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Language & Silence

with
Jean-Claude van Itallie
july 26 - 28
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134blue flowers -- not sure the name _ s

    How we speak reflects how our minds work.

 

    This workshop explores the fascinating interplay of meditation and action, of language and silence.

    It offers space and time for Shantigarans, old and new, to gather in the familiar beauty of Shantigar’s gorgeous woods and fields, to be inspired and renewed by the silence and space of nature which connects us with others and to our universal selves.

 

    Silence is a well of potential, a breathing space to digest meaning, to touch a deep wordless place in the abdomen from which new meaning can spontaneously spring forth.

    Speaking, to gain authority and spontaneity, we need to breathe deeply, allow silences.

    A deep and surprising exchange, on or off stage, requires silences. Voltaire speaks. Then silence, however short. Then you quip, or Voltaire does. Another silence. That’s the music.

 

    But today speaking aloud is often a mad cerebral dash to annihilate space, anxiously linking each thought with folksy-sounding stocking-stuffers like “you know,” “I mean,” “like,” AND “and”—the most used yet ignored word in our speaking language. Often we unconsciously whisper “and” at the beginning of our every single new thought, killing spontaneous exchange, reserving the space for ourselves, rushing on in a desperate monologue to win—what?

 

    This workshop offers both traditional and unique techniques to slow down as you think and speak, to plumb your inner depths, to deliberately honor community, and thus to act more spontaneously and effectively in the world.

 

    This workshop, like all Shantigar workshops, welcomes everyone.

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Workshop starts promptly at 3:00 PM on Friday, July 26 and ends at 1:00 PM on a Sunday, July 28.


$333 for weekend.
Organic meals included.

Some onsite lodging available, and free tenting.

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Language and SilenceJean-Claude van Itallie
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Jean-Claude van Itallie, Shantigar’s founder/artistic director, seminal in the explosive 1960's American theater, wrote, among many works, acclaimed anti-Viet Nam war play America Hurrah; The Serpent (with the Open Theater); Tibetan Book of the Dead or How Not to Do It Again; translations of Chekhov’s major plays; Light; and his 2012 one-man show, Confessions and Conversation. Author of Playwright’s Workbook, Jean-Claude teaches in US colleges, acting schools, and retreat centers. His latest book: Tea with Demons, games of transformation; his new play: The Fat Lady Sings. www.vanitallie.com.

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