Giovanni Fusetti
| Don't say you didn't want it. Just get ready.Robert Bly |
TRAGIC ECOLOGY
14 October, 2019 → 18 October, 2019 - London-UK
TRAGIC ECOLOGY
Five Days to re-create the relational world
of the Hero, Coryphe and Chorus
London, October 14-18 2019
a co-devised pedagogic process
with
Amy Russell and Giovanni Fusetti
The opposition of the human protagonist and the natural environment has proved to be a false binary, dramatically unsustainable. In the classical tragedy, the chorus lamented the hero’s downfall, but did not necessarily bear the consequences of the hero’s mistakes. In the classical tragedy, the chorus were human, a figure for the polis.
We are now aware, however, that the tragic hero’s actions are suffered by the collective – the consequences are borne by all - while the human chorus can no longer be distinguished from the environmental world. The hero’s downfall is therefore the downfall – not only of the human community – but of the world. In this catastrophic landscape, the coryphe, the mediator between chorus and hero, emerges as a point of contact, a hopeful figure.
We are now aware, however, that the tragic hero’s actions are suffered by the collective – the consequences are borne by all - while the human chorus can no longer be distinguished from the environmental world. The hero’s downfall is therefore the downfall – not only of the human community – but of the world. In this catastrophic landscape, the coryphe, the mediator between chorus and hero, emerges as a point of contact, a hopeful figure.
Amy Russell
In traditional Greek Theatre, Tragedy deals with irreversible loss. It addresses the dilemma of human choices conflicting with the will of the gods and goddesses and with the orders of the cosmos, bringing death and destruction to the community.
The irreversible loss of natural eco-systems is in front of our eyes and the tragedy of extinction is a play unfolding daily in the news. The roles of this play are many, and they are all entangled. The polluter, the activist, the lawmaker, the climate change denier, the environmental refugee, the economist, the “business as usual”…each role can be seen as a chorus of common dramatic urgencies and drives, and each chorus can deliver a coryphée to address poetically the ethical dilemma in which we are all caught. The entanglement of roles is in each one of us is a daily drama. We are protagonists and antagonists at the same time. As I will fly to London to this workshop, what will the particles of CO2 released in the stratosphere tell me? Will they shout at me, mock me or pity me?
And does nature has a voice? Is that voice in us? Is it a lament, a curse or a final call?
Giovanni Fusetti
This co-created workshop will be a collaborative work-in-progress, with facilitation drawing on insights from Gestalt Group Work, Depth Psychology, Systemic Constellations and World Work, and an embodied-poetic pedagogy of the tragic chorus.
LOCATION
Chisenhale Dance Space
64-84 Chisenhale Road, London, E3 5QZ
FEE: £ 350
AMY RUSSELL - EMBODIED POETICS
Founder and Pedagogic Director - is a senior teacher in the pedagogy of Jacques Copeau/Suzanne Bing/ and Jacques Lecoq. She is also an award-winning playwright. She was a pedagogic student of M. Lecoq in 1997-98, and subsequently created a complete training based on this pedagogy under the auspices of Naropa University, the Naropa MFA in Actor Created Physical Theatre, and was Chair of MFA until 2010. She was Pedagogic Co-Founder of the London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA) in 2003, and lead teacher at this school in London and Berlin until 2017. She has taught workshops and trainings internationally, independently and for theatre schools and universities.
Amy is also a qualified and accredited Gestalt psychotherapist, a facilitator of group process for devising ensembles and an academic researcher.
She is currently pursuing doctoral research at the University of Tasmania. Her areas of research are focused on the interdisciplinary study of spatial theory and Lecoq’s devising pedagogy. Her dissertation, “Devising Lecoq’s Geodramatic Territories as Critical Spatial Practice” speaks to the possibilities that devising holds for understanding the social practice of space and the revolutionary potential of collaborative creation.
Amy and Giovanni met at the Lecoq school during their Pedagogi Training (la troisiéme année pedagogique) and have been friends and colleagues, co-inspiring and provoking each others for the last twenty years.
She is currently pursuing doctoral research at the University of Tasmania. Her areas of research are focused on the interdisciplinary study of spatial theory and Lecoq’s devising pedagogy. Her dissertation, “Devising Lecoq’s Geodramatic Territories as Critical Spatial Practice” speaks to the possibilities that devising holds for understanding the social practice of space and the revolutionary potential of collaborative creation.
Amy and Giovanni met at the Lecoq school during their Pedagogi Training (la troisiéme année pedagogique) and have been friends and colleagues, co-inspiring and provoking each others for the last twenty years.
For more information about Amy's work and research, please visit the website
