

Narrow Road to the Deep North (1968), Black Mass (1970) and Passion (1971). In 1971 he composed an epic rewrite of Shakespeare's King Lear, simply entitled Lear.

Bond's first pieces were deemed 'question plays'. These plays questioned society and its structure. He then wrote two plays that explored the artist in society; Bingo (1974) and The Fool (1975). In 1976 Bingo won the Obie award as Best Off-Broadway play.

Bond followed his sequence of'question plays' with what he called two 'answer plays'

The Woman (1978) and The Bundle (1978), a revised version of Narrow Road to the

Deep North.

Bond continued to write various plays like At the Inland Sea (1995), in which a youth confronts the legacy of the holocaust; Eleven Vests (1997), on scholastic and military authoritarianism; and Have I None (2000), a futuristic parable.

A play may corrupt someone, but a good play has morally desirable effects. If someone will be corrupted anyway, one ought to risk corrupting him by a play if it is shown that other people benefit morally from the play (Stuart, ix). 16

The Play

The concept for The Bundle seems to have arrived from various sources. The first of which is Bond's own interests and obsessions with children in his works.

Children and childhood haunt our society and culture in a way that we seem increasingly ambiguous about, and Bond's career exploration of the dynamic triangle bounded by imagination and change has frequently invoked the child as a stimulus to explore that disturbing ambiguity (Davis, 11).

This interest in his works seems to have led him to various external sources. The first of which was likely from Britten's Opera Curlew River. Benjamin Britten had travelled to

Japan in 1956 and while there saw a Noh play called Sumidagawa (The Sumida River), written by Juro Motomusa. Britten was drawn to not only the stylistic nature of the piece but also its story of a Ferryman who encounters a madwoman looking for her lost son along the river. She boards his ferry heading from the West to the East and eventually finds the child's watery tomb and laments his loss.

Britten, who saw the play a number of times before he returned to England, began writing the Opera based on the play, initially keeping the Japanese medieval Buddhist settings of the original. He eventually decided the story would introduce Eastern concepts into the world of Western civilization and moved the story to the medieval fens of East

Anglia. The story became a parable for church performances.

Curlew River tells the story of a group of monks who are told by their Abbot that they are going to see a play. The play within the play tells the tale of a group of pilgrims who board a ferry to cross from the east side of the river to the west. As they leave a madwoman begs to join them in search of her lost child. The ferryman initially balks but 17 eventually allows her to join them. Along the way the ferryman tells the story of how a year earlier a Northman, accompanied by a young boy, was on his ferry and after they crossed the man abandoned the sickly child who was dying. The child's last request was to be remembered and buried in the water where he died. The woman realizes that this was her child and when the ferryman takes her to his grave the child's spirit rises and blesses his mother, curing her of her madness as a sign of God's love and mercy. The play within the play ends and the Abbot says to his monks. "... a miracle was made by prayer and gave to a woman with grief distraught. O praise our God that lifteth up the fallen, the lost, the least the hope he gives, and his grace that heals". Britten's opera premiered in London in 1964 and was no doubt one of the prime sources for the Bond play.

The next likely source was within the writings of the 17th century Japanese poet

Matsuo Basho, whose most well known work; The Narrow Road to the Deep North and other Travel Sketches must have had a significant effect on Bond's work. The legendary piece about a poet who travels North to find enlightenment, after escaping army duty, is one that is full of similar and specific scenes that are found in The Bundle. Almost near the very start Basho stumbles upon a child at the river's edge and decides to leave it there after feeding it a little:

How is it that this child has been reduced to this utter state of misery? Is it because of his mother who ignored him? Or because of his father who abandoned him? Alas, it seems that this child's undeserved suffering has been caused by something far greater and more massive- by what one might call the irresistible will of heaven. If it is so child, you must raise your voice to heaven, and I must pass on leaving you behind (Basho, 52). 18

This part of the story seems to be the starting point for Bond's first incarnation of the Bundle called The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Beyond the story itself, it would seem that Bond was also influenced by the stylization and political situation of Basho's journey piece. The poem is written in an advanced form of Haiku that Basho is credited with popularising and perfecting. This half story, half poetic style is done in episodic portions that are independent pieces that work also as a whole. The Bundle seems to have taken cue with its first act being written as series of independent scenes that work on their own, eventually fitting together when connected with the plot driven second act. As each of these scenes live as a singular event initially, they are quite similar to Basho's poems which exist on their own but seem to be a part of a larger moral structure as well.

The political situation during the time Basho wrote his major works, published in

1684, was of a feudal society. Basho lived during the Edo period, following a period of prosperity that saw the first westerners, the Portuguese, making contact with the east. In

1639, the Shogunate began the isolationist Sakoku (closed country) policy that spanned the two and a half centuries of tenuous political unity. The society under this rule lived,

...with a specialized military class occupying the higher levels in the social scale; an extreme subdivision of the rights of real property; a graded system of rights over land... and a dispersal of political authority amongst a hierarchy of persons who exercise in their own interest powers normally attributed to the state... (Ganshof, xv).

Bond's own periods of writing the play were differing and powerful. 1968 was a poignant time where revolution was happening all over the globe. Vietnam, assassinations to King and Kennedy and race riots challenged the Asian and American structures. Africa's countries were fightingfo r independence from colonial forces, and 19

Europe was seized by working class revolts and strikes in Paris, London and elsewhere.

Bond must have felt compelled to bring the Basho poem into the current mainstay of the time when he wrote and produced Narrow Road to the Deep North.

What he learned in 1968 must have applied and expanded when rewriting the story as The Bundle, in 1978. In that year Chile was taken over by Pinochet, the U.K found guilty of mistreatment of Irish prisoners, serial killers David Berkowitz, John

Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and the Hillside Strangler terrorized the U.S, wars in Zaire,

Angola, Rhodesia and the Middle East raged on, and Dominica, Tuvalu and the Solomon

Islands become independent of the UK.

Bond's Narrow Road to the Deep North was certainly a major source for The

Bundle. The play chronicles Basho's encountering and leaving a child at the river's edge.

Upon returning from the North he finds that the child has become the tyrant Shogo.

Basho then aligns himself with a group of Barbarians (represented by Christian British tribes) who help to overthrow the government. The play is a political parable much as

Britten's opera was a religious one. In the play the regime established by the tribes of the

English are run by the Commodore and his sister Georgina. As Basho quickly learns, this government is only worse off in their subversion. Says Georgina:

That's how I run the city. The missions and churches and bishops and magistrates and politicians and papers will tell the people they are sin and must be kept in order. If sin didn't exist it would be necessary to invent it. I learned all this from my Scottish nanny. She taught our Prime Minister, the Queen, the leader of the opposition and everyone else who matters... (Bond, 1968, 42). 20

The two plays vary in story as well as theme in various ways. As a political

parable to modern British society, Bond has linked the story of The Bundle closer to

Narrow Road the poem. Narrow Road the play was placed in medieval Japan while The

Bundle, like in Curlew River, is set against the backdrop of the English Fens.

Fenland (or the Fens) is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England.

The district covers around 500 kilometers of mostly agricultural land in the extremely flat

Fens. The Fenland economy has for years been built upon the farming and food related

industries. It is also where Edward Bond lives. Without artificial drainage and flood

protection, the Fens are liable to periodic flooding, particularly in winter, due to the

heavy load of water flowing down from the uplands and overflowing rivers. Some areas

of the Fens were historically permanently flooded creating small lakes, while others were

only flooded during periods of high water.

In Bond's Bundle it is likely that a combining of the 17th century Basho Japanese

tale and the Curlew River tale must have given him the impetus to use the periods as an

overlap to create either a story from another time in the past or one of a possible future

related to the place where he lives. As director Alan Dilworth presented to us, 'Last May,

I visited Edward Bond at his home in the fenlands of Cambridgeshire. It is a wet, damp,

cool place with deep green vegetation and a plethora of bird life. For me, both these

wetlands are places of great stillness, dank smells, unexpected pools of water, and have a

haunting, unsettling quality... I will use these qualities in the creation of the world of The

Bundle. The world of The Bundle I want to create is a dark, dirty, dank, foreboding place. 21

It is out of this darkness, in this theatrical world, that I want show that change, humanity and justice are possible.'

In The Bundle the river is presented as a character of change, possessing a biblical resonance to it. The fens and the water flooding in The Bundle take on a significant meaning, thematically, where they were hardly referenced in any way in Narrow Road.

As pitiable flood victims in a life threatening situation, the characters themselves feel relatively helpless; but through his gestic technique, Bond turns the experience of natural disaster into a comment upon it - showing how the characters own attitudes, however unwittingly, have determined their fate (Spencer, 133).

The Bundle also contrasts Narrow Road and other sources with the baby left by the waterside becoming Wang, who is the hero of the play, and not Shogo the tyrant as in

Narrow Road. It is much more episodic and runs closer to the story and style of Basho's journey book but remains ever present of British sensibility and behaviour. Many of the peasants and soldiers and even the ferryman are products of working class poor British society. There is a similar brutality to the presentation of the story but it is less comically placed as in the Narrow Road to the Deep North.

While the Narrow Road to the Deep North has a number of bumbling monks and then a spirited British army, The Bundle seems to have fused them together to create a band of thieves that assist Wang in starting his revolution. The idea of the bundle itself arrives in many forms as well. "It is a Bundle, a peasant means of carrying, protecting and controlling an infant" (Spencer, 133). 22

The bundle also represents the child saved at the beginning of the play, the child who is tossed back, the flood victims' livelihood and home in a bag, the bandit gang's loot and the Ferryman's body. And while the Narrow Road did touch on some of these issues

(when having peasants running for safety bringing their possessions with them in small bundles, as well as a parallel to the killing of Shogo's enemies by putting them in large

sacks and drowning them) The Bundle's update of the story takes it a step further:

As opposed to the river, the image of the bundle - created, shaped and cared for or destroyed by human hands- provides an appropriate title for the play's argument about human needs and the possibility for change. Because the bundle shifts in meaning according to its use... judging its value immediately involves the audience in the socially relevant issues of the play (Spencer, 135).

The Character: Tiger

The character of Tiger has a great deal of thematic importance to The Bundle.

There are subtle incarnations of him found in Narrow Road, with both the characters of the priests as well as the Commodore and his clan. Tiger is a fusion of many of these

characters. The priests are a group of bumbling men who are stuck in the middle of the changing society and waste their time with minimal tasks such as removing a pot from one of the heads of the priests who gets it stuck on him. They tend to follow the prevailing winds and switch to Christianity when things shift politically.

The bandit gang members in The Bundle are similar as they too waste their time until they are coaxed into change. The character of Commodore, the one Basho gets to help raise an army and defeat Shogo, is shown as a fool in some instances and a great 23 leader and warrior in others. He, like Tiger, uses simple sometimes monosyllabic language to express himself; using words like 'haw haw' and 'Chk Chk'. Tiger uses grunts and groans to speak as well, using the words 'Huh' and 'ha' for a range of meanings. I believe that, like Estuary and Ebonics, this is a chosen dialect that is the inside speaking style of his social circle. A social circle that he dominates.

Tiger's place in The Bundle is, at first, the leader of a roughneck bunch of thieves and then as revolutionary second in command in Wang's attempt to change society. He also becomes a pertinent extension of Wang's education in the play. While the Ferryman provides commonality and family values to Wang and Basho gives him a philosophical and class distinction education, Tiger provides Wang with the street smarts and animal strength of one from, "...the degraded human consequence of an oppressive regime"

(Spencer, 126). Thematically speaking, Tiger is the conduit for Wang's transformation from one portion of the play to the next. It is among Tiger's presence that Wang can begin to formulate his ideas of how to create change. In essence, Tiger represents not only loss but hope. His ability to grow and fight for his future is a testament to the possibility of man, even when already struck down by not only poverty but mutilation.

One final mention of Tiger comes in Narrow Road as Shogo says and foreshadows the later use of the character Tiger as one of the people who is lost in the fringes of society; "You think I am evil. I'm not. I'm the lesser of two evils. People are born in a Tiger's mouth. I snatch them out and some of them get caught on the teeth..."

(Bond, 1968,29). 24

Outwardly Tiger's behaviour is childlike and his language, which is always 'to the point' places his character as one that can be favourable to an audience. While in many cases a character like Tiger, a thief and a murderer, would be morally repugnant to an audience, Tiger's powerful story about how he lost his hand signals an act of great defiance and justice, even in its brutality:

Most importantly through voice, gesture, physical presence, and accompanying action, Tiger's story connects art to the primary life processes through which the self is produced... (his) very body turns out to be a narrative in which hunger, desire, justice, truth, pleasure, and storytelling are inseparable human drives and... not only represents the strength and energy necessary for revolutionary change, but has the literal imagination that puts Basho's vision of the world to the test (Spencer, 141).

Tiger is also hampered by an amputated right hand. Claiming it the result of an act of vengeance against a wealthy land owner who destroyed the society around him and his own personal life, Tiger is empowered through this loss due to the justice provided by squeezing the man's neck to death and losing his hand in defiance of the law. This act of violence is presented in a way that makes Tiger justified in his action. It gives him credibility as one of the hero's of the impending rebellion and the cost seems small to him in retrospect. He is later humiliated by the soldiers who refute his story with, "Tiger told a great story - how he lost his hand. A lie, of course. Lost it for pick-pocketing. No more stories" (Bond, 1978, 67). However, "...the soldiers effect on the 'truth value' of

Tiger's story is negligible, their actions evoking in the audience the same visceral response that lead to Tiger's original crime that arises from a sense of unjust violation"

(Spencer, 140). 25

In Edward Bond's early journals of his rewrites the character of Wang and Tiger seemed to be linked. Originally the two were one person who was a thief and eventually redeems himself by using his subversive nature to start a revolution. Eventually Bond decided that, "Tiger is a fool rogue- often laughing. But would he stab his best friend in the back if his worst enemy paid him to? He is certainly killed in the end- he is a Man- child' (Stuart, 167).

Tiger is someone who is a product of his society. He is a thief and a murderer, but he is this way out of necessity. He is impoverished and is clearly a product of the feudal society within the play, an easy allegory to Bond's view of the struggles of the working class in England. His story also shows us the enormous transformation of his character from one who possessed a home, garden and tree to who he is when we first meet him.

He is violent, destructive and in a constant state of insecure desperate behaviour. Yet he is honourable and when guided properly can use his talents for the good of man.

The Plan

Taking into account the requirements of the role and its importance to the play and based on the recent research I've done with regards to the artistic challenge and the role, I have outlined a series of ways to address the challenge within the role during the rehearsal period. 26

Since Tiger requires a significant physical form that is deeply connected to his

'animal', I intend to continue to work on the body in various ways to prepare myself for the play. I recently spent a day at the Zoo watching the tigers and noticing their physical patterns. One thing I realized was that the tiger as an animal rarely uses a great deal of muscle tension. This is a helpful thing to notice as I must find a way to move more supplely and allow the breath to truly guide the body. I will require finding more agility and gracefulness in my movements and must continue the movement work I have spent the summer working on. I will also attempt to develop a very specific character body that will utilize these traits as a means of connecting to the character.

I must also continue to keep working with Suzuki and Tai Chi in order to remain deeply connected to the breath and lower body in order to allow for the flexibility of movement and breath to exist once the rehearsal process begins. I have also begun to take

Limon Dance classes. Dealing with rising and falling action and gravity in movement, a major tenant of this modern dance style, Limon is an excellent way to connect to myself and assist me in finding Tiger's range of motion organically while not resorting to a locked physical form.

I must also be patient in allowing myself the time to really explore how the body can move in space, avoiding early or surface decisions about how the character should look in space. As a character with various physical ailments that change throughout the play, I'll need to really find the sensations with the remaining parts of my body. I must spend time finding ways to exist with only one hand, taking in the adjustments needed to 27 be made, to play that on the stage. The reality of his situation is that he is minus one hand and that could be the reason he needs to assert himself physically, as he likely finds himself inadequate and incomplete. Psychological effects can include anxiety symptoms such as stress symptoms, depression, grief, body image disturbances, and chronic pain:

Present at any given time can be an array of feelings such as shock, disbelief, anger, frustration, sadness, guilt, self-pity, revulsion, shame, hopelessness, helplessness, bitterness, grief, despair, depression, anxiety, fear, panic, and a sense of being overwhelmed (Winchell 80).

There is a noticeable change in personality when dealing with limb loss related to the Five Stages of Grieving. (1.Denial and Isolation 2.Anger 3. Bargaining 4.Depression

5. Acceptance.) During these stages it is common to :

...experience the inability to cope with everyday problems, feelings of resentment and/or lack of trust in others, general apathy towards life, and increased physical illness.... Some experience temporary 'personality changes' in response to their new stresses. For example, they may be more critical or demanding, more anxious, emotionally volatile, or more withdrawn... (Winchell 105).

Together the physical and emotional effects of the injury can have devastating occupational, social, and interpersonal consequences. The rehearsal process will need to include a detailed exploration of how to work with this added condition and within the context of the artistic challenge, not letting it bog me down in thought. Instead I'll strive to find a suitable physical exploration that organically allows for a smooth transition into physical sensation of this condition.

Finding the voice and freeing the stresses is another part of dropping into the role.

To really play truthfully I am going to have to have faith in the work I do during 28 rehearsal. This will be difficult as I will be playing out of my comfort zone and into an insecure place. Since my instinct is leading me to a growly voice, I'll need to stay away from becoming throaty and giving a false impression of this early idea. The artistic challenge is perfectly matched for this role because it requires nothing less than extraordinary patience and attention to detail, all things that force me to confront my artistic challenge of slowing down, focusing, and distilling within the work.

Another pitfall that I must deal with is that, in many ways, this role is perfectly suited for me... the old me. I have to resist the urge to use my old tricks to create the character while in rehearsal and in performance. I have played many characters that are like this, strong and funny and childlike. It is essential I do not inflict my initial 'ideas' of how the character 'should be' on the process. I have to permit these early ideas to exist but must let them go and not allow them to determine the work I do during the rehearsal process, thereby allowing for a real organic growth.

Preparation for the role will require, beyond the research of the play and character, comprehensive text work to help get to the psyche of Tiger. Among the writings I will be including in my prompt book will be text analysis. I will first find the

'character clues'. These are things in the script that the character says or has said about them. Then I will write out every line of the character and paraphrase and subtext it to truly learn the lines and not only memorise them. I have to make the words my own and the language one that is familiar to me. I will then add 'wants' and 'needs' to the lines as well as write out an extended biography of the character with whatever is given within 29 the play and the rest by imagination. Uta Hagen's 'six questions' exercise will also be utilized in my text work. I'll also likely employ 'Actions' to my lines. An action describes what it is I am doing to the other character using a particular line of text. This technique places a strong verb before a line as a way to influence the intention. I believe that this technique is very helpful because it places the action of the text on the scene partner and off of me. Within the text work I do I have to beware of playing at or jumping to conclusions. I have to be careful, now knowing where the role of Tiger fits in the play, of enforcing too many ideas on how the role should be played. What I have to be careful most of is to not getting locked into the text work I have done, to allow for a slower process to occur. This means taking bigger risks during the rehearsal period. The risks, however, must be linked to patience and discovery. This is to say that I have to really work hard on freeing my outside eye and also my natural tendency to decide on playable action too early. The role has many possible pitfalls that I can fall into. As mentioned before, Tiger is a funny and likeable character at times, I have to be careful not to play into the trap of figuring out what is funny and making it happen through intellectual decisions.

During the rehearsals I'll need to truly listen and play with every moment as it comes. I will also have to challenge myself to make new discoveries my first priority.

Tiger, as mentioned earlier is not only an animal but also a bit of a child. He has to be able to react instantly and truthfully at all times. Unlike me he does not complicate issues with contemplation. His reactions are instant and often irrational. I have to find that child in me that can react to things as if they were constantly new to me. Tiger is someone who 30 also has had a great deal of suffering in his life and deals with it not by wallowing in thought but with violent outbursts that are all rooted in visceral response. I need to therefore search for the deep visceral body reactions that come from truly playing within the moment and the work and sticking to active choices within the text work. Written intentions will be necessary for all of the text. This work will help me create safe parameters to experiment within whatever container and world is offered to me by the director and his vision.

With that in mind I will also attempt to find the moments in the play where Tiger acts 'without volition'. This is to say that there are in between moments that are unplanned and are purely reactionary, devoid of 'planned intention'. An example to clarify this could be when Tiger wakes from unconsciousness after being struck over the head by Wang. When he realizes that he has been hit he rushes around to find a knife to kill Wang with. This is a sensation reaction. They are ones that are likened to the

Viewpoint of Kinaesthetic Response. Tiger is free of protective blocks that I personally would think my way through. I'll have to play within the rehearsal process to truly find out when these moments occur and how to distinguish between the ones that are premeditated intentions and which are acted upon without volition.

My warm up for every rehearsal will employ many of the voice and movement exercises I now know will help me prepare for tackling both the challenge and the role.

They will all be geared in helping me reach an authenticity in my performance and grounding in both the body and psyche of the role so I can play truthfully. With that in 31 place I will just have to be confident enough to sit in the unknown and really let the work come to me organically while allowing the text work to influence but not guide the rehearsal period. This will hopefully help me achieve the process of a genuine distillation of the work.

The work I spent the summer doing was all geared at getting connected to the physical being and the breath, getting out of the head, and slowing down the thoughts; thus allowing for real organic connection to a role that is not made on quick bright decisions that ultimately, right or wrong, keep the work at a surface level. Tiger forces me to take the time to find the whole of his being, physically and mentally, through what

I believe will be a long process of real organic osmosis of the character. There is no other way to find this role. That is why the challenge within this particular role is the one best suited for me.

Artistic Challenge Process Journal

Jan 2nd -1 was walking down the street and began to see if I could feel the breath as I walked. I also began to get a slight pain in my leg. I tried to hold onto that and the breath. I then tried to feel my feet touching the ground as I walked. I found it very difficult to balance even two of these things at once. I was also running my lines (always now in a whisper so as not to make judgments while listening to the sound of my voice.)

While I tried to use the text by indulging in the words that had exclamation points to them

(an exercise Allen had done with me) I also began to remember the argument and tried to 32

allow that to also guide me. I took a leap of faith and attempted to feel sensation around

my body. As mentioned yesterday, it was difficult to have a number of sensations

occurring at once. However, I did feel that by giving myself these many balls to juggle I was no longer in my head making decisions about how the next line would occur. Not knowing or caring whether what I was doing was successful or not was a freeing feeling.

Feb 8th - Had a warm up class with Voice Professor David Smukler. I got really

shaken up. I realized that while I had been working opposite to how I am used to working

I have become, understandably, insecure. The outside eye that looms and lets me know how I am doing is unable to work and process information during and after rehearsal.

While this is a breakthrough, and while I am working hard not to judge that, I am becoming insecure because I am unable to gauge the work I am doing. I have given myself many balls to juggle with - State of being, focusing on the others, character body, using the text - and am not playing any of my homework. But being in the moment is so distracting to the judging eye that it is unable to do the work it used to do so well. David told me this is a good thing but it does make me feel awkward and unsafe at times. I think this is a place I should be in right now. I think I am beginning to physically drop in. I could feel the sensation of the raspiness of my voice while working today. I was not listening to it but rather feeling it and observing it. It was frightening. I am just trying to sit in the faith I have in the process. I feel sometimes drastically unprepared, as my tendency is to go to rehearsal with everything ready. I am letting go more and just playing with what I am being given at rehearsal and not forcing anything. It's scary as hell. 33

Feb 12th - Major issues at rehearsal. I don't know where to begin. I was completely wiped out after working the first 'bandit' scene. I worked out earlier today and really began to work physiologically, particularly when working with character body work. I was exhausted as I tried to keep up the stamina needed to hold onto all the things

I was working with. Something interesting. I was asked by Alan to work a line a different way than I had been working it. What was interesting was that the way he wanted it worked was how I had envisioned it when I had originally read it. But rather than go with my original 'ideas' and play them I avoided the choice and tried to allow for a more organic working process. So when I finally was advised to go there it flowed out of me less planned and grounded in the process I had been working to date. My initial choices have tended to be right in the past but that is the director part of me that judges them worthy of keeping rather than finding organically. I always wanted to make the choices earlier and arrive at rehearsal prepared with the right ones. Here I found myself in a situation where I came to the choice through exploration in rehearsal not at home through text work. It is hard to trust that things will fall into place that way but... in this case it did. I was all shaken and confused at the end of the scene work and while Alan wanted me to write down all the notes I was incapable of doing that at that point because I was hitting off in so many places other than my head.

Feb 24th - Today was an exciting and new day. We started to work with relationship to the audience. Tiger, according to Alan, begins to see the audience by the end of the first act. And when I say 'sees the audience' I mean takes them into the world of the play. I am still not quite clear how to do that or who they are to me. It's just 34 another element of this world and I am not trying to think about it too much. Rather I am just going to do what I have been doing and that is taking in everything that is thrown at me and playing with it. After the other night and the breakthrough I made after being exhausted (In the afternoon we did a fight call. It was exhausting but when I was finally on my last breath I found some beautiful new moments. I don't know if I can repeat them.

I am frustrated by that... not by my fear of whether I can repeat the action but rather of my ability to be that deeply immersed and dropped in. It gave me a freedom to play that I hadn't had before) I realized that I had started to make some final choices on some things and decided to let that go and just keep exploring. So when new information is thrown at me I just use that as my main target for the next run at it. That way I have something fresh to play with and eventually will find out how to juggle all the balls simultaneously or at least as many as I can. But trying to find out the relationship to the audience is certainly something I shouldn't have thought was so difficult. But it is in the context of the piece, the piece which by the way is a monster of depth and tension. I have to stay out of my jaw and throat. I am still making sure that I can hold breath as much as possible while working and exploring. Now that the text seems strong and the blocking and character work is in place I feel free to explore and run around the world freely. This is very new to me. I usually lock things down sooner and just try to connect with my scene partners. Here and this way forces me to do that and keep playing with the other things. It also helps me to feel free to do things I feel do not sound good because the more I get used to allowing myself to fall by the wayside the less I am bothered and judging myself. 35

Feb 25th - Jaw, Jaw, Jaw. Breath, Breath, breath. Patience, Patience, Patience.

Calm , Calm, Calm. Let it go! Not a good day. A struggle. Frustrated with lack of deep breathing.

I came to realize that an obstacle to me dropping in is my limited ability to release. This is what is hindering my work and causing me stress and pain and blockage. I need to double my release efforts. Lie on the floor. Let the body fall. Try to scan and feel.

I also realized that the distillation in rehearsal itself requires two major components.

Ramping up and Releasing. My ability to do the former is what I can do easily and quite well. It's the second piece of the puzzle which is what inherently drops me deeply in and provides the "swing" to occur. I have to also release after rehearsal.

Today, because of my injury I dealt with breath and really taking it in, even allowing that to guide my whole performance. I think I'm on the right track but am frustrated by my inability to just do it. It is the real challenge and is driving me nuts. Not sure if I'll be able to get it where it needs to be (whatever that means!!) by opening and am worried that my safety mechanism will jump into high gear and (give me the impression) save me. Should I risk continued exploration or try to lock things down?

Only a week to go and I'm not getting the impression I am succeeding (but then again it's not necessarily my business to judge that) from my director. I am doing more release work and hoping things happen. I should just trust the work that I have been doing is there. My last scene seemed to feel freer and more organic in discovery. Also had an 36 emotional moment afterwards; feeling effected by the work, right or wrong. It was hard work breathing. Really hard. I need some guidance and encouragement now!!

Feb 28th - Blown out back. Weak and tired. We did notes for most of the day and then had a long, long lunch. Alan went out of town and Movement Professor Erika

Batdorf came in to work with us. I was infuriated during the rehearsal as I felt I was being directed by Erika and not in a similar way to what I was getting from Alan. I had already been confused once before when fight director Simon Fon also did some directing and now I felt that I was getting things from various sources and didn't know what to do. All the work I had done to date felt redundant when she started directing the scene. It became about issues never really discussed and relationships not in line with the work to date. I was being told that I was in-authentic, that I should drop the character body work I had spent months working on, and change the entire direction of the character and all my intentions that I had spent almost a year working on!! I was angry. I was reluctant. At one point I really believed that Erika was trying to push my buttons to make me angry so I could drop deeper into the role and I didn't like the manipulation. And I couldn't even breathe. I felt so lost. I was frustrated. I was angry and with a week to go before opening I found it really unfair.

When I calmed down I also came to realize some things. I have a great deal of trouble releasing into my body. In fact this is likely the key to my artistic challenge. It is also why I was injured. I realize that ramping up is very easy for me. Tension is no problem. But I have to find the other side. As Erika said I have to go up to go down and 37 down to go up. Tiger is deeper in the body and in the breath. I do believe in the power of release and power through calm. Tiger became more calculating in the scene, which at first glance seems inappropriate and yet can work in certain circumstances. And yet I am tired of being guided into areas of confusion and having people, here at the university, believing that this is a good place for me to sit in. That's bullshit. I know my art. I know my process and have been working what I have been taught. I am fighting this challenge and it is not fun. I miss enjoying acting. And I don't think the work I am doing is any good and, worse yet, I cannot tell and have no indication that I am moving in the right direction. I also don't like the manipulation. By frustrating and angering me I do not feel more connected to the work. There is something to be said about 'imagination'. When we were children we did not personalize the work or emotionally connect via thoughts of dead family members or memories of the like and yet we were fully dropped in. There are other ways in and they are authentic. I feel like I have lost Tiger. I have no problem breathing down the work and trying new things but they must still be rooted in the play's life.

March 2nd - The distillation within the process is currently about release. I have sacrificed any pushing out of images and thoughts in favour of simple releasing down and allowing that to guide the thoughts. The challenge is to release and connect. I have been living in the image life and have been actively being a part of that life. So over the last little while I have been physicalizing my origin speech. Alan wants me to lose that for now as he believes that all the movement disconnects me. The need is through the voice. 38

I feel really slow. My inner director is watching me and I am more aware of this now than

I have ever been and it is driving me crazy. I feel monotone and lazy and boring and have to focus myself away from this insecurity if I have any hope of moving past it. And

apparently it is working. I came to rehearsal and did a full release warm up today. Even

listening to Miles Davis instead of Rage Against the Machine. Tried to drop deeper and

slow down. But I am confused and frightened of failure. I have to not concern myself

with feeling too slow. More doing and not showing. Why am I afraid of how I look? I

preach to my students to value of failure during exploration. How a great songwriter writes thousands of bad songs and painters burn hundreds of canvases while actors die

every moment they are not perfect and the irrational nature of that. And yet here I am....

Why do I feel I need to apologize to others for taking my time during my speeches? In

my head it sounds so indulgent. The monologue is Tiger's origin and there are various moments of transformation within and I need to find them each specifically. I

I talked to Wes Conner (Fellow MFA and Movement coach) and we came up with a warm up routine that would suit me best. We agreed that a full release only warm up will not help because I still need to awaken the muscles. So I start first by firing up the cardio

and muscles, working the way I am most comfortable and with what I am tuned easily

and quickly into. The second half of the warm up I'll do the release work. I tried it for the

first act run we did today. It felt good but I didn't really judge it. I really just tried to breathe and serve the text and connect and then work... simply.

I need to stop staying locked in moments. It also seems like I am more direct able now or as I once deemed it 'needs direction'. That is to say that I once thought that only 39 bad actors needed direction, or something stupid like that. I just didn't want to be a burden in a show. I wanted to show up and be the actor who didn't slow the production down. Yet now all my moments are being scrutinized and while I may have in past been totally insecure about it, I now find myself enjoying and agreeing with it. Alan busts me, but always in the right places. They are unclear and thus are being played, albeit very well, but not organic. I still have to find the middle.

March 3rd - Today was a very valuable day. We worked on internal connection to the river and Wes guided us on an exploration. It started well, especially when I let my imagination and body run wild. But then it dropped into a worse place. He had us carrying the bundles across the stage as if we were slaves carrying cinder blocks. My grandfather, Samuel Grinhaus, was in Auschwitz during the Second World War and one of the stories he told before he died was that he was once forced by the Nazis to carry cinder blocks across a bridge. A number of the prisoners were told to do this. They were barefoot and it was freezing. Under the bridge were soldiers with guns. If any of the prisoners showed fatigue, stopped working or dropped the cinder blocks, they were shot.

My grandfather had people being shot around him constantly. He did this for days. I fell apart because the images came to me. I really don't enjoy this type of work. I see its value but it is not good for me, psychologically. It is not a release and regardless if it assists in getting me kinaesthetically firing off I still don't feel good about it.

We did a run and I really tried to serve the work. My warm up was a build up and a long release, followed by more breath, image and voice work. We had a small audience 40 to play off of but I thankfully did not go into a 'performance mode'. I played with some new things and explored new possibilities I had not pre-conceived, by allowing the simple ease and connection to guide the action and lead to discoveries. Letting go of earlier pre-conceived notions was harder than expected. But I am coming to realize that I can't truly know who the character is until I live through his journey and make all the choices, right or wrong, that he makes as they occur. My concerns, I've come to realize, are directorial and superficial. I just need to find a way to make some of my previous skills work with the new work. Though I am not sure how they fit in yet. The key is the breath. I am taking more time and not feeling guilty if it feels like it is taking longer than needed. This is a big step; being able to let go of the guilt, shame and embarrassment of watching myself and judging what it is I am doing. I just have to have faith in my director and trust all the work is embedded in me so I can continue to play in this unknown territory with confidence, rather than fear, and frustration. Thought of the concept of

'pulling back' as 'pulling down'. Alan thought it interesting I used the term 'pulling' rather than 'releasing'. But we both agreed that anything that helped me define the opposite if 'pushing' is a good step forward. I've given myself permission to work this way. Not fighting any more. I'll just live in uncertainty for a while. Confusion can be a good thing.

March 8th - Vocal commitment must equal physical and emotional world. David

Smukler came to the show and afterwards exclaimed that this play requires a heightened vocal energy and that he was not getting that from many of the actors, me included. This is shocking because not having vocal energy is one of the last things I would ever expect 41 to be accused of. While the dress rehearsal was all about ease this preview was all about attack and release. So I allowed for more physical energy to return but still held onto simple release and ease vocally. I think I was just afraid that raising the vocal energy would force me to ride high and push. Must connect to the gut and trust that it is there now. Attack was really good, though. Claire was ill and Mariel our AD stepped in and did a bang up job. But it required a heightened focus to help her get through. It helped me with the ease and breath by keeping me in the moment for longer periods of time.

Mar 10th - Opening night. Tonight I just let go. Alan met with me earlier and told me to just allow for all my vocal energy to return. We joked how in some ways we had come full circle. But, as Alan said, 'now it's real'.

A fire alarm delayed the opening. We were all carted off ten minutes before we were to go on. They shuffled us over to the TEL building. While many joked and chatted

I sat in a corner attempting to stay focused, sitting in a squat position and holding heart and breath and also repeating my meditation mantra, "I have thoughts but I am not my thoughts". It was very difficult but I was able to pull it off well enough and we were able to return and begin the show.

Once I began the first Tiger scene I realized that the bottom was there. My feet were well planted and I was able to juggle many balls and couldn't judge the performance but also felt like the work was there. I wasn't bouncing around as much as I had in earlier rehearsals. I moved more slowly and with a stronger purpose. Even the voice came from 42 a deeper place. I wasn't directing myself. Even when I let go there was a grounding. All the work was showing itself, though I was far from satisfied with it all. I felt that moments were skimmed over at times and the breath got away from me on the odd occasion. The work in this piece is exhausting and sometimes moments fall short out of sheer focus fatigue glanced over from exhaustion or excitement. I'll strive to stay in this place and also begin to try to have some fun with my scene partners; something I lost and am desperate to reconnect with. But some genuine improvement and a big step forward in what is becoming one of my greatest roles ever.

A side note to this experience: When I was an undergraduate at York fifteen years earlier I was an usher in this very theatre, watching^ Streetcar Named Desire directed and staring Janet Laine Green and my then first year acting teacher David Collins. At that age my dream was to be able to play a character like Stanley Kowalski but deeply believed I'd never be cast as such, being such a high and different energy. At the end of each show I was left to mop the floors and close up the theatre. When everyone was gone

I'd stay around and play on the set, doing scenes from the play and other monologues. On one particular night I gave an oath to myself that I would perform in the theatre and at the time I assumed it would be as a fourth year conservatory actor. I wasn't asked into the conservatory at the end of the year. I instead went to New York and studied with Uta

Hagen and in another conservatory program. I began to work professionally and travelled the world, found myself in various intense relationships and surrounded by an abundance of... life. I forgot about my oath. Yet here I am tonight. Fifteen years later. Completing my thesis in a role like the one I always dreamt of and in the theatre I swore I would do it 43 in. Here in the Joe Green. What a beautiful moment in my life. What an incredible lesson on patience and fate. Goals sometimes take a great deal longer to achieve than expected.

In essence this role has become the most important in my life. And I have never worked so hard on one before.

March 12th-As one of the only days in weeks where I could sleep in ... I did. I took my time getting up and getting ready. I took a long Epson salt bath and worked release then made my way to school early. I felt strong and healthy. When I got to school

I began my warm up routine but allowed for a much longer period of release work. After make up and fight call I went back to release work. The show was strong but I felt a little throaty at times in my first Tiger scene. The hazer and the heating made the space extra dry as patrons and actors coughed at times. It made it more difficult than usual to keep the vocal energy up to where it was needed. So at times during my origin speech I felt a bit growly and throaty. The top of the second act was one of my best. I really was able to juggle many of the balls in that scene: Primary/Secondary, vocal energy, breath, action, connection, text punctuation, strong rooting to the ground with feet and soft knees and clarity of image. It was probably my best run at that scene. It helped propel me through the rest of the act. I felt grounded. I would still like to find that kind of clarity in the first scene as I seem to struggle with those transformation moments in the story. I'll need to look them over tomorrow. Have to talk to Alan; bringing back the vocal energy is making those shifts feel unclear at times. 44

March 15th - Show closed last night. Tiger is dead. I got home and immediately cut my hair, coloured it and shaved. I had to. Can't explain why. I just did. Last night's show was an incredible and humbling and numbing experience. I made sure I didn't treat it as a closing but rather as another show, so as to avoid getting too excited or doing anything that comes with feeling like it is an ending. I didn't want to infuse my own sentimentality on Tiger, I just tried to serve the work one last time and attempt to maintain the focus I have had since opening. I felt very successful but also a bit frustrated as I felt I was just beginning to settle nicely into some moments, thereby allowing me to really drop into others. I also felt that the others around me were also beginning to really connect and the show was really starting to fly and many new discoveries were arriving and propelling all of us. It was something special. I was proud of the effort but knew there was so much more I could have found. So many deeper levels I may have been able to get to. But after a full day to let it settle I know I did everything I could and worked harder than I ever have and believe the work showed that.

Conclusion

In the working of my artistic challenge of Distillation, I found that the work was primarily needed during the rehearsal period. It was throughout that time that I desperately needed to fight against bad habits so that a true distillation, not in the work, but through it, could occur. Once I allowed release and ease to effect my preparation and working process, things started to really happen. Tiger required a deep bottom to both his internal and external life and that only started to show itself when I was able to connect to 45 my own animal through deep breathing and faith in simple connection and freedom from internal-outside eye. Once I began to work in this way the process opened up, leading to some growth towards and through the performance.

I believe that over the years, and forty odd roles I've played, I have not had ample opportunity to work with a director who had the ability to break me, or at least, challenge me. Whether my fault or theirs, over time, I had to fend for myself and become my own director, plotting all my choices and pre-conceiving not only the idea for the choices I made but also the reaction I expected would come from those choices. What's worse is that many of those choices were received well by directors, critics and audiences when I performed them. As I see it now, I was still giving only a reasonable facsimile of what was truly buried within, thereby not allowing me to tap deeply into the choices that were always available but remained unexplored. I have always had good ideas about the choices within the roles I played but if those choices were not grounded through process than they only live at a surface level. I was stripped of my best skills during this process to help me to find new things unknown to me. Eventually I was able to put those things back into the work but by then they themselves became layers to the work and served them rather than were them. Director Alan Dilworth and I joked that it seemed, by the end, that I had come full circle. However, as he said, "now it was real".

While much of Tiger was in me, I had to work much harder to really find the bottom, where he truly sat. The distillation was allowing myself the permission to fail and live in insecurity and confusion, forcing me to be unable to organize and control the work 46

I was doing. The distillation came from my newfound understanding of the release work I did near the end of the rehearsal period and into the run itself.

I needed to stop directing myself and also had to find a way to work more simply in order to find the truth of the thoughts and images. This deepened the connection to the character and his argument and thus deepened the connection to the other actors in the scene. I had to allow myself to release the stuff I was good at so I could delve into the areas of insecurity and needed to breathe those areas out to find the things I would otherwise have glanced over.

Due to the close connection to the character I initially felt, I also came upon another discovery regarding my process. In order to work against my habits when dealing with a character I feel is close to me, I needed to treat it as a role that was very far away and completely different from me. I have spent many years playing Jack in this particular circumstance whenever dealing with a script, personalizing the work and bringing it closer to myself.

What I learned from working on this role was that it was far more beneficial to have treated it as one which was much further away from me than one that was close to me. Personalizing the work puts me in a place of comfort. When Tiger describes his past and says that he once had a house, garden and tree, I found it far more valuable to not image my own personal home, garden etc... but rather force my imagination to intricately create a new one. The attention to detail forced me further out of my self-conscious mind 47 because it required more work. So I now believe in imagination over personalization and really feel strongly about working this way in future. And while I'll never say 'never again', I want to be able to use a consistent technique and this way suits this process best at present.

I also believe that character body, including posture, tensions and gestures, were very helpful. They assisted me in dropping into a physical form working from the outside in, that lowered my breathing and enriched the images and thus the work.

The biggest struggle for me was how much my mind wanted to reject this way of working. Old habits die hard and no better example was shown than in the rehearsal period. As open as I wanted to believe I was, I had a great deal of trouble assimilating the work, especially at times when I shouldn't have been trying to. To just let go and free fall is obviously frightening to many. To me it was a nightmare. I didn't have the tools to help relieve the stresses and my mind began to attack the body. By not releasing before and after the work, this pent up aggression led to a thrown out back, a cyst on my eye and horrible stomach aches. My mind wanted to fight this way of working and did all it could to reject the new process. Ironically it was during this time of injury that I was able to really slow down and take time. I felt confident that I had a good reason to work this way and my mind fell for that trick and left me alone to work freely.A s time went on I found new ways to relieve my mind, and subsequently my body, of the stresses so I could move forward in this new understanding. 48

This happened as I came to the discovery that the only remedy for this was release

work. This was work that was required before, during and after rehearsals. I knew I could

easily ramp up in a scene. I think that that was something everyone knew. That required

very little work. But what became clear as time went on was that I had very little ability to release; release in the body, in the breath and in the mind. I began to work on this full time. The release before rehearsal helped ease the mind, during helped ease the insecurity

and allowed for a space for true distillation and discovery to occur, and after rehearsal

helped the body. Releasing was the key to my artistic challenge and inevitably was the

reason I gained any ground on it at all.

I feel that I could have begun the process earlier and perhaps discovered more

territory had I come to this realization sooner. While I feel that I did come to the

realization in enough time to deepen the work, I am left wondering how much richer the work would have been had I been able to work this way from the start. I also wish I had

had the stamina earlier so I wouldn't have to gloss over moments that were lost at times

from focus exhaustion.

The work, however, did yield some successes as it allowed for a deeper breathing

and ease that led to a more intense focus and ability to juggle more than I have been able to in the past. By having that ability I was incapable of judging or directing myself,

leaving me free to play in the moment to truthfully find my way through the actions and

circumstances. It allowed for breathing space in my body and character body, earlier sore 49

from tension. It also gave me the confidence to free the vocal energy, without having to

push it or force it muscularly, and keep it consistent in each show.

I now believe that I can take this skill and spend even more time, earlier on in

rehearsal, delving into this unknown territory. My warm up, in future, will be one of the

major differences as I will incorporate longer periods dedicated to release work. I need to

spend more time getting in touch with the breath and the body sensations for all the roles

I play in future. This requires getting the body in full working order to make it palpable

for such work. Once the body is open to more sensitivity it will receive newer stimulus that can guide it in to unknown territory that will surely allow for an enhanced process of

distillation. The warm up allows both the mind and body to have an openness that will

not so quickly reject potential. I realize that I must continue with the meditation and Tai

Chi work as a way to work between work. I am sure that it will give me many more

possibilities that will make my future performances in other productions rich and varied.

The breath is the first and most important place in which I need to work. It is what

can tap me into the body sensations and into opening the channel. If I serve the breath

and let it be my first source of discovery, than I will be able to tap into the many other

areas of the body and as they all begin to release I can truly find out what is going on.

The distillation is therefore a patience and trust in the power of release and working

simply. It is allowing the body to react to its sensations and its internal and external

viscera. By releasing the breath and the body I can have true organic discovery that will

not come from pre-conceived notions and academic homework but through a live existing 50 discovery founded on risks taken through implementation of action and imagination. This is why I believe that the role of Tiger was one that was desperately appropriate to use in order to tackle the understanding and practical application of my artistic challenge.

Tiger's world comes from a deep basement that has to be dug into by breaking through the concrete and scouring through the mud. It had to be frustrating and infuriating and needed to push me to my own limits of understanding when it came to the concept of acting. It did and was thus the perfect role for me to grow within, thus becoming some of the best work I have done in my life and leaving me yearning for more discovery and study of this newfound process. ipp^ Page 48 THE BUNDLE Act II Act II THE BUNDLE Page 49

BASHO. The people are the emperor's eyes and ears. The f to his WIFE. She stares at him in fear. He whispers ur- judge is his tongue. Commit to memory all that is said in *""' your necks. Then I'm content. I shall watch you. (The r-~^~~ "pane. It lifts the pane cautiously: outside someone is \j NS FIRST SOLDIER goes out. He closes the door behind t€«/3r Poking m, The FERRYMAN points to warn,his,WIFE t moment they talk in artificially high voices.) SoldiersTs-rm ^ — —— C .... _^\^ A WIFE. A whole jar. WANG. They've gone! FERRYMAN. Best honey. FERRYMAN. Is it safe? WIFE. You must find out all you can to help the judge. WANG. If we're quick. I've got a look out. (He embraces the FERRYMAN. Yes. (He goes to the door, listens, turns back WEE}. Good. Good. Yes. (Embraces the FERRYMAN.) Page 50 THE BUNDLE Act II Act II THE BUNDLE Page 51

Father. Good. Is the boat all right? Because the river floods. Why? The mouth is silted. The FERRYMAN. Yes. I think it - j banks are down. There's no cut-off channel for the spring WIFE. You came. You came. water — FERRYMAN. I said he would. FERRYMAN,(trying to think). Why doesn't the landowner WANG. We need your help. build banks?' Rifles? Rifles? FERRYMAN. Our help? WANG. Why should the landowner build banks? He's rich. WANG. You know what a rifle is? We're arming the villages. Why? Because we're poor. Why are we poor? Because FERRYMAN (blankly). A rifle? You have rifles? y we're ignorant. Why ignorant? Because the bank breaks WANG. From a merchant. A westerner. A lot. In the ' and takes away all we have. We're like cattle who live in swamp. You look surprised! Yes — isn't it good! What if the mud. Even when the sun shines the people who live on did you think we did with our money? Yc&^t^i O^S &$*) the bank are afraid. They shake and their faces are white. TIGER. Ha! Wo^^lm^-6efteHbittesJ^W4Be.! {j-S^i Fear, flies, disease, famine. The landowner needs to do one WANG. We loot the big" house!: Raid- convoysr^Kiflnapr—- thing. Only one. Keep us in ignorance. The river does that Blackmail. Take hostages. Now we're rich we don't count for him. So take the river and make it ours! That's why our money in cash. We say: "How many rifles are we rifles are food and clothes and knowledge! worth?" TIGER (to WIFE). Rifles! In swamp! Ha! ~CQ&& TO &*V* FERRYMAN (blankly). Rifles? ^WANjG^^pjjjnust take them-across the river. \j4^JL. WANG. Yes! For the villages! ^'|^5FERRYMAR~D~id you geTTny'messagel FERRYMAN (confused). Clothes - food - bedding - -—*WANG. Yes. medicine. But rifles? W FERRYMAN. Your mother- WANG. To fight the landowner. We can take over the villages WANG. Yes. The message came. with rifles. (FERRYMAN turns in confusion to his WIFE.) WIFE. The midwife says - a growth — (Touches herself.) — FERRYMAN. He's talking of rifles - I have only a little more time. WANG. To take to the villages. In your boat. (His WIFE WANG. Is the pain ... ? stands in front of her chair. The cover is round her legs.) WIFE (after a slight pause; shaking her head). No. (TIGER Then everything follows: Food, clothes, bedding, medi­ T-^^gives a slight grunt. WANG turns to the FERRYMAN.) cine — and more! Understanding, knowledge — : THr« WANG.ToWnW? ——- - -- FERRYMAN. You take from the landowner. Good. We FERRYMAN. The soldiers watch us. get a half-sack of rice! But understanding, knowledge — rs WANG. They watch everyone. You're called a saint. They'll WANG."-TWfcis a %c\r,(\ qnpstjO", hill • ~~~ trustvwHBOie-lhan the rest._ .—. -.. FERRYMAN (cutting in angrily). Will Heaven like you so FERRYMAN. Make a boat. much it works miracles for you? WANG. A new boat would be stopped. Especially at night. WANG. We'll build the river banks - Hide th°Tifbfi undfiT th? r-naHs We hid the fish. FERRYMAN (shaking his head). I don't understand! TIGER fiKTthe FERRYMAJ$. See! We make so much WANG. We're poor because there's little to go round. Why? troubfl — unurny Urtirgs many soldiers — enemy now u< Page 52 THE BUNDLE Act II Act II THE BUNDLE Page 5 3

strong — we get strong — or chop! ^[aWIFEj See! Too FERRYMAN. Wang! yW& S^ ^ ^C late to go _ba£k4 (Poinlsto WANG.) Him — me — every­ WANG. It's true! one: chop! (To FERRYMAX) Ha? Itf*. /' FERRYMAN (fiercely, quietly angry). But not dragged out FERRYMAN. No: ^ S$Ct T / by her hair — thrown into a ring of soldiers with knives. WANG. TherTyou're aTrerremyr ~— I love her! FERRYMAN. No. WANG. But you took her life! WANG. Yes! If you don't help now, you'll make other / FERRYMAN. No! mistakes! Listen to their arguments too long. Hesitate. WANG. When you took me from the river! You starved her Be patient at the wrong time. One day people like you will — crippled her — she's drying now because you took — take us to be shot! FERRYMAN. I love her! FERRYMAN. No. I want to do what is good. Wang — help WANG. And you killed her! the poor. Give them . . . but if I was caught — (He looks 3L_FJEv* R RYMAkL_Afeeeeeeeeee! , _____ at his WIFE.) - she . . . ^WANG. Oh, ^vTlfe~1rttkrTfKfir'We love - and think that WANG. I know. (TIGER picks up ihe.4ar _suddenly sus- (<~ changes the world! I have done nothing that you have r J "i&?L^^< ^»<> -**5—^ fy FERRYMAN^ Aieeeee! (A moment's ^^^sAZZ^^^^ FERRYMAN. Basho. My wife. He told me to spy. A sort <5PWIFE. Yes, I will"die7~^trr3nTO'TnnsTriTspeak to your father of bribe. V_j S like that. The night he brought you home I shut the door. WANG. Even better! (To TIGER.) We'll give him infor­ "\J He sat with you in the boat. I said: "Good, let him be mation to pass on. Nothing to cause real damage. (To the -j cold." He put up the little canvas awning. It flapped in 2*1 FERRYMAN.) He'll trust you and your boat won't be ^~f the wind. You started to cry so he cried, too. Sat in the \^ stopped. (Slight silence.) You picked me up and took me 4J boat and cried with you. You were a greedy child. Always u home. A good man! The good ferryman! The saint who Q after more. We gave it — when we could. You are right, C • lives by the river! Do the birds sing when you come ^ that's why I've lived like a cripple and can't fight this v? 7j p through your door? It's not easy to do good. You pick up ti sickness. And now — strange — you come over the river vo D$ one child. What about the tenth child? Or the hundredth — hiding for your life — and ask for more — not with a ,9 H"T child? You leave them to rot! Drown them with your gun — but something stronger — even stronger — as you've >wi.-5^ holy hands. (The WIFRjsits4 —— ~———~_ i? shown. Father, do what he wants. FERRYMAN. It was hard to bring you up to - ~~~~~~-- FERRYMAN. Yes. If you'd drowned in the river someone WANG. You saints who crucify the world so that you can be else would have been asked the same question. I'll take y<~ good! You keep us in dirt and ignorance! Force us into the rifles. I've loved and hated. The river kept me alive *3n£K. I the mud with your dirty morality! You are the scourge and almost killed me. Now it will carry the rifles. I shall be careful. Your mother will be safe. UfS/fL of the — No, No, I must understand. I must be patient. <~h ,,-j I'm sorry - Father. (He takes the FERRYMAN aside.) WANG. So we go on. The rifles will come in threes. If any- _ w ' She'll die soon — your message said — thing goes wrong we won't lose many. Leave them out in Page 54 THE BUNDLE Act II Act II THE BUNDLE Page 55

the boat. Come in the house. Don't look. They'll be taken WANG (angrily, to TIGER). Quickly. (WANG goes out.) away. We'll warn you each time we're coming. It'll be TIGER. Life good. Wise say: "Give hand in friendship." finished in six weeks. Tiger raise stump: Great Friend! (TIGER hurries off after WWTTto~Wzk

Appendix B

Scene Breakdown II: Act II Scene I

State of Being: Falling. Objective: To protect Wang. To control situation. Character Body: Curved shoulder girdle. Lowered Neck. Lead with left side. Left foot pointed outward. Left ribcage gripped. Jaw loose. Feet gripping floor. Soft knees. Gestures: Crank neck (To create range of motion), curl fingers of left hand (For nerves) Left cheek twitch. Position: Upstage Right. Staying in one place for most of scene. Breathing and releasing.

Line: Ha! Women. Concubines. Wine. Paraphrase: I'll bet. Chicks. Whores. Booze Subtext: I don't like this guy. He's sneaky and I don't trust him. He's a wimp. Wants: To urinate on the Ferryman

Line: Rifles. In swamp. Ha! Paraphrase: Guns. In the marsh. Awesome Subtext: This is an excellent plan, no? Wants: To scare the Ferryman into helping us.

Line: (to Crack) See! We make so much trouble. Enemy brings many soldiers. Enemy now strong- we get strong - or chop. (To Plead) See. Too late to go back. Her, me everyone... chop. (To love) Ha? Paraphrase: Understand? Us create an abundance of problems. Opposite provides an abundance of infantry. Bad guys at this moment powerful. Us become powerful. Otherwise: Slice. Understand? Impossible to return. She, I all... slice. Got it? Subtext: You have to help us. There is no other option here. We're already dead. Wants: To get approval.

Line: (to save) Honey! Paraphrase: Sweet! Subtext: I know this trap. The honey is the landowners. He uses it for bribes. Wants: I want allies.

Line: (To protect) Once a judge said , execute. Chop. I escape. How? Paraphrase: At one time decider tells kill, cut. Me get away. In which way? Subtext: This will help you understand. There is always hope. Wants: To raise arms

Line: (To gather up) Story. True. Listen. Soldiers take me to town. More people to see chop. Walk all day. Hot. Dust. Girls stare. Children. Paraphrase: Tale. Real. Pay attention. Cops bring me to village. Much persons to view amputations. Move entire 24 hour. Boiling. Dirt. Women watch. Kids. 56

Subtext: I was so aroused by the attention. I felt powerful. Wants: To have sex.

Line: Riot in town. Barracks upside down. Drink on sale. Soldiers give me to jailer. True! Paraphrase: Chaos in village. Army home flipped over. Booze for cheap. Cops hand me to warden. For real. Subtext: I was looking for an out. I felt this was the end but at the same time I thought maybe there was a chance. Always looking Wants: to idolize

Line: (To admonish) Jailer takes me to cell. Iron chain on wall. Ring. Bolt. I whimper like Christian. Clasp hands under shawl. Hold out to pray., so. (To enlighten) Jailer knows nothing. Heaven smiles. Jailer puts ring round right arm. Click. Goes out. (To protect) Wait. Soldiers drunk. Doors open. Night. Slip arm through ring. Hup. (To adorn) Walk home. Paraphrase: Warden moves me to cage. Metal links on bricks. Loop. Wedge. Me cry similar to Catholic. Grip palms beneath scarf. Raise up to beg. This way. Warden realizes nil. Skies grin. Warden places loop on right appendage. Lock. Leaves away. Remain. Army men smashed. Entrances available. Evening.. Sneak appendage out of loop. Aha. Stroll residence. Subtext: Keep playing them and never stop fighting Wants: to lionize the Ferryman

Line: Ha! They say Tiger has one hand but fights with ten. Paraphrase: Yes! People mention that Tiger possesses a single upper appendage but attacks with many. Subtext: I am street wise. Wants: To educate and to toughen

Line: God has ten hands. Each side. Good for Miracles. But never escape. Paraphrase: Lord possesses many appendages. Great for wonderment, however never flee Subtext: Sometimes the power is in your hands. Wants: To escape the land

Line: Life good. Wise say. Give hand in friendship. Tiger raise stump. (To worship) Great friend. Paraphrase: Humanity safe, smart announce. Hand over appendage in trust. Tiger lifts his appendage. Outstanding sacrifice. Subtext: Allegiance is everything. It is above all. It is the revolution and it is control Wants: to convince them that they are great people doing a great deed. 57

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