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Second draft:
It turns out that the art of the possible isn’t about art at
all. It’s about political pragmatism. Politicians are
said to use it when they give up long range goals to take up the goals that are
possible in their time and place. For example, Republicans spent 40+ years with
small local goals that led finally to the larger goal of electing a president
who would dismantle the liberal state and democracy. And that is
where we are. A friend tells me that in the long sweep of time,
Trump’s presidency will be a tiny thing. Don’t sweat it, she
says. Live in joy.
I hope living in joy continues to be possible.
My mother found joy even though she lived in places that
were abhorrent to her—like the 2-room apartment in her mother’s
house. Her joy came from the constant crafting she did. She
made my clothes, and with the scraps and the materials from old clothes, she
pieced crazy quilts. I still have one of them. She made
all the ornaments for our Christmas trees—or Chanuka bush as she called it the
year she decorated with dreidels and stars of David made from papier mâché and
cardboard, turquoise and silver paint. Another year, she embroidered
the bottom cups of egg carton’s together to make little lanterns with tassels. She hooked rugs. She sketched and
drew all of us indoors, and painted from the great outdoors.
It was an art of my mother’s that she saw possibility in
everything, an art I picked up from her and used in my career as an educational
theatre director. My first love, mime, included anything that could be imagined
and shaped out of air. And student imagination in groups and alone
expanded anything I could think of. For example, with few props and
added dialogue, they made their audiences think about abortion and eating meat. They
accomplished the first by putting cords in audience member’s hands attached to
cloaked figures in embryo-like positions. The embryos talked to each
other about their hopes for birth. When the show was over and it was time to
let go of the cords, audience members weren’t so quick to let go. They
accomplished the second by having wolf characters go into a restaurant setting
and admire the human head trophies on the wall. When they started to
order, one of them objected to eating humans. They were invited, not
too politely, to leave the restaurant. You can imagine that I had to
stretch my own beliefs to applaud the creativity of these
performances. The only limit to creativity and imagination was the
ability of human bodies, hearts, and minds.
Fully-staged full-length theatrical realism left less room
for the imagination. Yet, added technology and lights with less
realistic settings allowed the art of the possible to include theatrical
magic. Once again, anything seemed possible. In staging
the ancient Greek play Helen by Sophocles, choral dance commented on the action
and extended it into dream and possible futures. Masks allowed
actors to play multiple characters. Huge Bread and Butter
style puppets allowed us to create the illusion of gods come to
earth. In productions of Shakespeare and Angels in America, less was
always more—in props, in settings, and in costumes. Light and shadow
became real characters.
One could argue that like the political definition of the
Art of the Possible, each of these production situations used only what was
possible in its time and place. Yet using the resources of their day
in combination with imagination led to images which might otherwise be
inconceivable and impossible. Theatre—and by extension, film—expands the
definition of the Art of the Possible.
[Science fiction and fantasy does the same on the page and
in film, without the restrictions of human bodies and sets. A human
meets a friendly extraterrestrial and enters a whole new world of possibility
in which the imagination expands in characters and in readers. For
example, think of Mary Poppins and Star Wars.
Think of the interior worlds in Hitchcock’s Spellbound and
Vincente Minelli's An American In Paris (Gershwin).]
In fact, it is one of the jobs of the arts and creative writing
to expand what politicians might think of as the art of the
possible. Inventions have been expanded by what was made visible in
science fiction. Visions of possible interactions and futures—in all
of the arts—are essential for reimagining the state of our institutions and our
society. Even from a childhood of limited resources, a child used to
invention can imagine expanding the art of the possible. And building
from that place, find joy.
First draft:
I.
It turns out that the art of the possible isn’t about art at
all. It’s about political
pragmatism. Politicians are said to use
it when they give up long range goals to take up the goals that are possible given
their time and place. For example, Republicans spent 40+ years with small local goals
that led finally to the larger goal of electing a president who would dismantle
the liberal state and democracy. They
are now, unfortunately, on the verge of turning over the government and its
policies to millionaires for whom profit is all.
Despite the state of politics, the art of the possible in the arts appears to have no limits except that of the human body itself. That is, if the main agency of drama is the actor--as it is in my branch of the arts--a a staged drama would be limited only by the actors' dexterity of movement. But once you add technology to written drama and the stage, what the actor can portray in that marriage increases exponentially. It may even enter the realm of what is inconceivable and impossible.
Science fiction and fantasy does this on the page, without the restrictions of staging. A human meets a friendly extraterrestrial and enters a whole new world of possibility in which the imagination expands in characters and in readers. In film, we saw this in Mary Poppins and the Jedi in Star Wars. Technology has a powerful home in film. And film expands the possibilities of what can be depicted on stage and on the screen. Interior worlds from Hitchcock’s Spellbound and Vincente Minelli's American In Paris (Gershwin) illustrate.
The art of the possible, then, is limited only by the
material it employs. Putting more than
one type of matter in the pot increases possibilities. On paper, collage and dada show this best. 3-D
Constructs can incorporate amazing surprises.
Move an actor or dancer into 3-D space limits possibility until
technology and film expand the possibilities again.
Remove the human/animal agent of action, and there are no limits except the imagination.
Given freedom, art—creation—is limited only by the minds and hearts of the artist and creative team. This is the freedom artists expected when activist communists created the Soviet Socialist Republic, but instead found that art was restricted to that which promoted life under the new administration. Realism was required, though the realism depicted conditions that were not yet established. Fantasy.
II.
Let's try dialogue:
It is possible that I won't finish all I want to do in one lifetime. Do I then get another chance?
Maybe.
What does it depend on?
Losing the "I."
I will not remember who or what I was, though I might have a feeling that I've been here before?
Yes, it is a stranger who undertakes the unfinished work, as soon as that person discovers what it is.
And the previous me evaporates into the spaces that matter and spirit go to replenish themselves. With no sense of continuity?
Yes. Just trust the process. Live fully. Don't save anything up. That won't help.
But what if it could help? What if I left a narrative which the next person could find. Or left clues. Like, remember the bag of clues in the movie Paycheck? The protagonist loses his memory, but he leaves clues so he could discover the big task he had to do. And he does. And he is able to save the planet!
Is that your unfinished work, to save the planet?
It could be. Reverse climate change, and evaporate the money of the billionaires so they have to find another way to live.
In your dreams.
Ok, in my dreams. But dream is the first step to the possibility of becoming real.
I think you should just do what you are called to do in this space and time, and let the future take care of itself. The past, too. People should stop meddling with God's plan.
Do you actually believe there is a God who has a plan?
Yes, though it may not be a plan you might choose.
Think, though. What if the plan included people like me who tried to communicate with those who came after them? Remember the prophets?
Yes. But come on now. Don't make me laugh. Just work with the people around you with integrity and purpose--and we'll see where it goes.
Please respect my copyright.
