October 11, 2008: Cluj, Day Four – IMPACT artfest

Dear Friend,

Today was the day. Everything was happening. The festival took place in a parking lot by a lake. All the tents were set up with their respective banners, as was a stage. The festival was going to feature four bands, one in the afternoon and three at night. The stage was near the back of the parking lot and band members were testing sound and instruments while the rest of us finished setting up. We even had a graffiti artist. I was designated by Diana as one of the many photographers we had within the group.

The entire festival was about volunteering, an important aspect both in New Horizons and A.R.T. Fusion. One tent was devoted entirely to promoting volunteering. Other tents focused on pottery, where people could work with clay; street animation, where people learned how to do things like juggle and walk on stilts; and also the New Horizons IMPACT and A.R.T. Fusion tents. There was also a climbing wall, which some friends from Straja, including Ilie and Claudius, helped youngsters climb an artificial cliff face.

The forum theatre model about ecology went over rather well, from what I could tell. I didn’t have a translator with me, which was alright because I was taking pictures, which meant I was walking around getting different angles. That would indeed be an inconvenience for whoever would be translating for me. I at least understood the general gist of the model.

A couple is joined by a belligerent businessman in the compartment on their train ride to Cluj. Conversations take place about the litter inside the compartment and outside on the streets. The businessman doesn’t care and in fact takes the garbage from inside the compartment and throws it out the window. In Cluj, the boyfriend encounters an environmentally unfriendly couple and their little daughter. He tries to have a conversation with the daughter, who squeals and runs to her mother, frightened by the stranger trying to tell her the tissue paper she’s throwing on the ground is litter. The husband and wife get into an argument with the boyfriend about talking with their daughter. The businessman arrives and tries to quell the fighting, explaining to the married couple that the boyfriend is just a crazy volunteer, a taboo in these parts. The argument elevates so much that a policeman arrives and tries to put everyone in their place. The final scene is an argument between the boyfriend and the businessman. The former tries fighting for cleaning up the litter and getting others to volunteer to clean up as while. The latter shoots him down and explains that everyone does it and that he has no right to tell others to volunteer. I think he even tells the boyfriend to do it himself.

That’s the general idea I gleaned from the model. What took place after the model was presented was the actual forum. Carmen, the “Joker” or facilitator, explained more of the purpose of forum theatre, identified the oppressors and the oppressed, and then invited members of the audience to come and replace characters as the model was presented again. The spectators were generally hesitant to participate, but in the end three did volunteer. The first was a middle aged woman who replaced the girlfriend in the train compartment scene. The idea of replacing someone on stage in forum theatre is that the “spect-actor” (a Boal term) continues the action of the model in a direction away from oppression. In the case of this scene, the woman who replaced the girlfriend attempted to stand up against the oppression of the businessman, who doesn’t change anything about his goals and tries to throw the litter inside the compartment out the window. It was pretty confusing to see, not only because it was in Romanian, but at least spectators were beginning to take the stage.

The second spect-actor was a girl around my age (maybe a teenager) who replaced the wife in the scene where the boyfriend tries to speak with the little girl. The little girl still ran to her mother and the husband still argued with the boyfriend, but the wife/mother now tried to mediate the situation. Once the businessman joined, though, things got more complicated. The husband, being told off not only by the boyfriend and businessman but also by his wife, was now becoming more agitated. An actual brawl was inevitable, and the policeman showed up twice in the course of this scene.

The final spect-actor replaced the boyfriend in the final scene with the businessman. I have no clue what actually happened, except that the spect-actor began picking up litter as he was speaking with the businessman. He was also remaining rather calm, while the businessman continued to mount in his argument. In the end, the spect-actor won, or the businessman (oppressor) gave up. Maybe they’re the same thing. At any rate, the model was over and everyone started clapping. At the end of each spect-actor’s turn onstage, Carmen asked them questions about their experience. It all seemed to work out really well. Everyone was pretty happy about the result.

Following the forum theatre model we went and did our flash-mob. This is when I discovered what a flash-mob actually is. We went to the site we had chosen, an area where a lot of people congregate. The eight letters went to different areas of the site and waited for the signal. I began recognizing some of the congregants were people I had seen at the festival. I made sure to keep Maria in my sites, as she was the one who would blow the whistle for us to begin. We were supposed to do the flash-mob for three minutes, running around and getting into formation, then running around again after twenty seconds of being in formation, and repeat. When Maria blew the whistle, something happened I hadn’t expected. I did run around and get into formation when I was supposed to, but all the congregants I had recognized from the festival were frozen in place, in mid-action. This reminded me of other flash-mobs (many are like this) where suddenly a large group of people froze in place at once. The experience was quite surreal. We only got to be in formation twice, because the police came and halted the exercise. We could tell when Maria blew the whistle again and was speaking with two boys in blue. We all pealed away as we were told, though, and went in separate directions, not speaking or acknowledging anything.

As I reflected on the experience, I couldn’t help but be impressed with how it all went off. Sure we were stopped, but what took place was pretty spectacular. That everyone froze in place and stayed still for even a short period of time was really fascinating, let alone all eight of us letters managing to do what we did. I had to weave through some of the human statues as I ran, which was quite the challenge. The fact that the police showed up made me wonder how this compared to my thoughts of Invisible Theatre. We hadn’t performed Invisible Theatre, as Boal defines it. We hadn’t really performed theatre, I don’t think. Maybe we did. At any rate, at this point in my development as an artist I think flash-mobs are far less dangerous than Invisible Theatre in all the reasons I had mentioned in my blog on the subject. Then again, maybe I need to go back and rethink what I just wrote.

The night ended with some cool rock concerts. I’m such an old man, though (ha,) I have to stand quite a ways away from the stage in order to enjoy them. Rock concerts, which I rarely attend, are just too loud for me. I’m one of those people who wish to preserve as much of his eardrums as he can.

I missed the first band of the night, but arrived for the second, which featured a saxophone player. I enjoyed their music, but their lyrics were somewhat unsettling at times. I still got to boogey, though, in my own Kailen way. This usually involves nodding my head, snapping my fingers, and bouncing on the balls of my feat to the tempo. Out of context (within context, too, I guess) it looks rather goofy. Then again, I could’ve been head-banging like some other people, but I didn’t. I remembered too well how I feel after I’m done head-banging and I didn’t want to feel that feeling tonight.

The final band included both Carmen’s husband and Maria’s brother. I really liked these guys, as they were versatile in what instruments they could play. There were only three of them, but each could play a number of different things, from the guitar to the accordion. Also, during the last three quarters of their performance, a group of fire manipulators (fire benders was the first thing that came to mind, but if I were to use that I would have to force myself to stop watching cartoons) performed some cool tricks. Do you know how to blow fire? You fill your mouth with kerosene, or something like it, then spit it out at an open flame. Sounds kind of gross, but it looks pretty cool.

After the concerts we had to clean up everything. Dismantling things usually doesn’t take as much time as putting things up, but there’s always the clean-up that follows. I was reminded of strike after a show. Something of this was familiar to me as I helped others take down tents. Eventually, so much was taken down that there were too many people to take down the rest. This meant I could go back to the hostel and go to bed, which is exactly what I did. It was a great feeling, too, knowing I accomplished with the group something really great. I hope that may continue.

Blessings.
Kailen