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Think of three numbers - one (1), three (3) and seven (7).
These three numbers are essential to remember when looking at Stella Baker's cognitive approach to theatre - both as a
playwright and a director - which to an increasing number of people appears to be the most revolutionary, innovative approach
to theatre for some years.
There is a guiding principle.
Three - theatre, life and society are all closely related.
Seven - seven basic script patterns or themes, seven basic principles of the Stanislavski Method, which all correspond
to... seven deadly sins?
One - the basis of theatre, as of life and society is the transaction. You cannot take part in any of the above without
entering a transaction.
The theory is a unique blending of the theories and philosophies of the following - Constantin Stanislavski, Noam Chomsky,
Dr Eric Berne and Rudolf Steiner.
This theory has been developed to not just make theatre much more accessible and popular among people, but also to reestablish
the close relationship between theatre, life and society with the aim improving the quality of life for hundreds, thousands,
even millions of people.
It is kept simple so that anyone can quickly learn the theory within hours, learn to derive benefit from the principles
within weeks, and enjoy those benefits for the rest of their lives.
It is a theory which is in development and will continue to develop the more people who become involved in its development.
It is kept simple so it can be passed on quickly and efficiently to a great number of people in a short space of time.
It is not a theatre. It's a totally new concept in theatre.
CONSTANTIN STANISLAVSKI
Russian actor and theatre director (1863-1938)
Stanislavski is the pioneer of cross-cultural theatre which caused his innovative contribution to modern European and
American realistic acting, developing a coherent 'system' and 'method' known as the Stanislavski Method. His work was an important
contribution to the development of socialist realism in the USSR.
He has influenced all the leading authorities of modern theatre - including Antonin Artaud, Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowski,
Bertholdt Brecht, and Vsevolod Meyerhold. He has also influenced Stella Baker who disagrees with all of the above on principle.
Her reason for disagreement is the rejection of the political, psychological and philosophical basis of the Stanislavski
Method, including Pavlovian behaviourist psychology, James-Lange (via Ribot) psychophysiology and the aesthetics of Pushkin,
Gogol and Tolstoy.
She finds modern theatre mainly to be too esoteric, repetitive, and ostentatious and advocates a style of theatre which
is accessible, popular, spontaneous with a strong emphasis on 'dramatic evolution' and improvisation. She forms the basis
of her interpretation of the Stanislavski method on a totally different, much more progressive psychological and philosophical
base which is much closer to both life and business.
She has broken down the entire Stanislavski Method into seven core principles:
1. ADMINISTRATION - effective management of skills, talents, resources, ideas.
2. AWARENESS - this takes in research and knowledge of all aspects of a production, a comprehensive understanding of transactions,
and the meditative approach to preparation of character, role and performance inspired by Rudolf Steiner.
3. COMMUNICATION - the understanding of transactions and theories of Berne together with elements of generative culture
and language and cognitive psychology of Chomsky.
4. CONFIDENCE - being comfortable with what one is doing and being able to communicate that confidence to others.
5. CREATIVITY - this is an evolutionary approach to the Stanislavski Method inspired by the meditative approaches of Rudolf
Steiner. Creativity in participants is unlocked by the specific Waldorf training (from Steiner) in workshops and rehearsals.
6. DISCIPLINE - Here the Pavlovian behaviourist theories of Stanislavski is inspired by Waldorf style discipline of Steiner
with three basic loyalties - (1) loyalty to oneself, (2) loyalty to other people and (3) loyalty to one's ideas and decisions.
7.LIVING - the seeking out and gathering of experience and 'memory creation'.
We know that less than 10% of those who take part in our projects are ever going to become professional actors but as
you read about what components of the theory come from Stanislavski, Chomsky, Berne and Steiner you should be able to form
a fairly accurate impression of how it all could fit together and what benefits it could bring and to whom.
NOAM CHOMSKY
American linguist, philosopher, political activist, author and lecturer.
(born 1928)
The basis of Stella Baker's cognitive approach to theatre is inspired equally by the anthroposophical theory of Rudolf
Steiner and Noam Chomsky's contributions to linguistics, psychology and politics.
Stella Baker argues that while the psychological approach of the actor or performer should be cognitive, there is such
a thing as 'generative culture' in that a person's cultural needs and awareness are innate, and therefore in order for the
basic of transaction to be completed and mutually beneficial any performance or workshop should be culturally and socially
relevant to the needs of the audience.
This is especially true as theatre is the most basic and fundamental linguistic form of expression which serves as both
an art form and entertainment.
DR. ERIC BERNE
Canadian psychiatrist, founder of Transactional Analysis.
(born 1910, died 1970)
Berne was a specialist of psychoanalysis who revised Freud's concept of the ego, super-ego and id into three Ego States
- Parent, Adult and Child to form what is known as Transactional Analysis. As she perceives theatre to be based on a transaction,
Stella Baker's theory relies on Berne's work being the basis of the theory and the keystone, forming a coherent relationship
with all elements of the theory inspired by Chomsky, Stanislavski and Steiner.
Berne mapped interpersonal relationships to three ego-states of the individuals involved: the Parent, Adult, and Child
state. He then investigated communications between individuals based on the current state of each. These interpersonal interactions
he called transactions; certain patterns of transactions which popped up repeatedly in everyday life he called games.
It is probably best to give an example situation to show why Berne's work is so fundamental to the theory, so crucial
to the work of the Simply Q project, and why it is so heavily influential on the consistent success of every project with
an estimated 90% success rate among participants. This also gives a good idea of the sheer versatility of the project and
the potential scope of the expansion of this project and its application in many other areas of society.
The example here is a dramatic situation - A Day In The Life Of An Addict. The suggested roles or characters are as follows
- the Victim (the addict), the Persecutor (spouse or employer), the Rescuer (friend of same sex, social worker, colleague,
family member, etc), the Patsy (the enabler, fellow addict) and the Connection (supplier).
The scenes are usually similar - Scene 1 - Vodka (Victim drinks vodka), Scene 2 - Hangover (Victim blames others for making
them drink), additional scenes and encores can usually be found in organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous.
The plot is invariably the same - it's a tragedy with elements of comedy and drama, the Victim decides to be bad and to
challenge others to stop them. The purpose is self-punishment, the acquisition of social stigma, moments of forgiveness, but
ultimately the stigmatization of oneself ('I'm not acceptable or not good enough'). This sets up a 'performance of self-destruction'.
Similar dramas and tragedies can be found among the homeless, the long term unemployed, the 'welfare dependent', homosexuals,
lesbians, the transgendered, and so on.
Often such problems only become apparent to other organizations based on the limited contact with such people. While they
can be there to provide support, facilities, services they are unable to do the one thing which is necessary - to change that
person's thinking and inspire them to seek help themselves and to make the changes in their lives.
This is where Simply Q come in - they can challenge that stigma and way of thinking and offer the participant a simple
transaction to replace the stigma with social acceptance with the opportunity of 'life script analysis', redecision, retraining
and relearning, with a ready made support network into which every participant is welcomed.
This is also a similar scenario available to those who suffer from social exclusion and social stigma simply from being
who they are - they may be disabled, gay, of a different or minority skin colour, transgendered, and have no such issues,
and working with Simply Q offers them a chance to examine their own life script independently, to explore their own talents,
ideas, skills, personal development with a view to making positive changes to their lives.
In all cases the participant is offered a way out of their own life circumstances and the social stigma in exchange for
immediate social acceptance, a support network and their own unique position within Q and Simply Q.
This is why Simply Q offers 'mixed' workshops and productions based around the involvement of the participants themselves
who play an equally active role in all of Q's productions as the volunteers who work with them. We do not run workshops for
'homeless people' or 'the unemployed', but run workshops and stage productions which include homeless people and the unemployed,
and anyone and everyone else - we just see people - and this is our difference from other such theatrical projects. This is
the theory and this is the concept.
RUDOLF STEINER
Austrian philosopher, literary scholar, educator, artist, playwright, social thinker and esoterist.
(born 1861, died 1925)
Rudolf Steiner was influenced by people such as Aristotle, Goethe, Nietzsche and was a revolutionary Western philosopher
and thinker who discovered the science of anthroposophy, which he brought to the world along with anthroposophical medicine,
biodynamic agriculture, eurythmy, spiritual science and the Waldorf education system.
It is his contribution to the theory which makes it so innovative and revolutionary and what sets Stella Baker's work
as a playwright and a stage director apart from almost every other figure in modern theatre.
Although the application of the theory is impartial to both religion and politics - both of which are excluded from the
practical application of the theory - it is the development of this theory and the success of its application which is causing
Stella Baker to develop a new political ideology known as 'fair trade socialism' which is very close to the Islamic Socialist
theory of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Steiner has inspired some of the most successful elements of the theory and methodology, and Stella Baker is the first
and arguably the only Western playwright and stage director to actively employ Steiner's anthroposophy heavily in her artistic
work.
Some of the most innovative and yet successful elements of the theory include the Waldorf pattern of training and workshops
which relies on the active involvement of participants, the Ahriman-Lucifer Axis of Polarity (explained below), the Meditative
Approach to role and character development and the use of anthroposophy, meditation and spiritual development to eradicate
inhibitions and negativity from being stigmatized, to effectively unlock better and far more positive creative, expression
and thinking strategies and - most importantly - to be able to efficiently teach theories and strategies which once took years
of study within a matter of hours.
THE AHRIMAN-LUCIFER AXIS OF POLARITY.
There are two polar influences of evil based on the figures of Ahriman and Lucifer. Both the Ahriman concept of evil and
the Lucifer concept of evil have both negative and positive sides.
Lucifer is social or mass evil whereas Ahriman is evil found in human evolution.
Lucifer appeals to pride and offers the delusion of divinity but when challenged can change to its polar positive qualities
of creativity and spirituality.
Ahriman causes someone to deny their own divinity and to live purely in the sexual, physical and material world but when
challenged can change to its polar positive qualities of intellectuality and technology.
Direct confrontation, protest, threat and fear motivation only serves to arouse the negative qualities of Lucifer within
others. It is strongly asserted that by non-confrontational challenges of transactions and employment of strategies of Transactional
Analysis we can elicit and encourage the positive qualities of Lucifer.
It is diversity, culture, technology and direct human social interaction which disenfranchises Ahriman evil and through
transactions and the theory can promote spiritual development, increased self-esteem and self-confidence, and remove fears
and inhibitions caused by being stigmatized.
This enables the theory to advocate spiritual development without any bias towards any major religion or spiritual beliefs
and the project welcomes anyone irrespective of their hierarchy of values or spiritual beliefs.
WALDORF TRAINING
This is a concept developed through workshops, rehearsals and meetings which apart from the two initial 'basic training'
meetings allows for meetings to take place without any pre-determined structure, plan or schedule.
All meetings are centred around and have a strong emphasis on the participants themselves, as it is the degree of involvement
taken by each participant which is directly relative to the personal success of the participant whilst on the project and
also the degree of benefit they gain from being involved on the project.
Meetings are friendly, relaxed, and start with a social period where participants are welcomed into the meeting over coffee,
tea and biscuits and where they are encouraged to interact socially with others, talk about their lives and experiences, which
is extremely effective at bonding the group and stimulates the ability to focus, to imagine, to be creative, and to feel secure,
confident and more sure about what they are doing.
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