THE CREATIVE CENTER AGAIN
SEPTEMBER 14, 2011. First, the nomorefakenews September fund drive continues. Thanks to those who’ve made a donation. See the end of this article for how you can help.
On both a personal and public level, boredom is the great challenge for people who live a reasonably normal life. They try to find some spark of excitement that can drive them over the top into new territory, in which adventure becomes paramount.
They unconsciously realize this spark has to be creative. Yet society, more and more, is arranged as compartments that fit into larger compartments.
If people can’t find a way to utilize imagination with power, they’ll fall back into a form of stale theater, in which they already know their roles.
I’ve written before about my desire to start a Creative Center, in which imagination is the core, spreading out from which painting, writing, music, and so on emerge, not from a technical point of view, but as essential expressions of self.
And of course, now that I’ve been writing a great deal about the Magic Theater, I see it would also become integral to the Center.
Meanwhile, I simply simply assume the Center is in the work I’m doing, and it is.
But I thought, in light of the Magic Theater, I’d come back to this notion of a geographical Center, and see what added meaning it would have.
It begins with the idea of The Flood. A global flood of creative action in all significant fields of human endeavor, forwarded by many people, sweeping away resistance to a future in which individuals everywhere live through and by their imagination.
People would come to, and go out from, the center. While there, they would immerse themselves in creativity along several fronts.
And, in the Magic Theater, they would enact, in dialogues, far-reaching roles that stimulate dormant energies and wake up the capacity to invent, innovate, improvise.
There would be no timidity about power, the power of imagination.
The Center takes the position that the creative impulse is primary and natural and has enormous implications for the individual. The world lives largely according to unnatural standards, but there is no compulsion to abide by its methods.
Nevertheless, surrounded by a civilization that urges its citizens to enter a primary role and stay there, people find themselves bound up in the separate energy compartments of their “characters,” wanting some kind of greater theater.
In the Magic Theater, this desire is realized. And the liberation it can achieve is stunning. Then, from that basis, entering the wider creative life of action, in the world, is more doable.
Under the surface of consciousness, people are actually building up a huge amount of information about characters they could play. They see these characters all around them. And they read about and watch them on their multiple screens. It’s as if they are preparing for an actor’s life—but because there is no obvious outlet, the material they gather stays put.
In the Magic Theater, this all changes. The fluidity and aliveness it brings is felt first-hand.
Therefore, in the Center, the old idea of audience listening to teacher and then participating, somewhat minimally, in group exercises, is expanded beyond the breaking point. The entire atmosphere, given the Magic Theater, is creative.
The Center’s goals are more far-reaching, by light years, than the seeding of a few interesting ideas to take back to home base and ruminate about.
These days, there are workshops in which people show up ready to act the part of “seminar goer” or “sponge soaking up knowledge.” The whole time spent is really about imprinting these characters, as if, somehow, they will result in the production of a “better person.” But all they do is place a superficial sheen on the attendee, an imitation of wisdom.
The Magic Theater deconstructs that in ten minutes. But not in a destructive way. It does it by proliferating roles, improvised in dialogues, to the point where the person knows, without doubt, he is taking on greater energy and power. Living energy.
Life does, in fact, imitate art. But merely thinking about that very interesting idea doesn’t get you very far. However, if you begin to act out and improvise far-reaching characters in the Magic Theater, you essentially make art and life at the same time.
And this is a new thing. It immediately interacts with aspect of self that have been hidden under a blanket, as if waiting for a such a defining moment.
When the moment comes, the creative impulse hears the bell ring and authentic transformations are underway.
Add to that some experience writing and painting, for instance, and a person suddenly begins to entertain new ideas, doable ideas for his future.
New space, new energy, new plans, new adventures.
And concomitant illumination.
This is a rough sketch for a Center.
Jon Rappoport
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