Quantum Theatre: Slapstick to Shakespeare (estb. 1993)

Quantum Theatre: Slapstick to Shakespeare is an economical way to reinvigorate ones own theatre practice by using universal principles. Quantum Theatre is organic and logical. It incorporates a breadth of ideas, techniques and cultural inheritance that contemporary theatre possesses. The Quantum Theatre exercises leave space for an actor to use any of their previous trainings or experience.

Quantum Theatre uses only a few exercises and practice templates. These potent exercises carry essential practical ideas that are completely adaptable to the unique needs of individuals, theatre trainings, and theatre companies.

The exploration is from ones own body using the body-mind as ones source of inspiration,

photo: Acro playtime with Price & McCoy. Henning(black), Terry(red), ira (apricot). 2008 France

Quantum Theatre has three systems and each has ten principles. For example, the Principle of One, represents that all work in theatre is drawn from ones self. The Principle of Two represents the polarity and balance of opposition the Yin/Yang or masculine/feminine energies within oneself. Central in Quantum Theatre is the Principle of Four, the integrative use of Body-Voice-Performance-Creativity.

The Principle of Four is practiced in a spiral twisting movement that looks like da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man with arms outstretched horizontally. The end of the spiral twist is a held shape that looks like the chi gong pose called ‘embracing the tree’. The Suzuki Actor Training Method uses a similar shape called a ‘statue’.

Vitruvian Man

by Leonardo da Vinci, an illustration of the human body inscribed in the circle and the square derived from a passage about geometry and human proportions in Vitruvius's writings.

The practical structure of Quantum Theatre is grounded by the:

It is interesting to note that the complex Chinese actor training is based on principles of four and five. The central format for the Chinese actor training stems from the:

The Quantum Theatre Base class has an open structure of:

Quantum’s Base class awakens the sleeping giant within any actor, director or production. The practical exercises leave space for an actor to use any of their previous trainings or experience. This appears to allow the synapses to work in new ways to utilize the extraordinary wealth of information that is our inheritance from East and West alike.

In the Base class there is a series of ten actions called Core Mechanics. Core Mechanics begins two divergent journeys, namely, acrobatics and acting.

In Core Mechanics there is a Twist Movement that resembles the Vitruvian Man in motion. The Twist Movement is a geometric pattern in space. The Twist Movement involves; specific counts, directional changes, tempo changes, grounding and centring principles. The eyes’ action during the Twist stimulates the central nervous system, the ocular nerve and therefore the brain. When the Twist is applied to the short exercise named the Creative Twist, the practical application becomes observable within a few minutes.

The Creative Twist (created in 1976) uses the body as an image like a moving, living statute. The shape is the actor, character, and abstract form moving organically and geometrically thru space. Tadahsi Suzuki said that the job of the actor is to move their centre through space. He extracted exercises from Noh and Kabuki that practice this shape shifting in the stage space. The Creative Twist as a practice also locates the Chinese Five Principles in actor training; eyes, hands, torso, gait, fa (‘integration’). At this point of integration/fa the performer is free to use the four techniques of acrobatics, speaking, singing, or acting based on their own training or experience.

The Creative Twist has four specific steps that show a simple and practical revelation of ones embodied creative nature. The fifth element is the integration of spontaneous, yet, controlled expression of the actor. The next phase of the class is duet training in the essence of slapstick and later working with text. The Creative Twist is somewhat phenomenal and is clearly useful for any actor, teacher, choreographer or director.

The last technical step in The Creative Twist is the spontaneous use of the voice (breathe, sound, gibberish and/or speech). The performer then has all of the elements of self definition in place and can begin to truly respond to and with their whole creative being in a spontaneous yet controllable way. Former ballet soloist, Dale Johnston, Ph.D. is an articulate advocate for the importance of private speech, i.e. open and free communication of the learner's thoughts through speech as an important link in releasing ones potential (personal, social, and creative). From his thesis Private Speech in Ballet:

"Authoritarian teaching practices in ballet inhibit the use of private speech...speech and actions necessarily form an inseperable alloy in the development of higher mental functions and abstract intelligence...limiting use of private speech in ballet training has a detrimental impact upon student cognition."

In Quantum Theatre training, I regularly pause, often asking the actors to have a seat on the spot where they have just been moving in their own creative space and I ask them to reflect on their discoveries at that point. They are free to communicate in any way they choose to. I try to limit my feedback to a few words, usually 'thank you'. Sometimes there is something that I feel it is best to say openly to a particular individual. Usually though the point is as Dale explains to move away from "authoritarian teaching practices" and rather to blatantly encourage spontaneous "private speech" numerous times within the actual class time and on the creative floor.

Use of numbers assists an understanding that the principles in Quantum Theatre are neutral, universal and can directly assist any project in theatre. The practical, metaphysical, geometrical use of numbers is essential to training actors in advanced systems such as; Noh - based on Zeami’s writings, Beijing Opera, and the Indian theatre - based on the Natyasastra treatise. The practical and metaphysical use of numbers was encouraged by Plato, Pythagoras, Vitruvius, Da Vinci, Gurdjieff/Ouspensky, and recently others such as Dr. Len Horowitz. Director Peter Brook was inspired by Gurdjieff.

The field of metaphysics is fascinating for its practical knowledge of ones potential dormant within the body-mind and creative imagination. ‘Quantum physics’ inspired many artists ever since the Cubist movement. Grotowski was partially inspired by physics as he mentions in "Towards A Poor Theatre". His brother was a physicist at the Bohr Institute, the home of quantum physics, in Copenhagen.

Knowledge similar to quantum physics appears to have been stored within the sagas and arts of many indigenous and traditional cultures. The Noh theatre is one storehouse of knowledge based on nature and numbers applied geometrically to the body in the space-time continuum. Noh’s knowledge is drawn directly from shamanic, indigenous practices and martial arts which were themselves physical (practical) and metaphysical (philosophical). This knowledge was then clarified by Zeami in the 14^{th century.}

As a speculation the twists in Quantum Theatre appear, metaphorically, to be related to a concept of a four-part unified theory of physics put forth by physicist Nassim Haramein. The four integrated parts are: Torque-Spin-Velocity-Potential. Quantum Theatre locates ones embodied creative potential, and, may be a creative application of Harmein’s philosophy:

The source of ones creative knowledge is the human anatomy itself. The anatomy was known by Taoists, yogis, shamen, indigenous tribes and others to be a conduit for cosmic and earth energies, and to be the source of ones creativity. This knowledge was clarified in indigenous cultures including various metaphysical traditions and these along with scientific information can invigorate us in the theatre.

Da Vinci’s image of the Vitruvian Man exemplifies the blend of art and science. The image represents a cornerstone of da Vinci's attempts to relate man to nature. "He believed the workings of the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe." It is also believed by some that Leonardo symbolized the material existence by the square and spiritual existence by the circle. Thus he attempted to depict the correlation between these two aspects of human existence.

Relating to da Vinci’s understanding of the Vitruvian Man in a symbolic way, the mechanical aspect of acrobatics is the valuable material upon which one can base acting as a spiritual performance. In Quantum Theatre: Slapstick to Shakespeare, ‘slapstick’ represents the primal and physical aspects of theatre and ‘Shakespeare’ represents the intellectual or spiritual aspects. Just as the two masks of the Greek theatre remind us theatre is based on a principle of two.

Quantum Theatre: Slapstick to Shakespeare is a schemata and format for ones rediscovery of creativity, acting and theatre based on ones anatomy, space-time continuum, and self-empowered grafting from the finest sources from East and West cultures.

Ira Seidenstein, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate

Stoke-Newington, London. June 2, 2008chaplinseye@yahoo.com.au