Rainbow Pg. 1-74

I know this isn't the order we were supposed to read in, but when I realized that I'd be playing catch-up to read the whole book, I thought it might be easier for me to go in order. I hope this isn't too bothersome. :/

Section 1 (pg. 1-46):

I like the idea of theatre as a mirror where the self recognizes itself on stage and accompanies an other. It's the gateway idea that helps people fall in love with theatre, I think--the idea that the way you interpret something is totally valid and totally unique to you, and other people want to experience it. When my students say things like, "So...even if I don't get what the designer was going for, it's still a good paper?" I explain that if they can tell me why they think what they think, it's valid. Their eyes light up, and some small part within them catches fire. "So even though I might write a totally different paper from him or from you...it's still kinda right?" Even if they never fall in love with theatre, they will learn to understand art in those terms and within those small moments, however fleeting.

I was very drawn to a few quotes, one of which was, "The being becomes human when it invents theatre." It's as though a person is just a vessel, a shell, an empty container until she or he learns to create theatre--to present itself to others and to observe others' presentations of themselves. It's as though that is the moment that the vessel becomes a sentient, capable, soulful creature capable of manifesting, denying, and transforming his or her destiny.

I wonder about the use of the "aesthetic space" of the stage as a "safe space". It is removed from the audience and made magical by its exclusivity, by its telescope effect. Things fall by the wayside and, while watching a performance, we are able to fall away from daily troubles and weave ourselves into the energy of the play and of the actors.

I like this quote as well: "Actors search the depths of the soul and the infinity of the metaphysical." This is in the section where Boal talks about how dangerous it can be to be an actor--how we stumble and rummage through our closets to dredge out all of our demons, embrace them, and show them off for the whole free world to see. It's then up to us to leash them and shove them back into the place that turns fresh cuts into faded scars.

When he talks about the first step of Cops in the Head being Osmosis, or the interpenetration of ideas, I wondered how this might encompass things like microaggressions--the normalization of something other that what one is rather than the idea that anything one is, is normal. "You've lost some weight, huh? You look great!" rather than "Gorgeous as always! As a matter of curiosity, have you lost weight? You look more slender."

Section 2 (pg. 47-74):

I enjoyed the story about the encounter with the mentally "handicapped" adolescents. The idea that Boal treated the assistant the same as the other adolescents because he had viewed everyone as "handicapped" is an encouraging thing. If one prepares oneself every day to encounter only good people, only compassionate human beings, one will treat others as though they are already compassionate and will earn their genuine compassion in return.

I want to note the major rules of Rainbow improvisation here so I don't forget them and so I can refer to them later:
-The protagonist chooses the participants
-The protagonist fulfills the duties of a dramaturg
-The protagonist corrects or compensates for missing information

I found the Morenean Catharsis very interesting. Sometimes, when people are angry, they need to be angry until they burn out--they need to burn until there's no fuel left for the fire. Fiery people seem to be like that--people with a tendency towards anger or rapid temper or frustration. If they are angry, they don't want to be soothed--they want to be as fiercely angry as possible for as long as it takes to feel that they've burned through everything and can start clean.