 Present Company cast members Leslie Bender and Kirsten Carle in "The Pace of Youth." |
In their most recent play, director Frank Crocitto created a musical rendering of "The Pace of Youth," a short story by Stephen Crane (author of a very different book, The Red Badge of Courage) about life and love on the Jersey seashore in the gay nineties (eighteen nineties, that is). Crocitto craftily divvied Crane's deliciously rich narrative among the actors, who savored every last word, and patchworked in a dozen tunes of bygone days like "Man on the Flying Trapeze," "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," and "In the Good Old Summertime." The result: an uplifting and G-rated gift to the audience.
That is very much the director's intent. "People always talk about service," Crocitto says. "This is a refined, high way to serve, trying to give people a pure energy to revitalize them, so they can go out feeling that life is worth living, not go out depressed. The function of theater is to provide energy for the society." But he's appalled at the disgraceful state of the theater, movies, and education. "Society is going downhill. People know on some level this is terrible. So, the best thing to do when everybody is running and tumbling downhill is to walk against the tide, and hopefully turn things around by example, and by effort."
The nature of that effort is what makes The Present Company unique. Crocitto is founder of the Discovery Institute in New Paltz (in addition to having a long career in theater in New York City), and each cast member is his student in a self-development path based on the teachings of George Gurdjief. Gurdjieff was a Greek-Armenian philosopher, mystic, writer, and teacher in the early nineteen hundreds; his principles and practices, known as The Fourth Way, the System, or the Work, are both a philosophy and a practical system of awakening and self-knowing. Several cast members reside at the Institute's campus on a serene, wooded parcel that Crocitto bought 14 years ago; others come for study, community work (which in the past included constructing the theater building), movement classes, meditation, creative arts, and more.
The plays are just a small part - and at the same time a microcosm - of students' curriculum at the Discovery Institute. "The rehearsal process tells the tale," Crocitto explains. "There's a chance for the actors to learn something that's not about the mechanics of theater, but about life. That process can be very difficult because when we make an attempt to play a role, there is all the baggage that we may have cherished over a lifetime - habits, ways of thinking, reacting to things - much of which we've learned in response to our environment, but which isn't a reflection of our true selves. To rid oneself of what's not true, the person has to try to execute something purely, without something contaminating it, polluting it, so that what's true and real and wonderful can shine forth."
Cast member Patty Landes had been practicing Buddhism for several years when she learned about Gurdjieff's teachings and the Discovery Institute. The theater work has been profound. "It's one of the most incredible opportunities I've had to work on my awareness and attention," she says. "There is a striving for exactitude, getting everything to the most precise it could be - exactitude in following direction, in the utmost expression of what was being said, in the timing in which to deliver a line, the intention behind it in the fullest voice that reaches out and extends beyond the theater itself. It's not just like regular theater, it's a constant giving out into the universe."
The call for exactitude stems from Crocitto's precise blocking and choreography of the actors' actions and delivery. Cast member Jack Corwin says of an arm gesture he did at one point in the play: "It looks like a single movement, but it has four distinct parts. There's more to it than just creating a gesture related to the story. There is a whole other part of the Gurdjieff Work called The Movements, a series of conscious spiritual dances." Crocitto has incorporated those into the actors' actions.
To accomplish all that, the actors are intensely focusing on being in the moment - something all actors aspire to, but it has a deeper meaning to The Present Company. "Being in the moment is the object of all the work we do here," says Thomas, who's lived and studied at the Institute for a dozen years. "We carry that into the theater. A good production has to come alive every time. You can't just blow it up like a balloon and tie it up for everyone to see each time - every performance has to be inflated each time. Life is the same way. We can bring that something extra to each moment as it happens, and then marvelous things become possible."
Students of the Fourth Way practice being in the moment in a form of meditation that can be integrated into everyday life. Unlike Buddhist meditation, Patty explains, "you are in your body with all your senses and you experience all that is around you. If a big truck goes by, instead of wishing it was quiet, you take everything you hear and feel, and the smells in the air. Activating your senses in the present moment brings you to only now." That can also be used to return to the present at any time during the day, like when thoughts of the future or the past cause fear and pain.
Andrew Randel speaks easily of the parallels between acting and personal exploration for higher meaning. "We're all actors, as Shakespeare said. If we were just ourselves all the time, things would be different, but society has us play different roles that might not be our first choice. The theater allows us to have experiences that we wouldn't have in our ordinary, busy lives. I'm able to have a role other than my usual role, and even work against my own tendencies, use them as a guide to move in a different direction."
Beyond their individual discoveries, the cast models a microcosm for working together. Crocitto explains: "To be able to work with one another harmoniously through very difficult circumstances - there's a lot going on in the course of a theatrical production - when the people are actually working truly together, and at the same time are aware of what they're doing, the quality of energy is on a high order."
A viewer may not be able to articulate what feels different, but it's there: a sublime magnetism links the actors and draws the audience in. Often in motion, the characters circle the room, approach and glide away from the audience, gather in pairs and trios to support physical actions or to help each other through the plot's emotional barbs. Even monologues are a group offering, not the solitary strutting of ego. Each word is a delectable morsel, offered with grand and unexpected gestures.
"The energy becomes a gift to the viewers, as well as wherever else it can go," says Crocitto. He smiles and gestures upward to the starry sky.