REPLIKAS OF APOCALYPSIS CUM FIGURIS AND THE CONSTANT PRINCE BY THE NU CLASSIC THEATER JULY 2009 Margaret Araneo

The Japanese term kuden is generally translated into English as oral transmission. Kuden is at the heart of the relationship between master and studentor, to put it more precisely, between master and disciple. It has been used to explain the process by which a medieval Japanese monk transmits his knowledge to a novitiate or how a martial arts master trains his successor. Zeami, in his treatises on N theatre, makes it essential to the training and maturation of the N performer. Attaching kuden to the word oral in its English translation, however, is inaccurate. Kuden cannot be tethered to language; it is not a simple passing of information through speech. Kuden must be understood as a secret transmission, one that refuses words, linearity, and form. This concept of kuden is at the heart of the NU Classic Theater, which presented its work Replikas of Apocalypsis cum Figuris and The Constant Prince at New Yorks undergroundzero festival in July, curated by Paul Bargetto and produced by East River Commedia in association with Collective Unconsious. The actors, most of whom are graduates of Columbia Universitys MFA program in Acting, train regularly with their director and former teacher, Niky Wolcz, Professor of Acting at Columbia University. Wolczs system of training asks the actors to work with a collection of exercises that explore the performance theories of masters such as tienne Decroux, Vsevolod Meyerhold, and Jerzy Grotowski. The training is extremely physical, offering the actors an alternative to the psychologically based approaches found in many U.S. training programs. It requires the performers to have a strong awareness of their bodies as unique instruments, something Wolcz sadly admits they are not often called upon to do in their professional work. Wolczs relationship to his actors is marked by a constant process of transmissiontransmission of knowledge, of inspiration, and of the rich history of theatrical practice of which they are a part. The training then becomes an accumulation of concepts, techniques, and direct experiences. What results is a group that performs with full respect for theatrical traditiontheir bodies on stage a palimpsest of

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NU Classic Theater, The Fool tude in Replikas of Apocalypsis cum Figuris and The Constant Prince

Western theatre aesthetics. This exchange with a living tradition of the theatre grounds Replikas of Apocalypsis cum Figuris and The Constant Prince, a project first conceived by Wolcz for use in a presentation on actor training given at Berlins Freie Universitt in 2006. The piece is part confrontation, part exchange between the young artists of the NU Classic Theater and three theatrical masters Jerzy Grotowski, Vsevolod Meyerhold, and Ryszard Cielak. The legacies of the masters are engaged through specific instances of their work: Grotowski through Apocalypsis cum Figuris (1969), which was the last professional project directed by Grotowski; Meyerhold through his Biomechanics tude, The Fool, which he used as a prelude to his staging of Caldern de la Barcas The Constant Prince in 1912; and Cielak through his legendary performance as the martyred Ferdinand in Grotowskis production of The Constant Prince (1967). The word Replikas in the title of the NU Theaters project should not indicate in any way that the piece is an attempt to recreate the original material. The performersLaura Butler, Jon Froehlich, Sanam Erfani, Susan Hyon, Daniel Irizarry, Kyle Knauf, David Skeist, and Isaac Woofterinstead enter the space with the objective of engaging in a silent exchange with these

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key figures in theatre history and their transformative theoretical ideas. For Wolcz, the art of acting opens the path to remembering even what one has not directly experienced. Wolcz explains that an actor, through the acquisition of a technique can eventually earn the right to say, I was not there, but I remember. Knowledge lives inside the technique. Training, for Wolcz and his actors, becomes a form of remembering while simultaneously offering a completely new act of creation: the coexistence of past and present. Instead of attempting to reproduce the work of their masters, the actors, according to Wolcz, create their own work under the influence of their absent teachers. Grotowskis production of Apocalypsis cum Figuris, inspired by Albrecht Drers woodcut series of the same name, incorporated biblical texts along with the work of T.S. Eliot, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Simone Weil in order to crack open violently the Christian myth of sacrifice and salvation. Working under the influence of this first production, the NU Classic Theatre began not with Drers imagery but with that of Paul Klee in his well-known line drawings of angels. What results is a series of dialogues in which seven monks and nuns, suffering from their individual crises of faith, confront seven of Klees angels in order to restore their spirituality and trust in the divine. The angels appear only as reproductions on foam poster boards that the actors playing the nuns and monks carry throughout the performance. Each actor, assuming the role of one of the religious figures, develops his or her own thread of action using text ranging from Kafka to Lou Reed. Here the autonomy of the individual artist dances with what Wolcz calls the master within. The result is a vibrant production in which the performers live through their roles with rich physicality and emotional authenticity. The Fool, a biomechanics tude by Meyerhold, links Apocalypsis cum Figuris to The Constant Prince. Meyerhold used this very idea in his own staging of The Constant Prince in 1912. The tude begins with the seven actors from the Apocalypsis section. As the seven bodies flutter through the space, another performer is at first almost inconspicuously added. Through the course of the physical action, this eighth performer takes on the role of Ferdinand, the central character of The Constant Prince. The tude serves on the narrative level to reenact the capture of Ferdinand by the Moors, which will mark the start of his journey toward martyrdom. Cielaks work in Grotowskis staging of The Constant Prince is considered by many to be one of the greatest performances by an actor in

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Laura Butler and Daniel Irizarry, The Constant Prince in Replikas of Apocalypsis cum Figuris and The Constant Prince

Western theatre. His contorted body captured in still photographs and films of his performance reveal not only the journey of the character of Ferdinand but of the actor as well. Cielak worked with Grotowksi over the course of several years to build the grueling physical score of the role. The final section of the Replikas production, titled The Constant Prince, is a homage to Cielak. The last segment of Replikas explores only excerpts of Calderns original text of The Constant Prince. The section opens with Daniel Irizarry as Ferdinand and Laura Butler as Phoenix, the Moorish princess he desires, engaging in an allegorical love scene. The actors perform entirely in Spanish, moving through the swift dialogue with a rich vocal style. It is, however, their physicality that is most striking. Both muscular and lyrical, the dancelike gestures drive the narrative of frustrated love forward. As the allegory comes to a close, Phoenix exits, leaving Ferdinand alone in the space. The remainder of this vibrant piece charts Ferdinands individual journey toward martyrdom. Irizarry fills every inch of the stage with his fluid and acrobatic movement. His rhythm and intensity crescendos to a feverish pitch. Finally he is moved to a place of personal violence, physically torturing himself as he assumes gestures of Christ-like persecution. Amidst the storm of emotion and energy on stage,

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Irizarrys physical control remainsa testament to his technique What is so striking and commendable about Irizarrys performance and Wolczs direction is that Irizarry never at any point tries to be Cielak. There are no citations of Cielaks choreography. In accordance with kuden principles, Cielak is one master to which Irizaary looks and receives. Irizarrys work is an exploration of his own physicality and artistry in relationship to the masters that have preceded him. Cielak is a teacher, an inspirationa beginning, not an end. NU Theaters Replikas of Apocalypsis cum Figuris and The Constant Prince was an important addition to the undergroundzero festival. It offered New York audiences a chance to partake in an ongoing conversation between contemporary theatre artists and the rich performance traditions that have preceded them. The groups meditation on the work of Meyerhold, Grotowski, and Cielak never slipped into cult-like admiration. It always remained grounded in a respect for the history of performance and a belief in the potential of the young artist.

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