Hello! Namaste! Holla! Chau! Ola! Bonjour!Konichiwa! Gutin tag!

a place called Home

When you travel, when you're away from home for a long time (it's been 5 years for me now)- you're not in India, America, Brazil or England.... You're in a limbo, in a psychological place you create, a land you cultivate on your own, that is not called Home, but is rather a foreign space that you fill in, and transform into yours, where you live, from within you breathe. And that is the place called "away from home".

It is this place that becomes your sense of identity, and strangely enough, your stability. It is this place that is the source of inspiration, the roots for creation, and paradoxically this is the new "home"- "away from home".

"Away from home" I blossom, I feel free, independent, emancipated, creative, responsible and happy. So I stay 'away from home' and make this place, home.

Ritual and Performance

(...)All around us there are rituals: repetitive behaviour patterns performed with meaning and symbolic representation.
It is to compensate the somehow lack of ritualistic performance, collective behaviour, gathering, coreographed rehearsed movement, that people come to the East, in search of the "mystical".

What we call the mystic behaviour is a result of a meaningfull act. It is born in the mental projections of ourselves (our thoughts and emotions) upon our actions (movements and interactions) filling them with meaning, attention, believes, awareness. Ritual is a manifestation of a conscious behavioural pattern. These physical-mind connection, its present awareness, lacking so much in the western society can only be replaced by one act: the performative act.

Theatre is the new ritual, a spiritual awareness exercise, a collective gathering. It's the salvation of Unity in Society, the unique possible replacement of Religious Thought and Practices. It is though not a religion, or a set of beliefs, but rather a collective act, being impulsive rather then a form of control.

It is then fundamental that its development aims the sacred, the rite, the ritual, the collective and its clear purpose is to enshorten the gap between the individual and the collective consciouness.
It is therefore most important for all theatre practicioners to consider envolving the audience in their performance, and to offer this performance to a superior consciouness, the Cosmic Order, as a collective and sacred ritual.

Research for the modern performance lays ultimately on the ancient roots of Performative social Behaviour- RITUAL!

the traveller

Poets and travellers are angry people because they see the world as whole.
The traveller is the one who speaks with his eyes and sees with his mouth.
He is not afraid of death, just afraid of dying bored.
He likes to be surprised but he is so used to deal with the unexpected that he can only be surprised by himself and the things he can do.
The traveller always finds his own rythm and follows his own pace.
The true traveller behaves like natives and mingles but he carries news from other places and therefore he always changes the places he goes with his presence.The traveller respects the environment cause he know he will die otherwise.
The traveller looks for experience, the tourist for entertainment.
The traveller looks for the process. The tourist looks for achievement.
The traveller enjoys the journey, the tourist prefers the return.

The immigrant perspective

> AGAINST THE WHEEL OF CAPITALISM
>
> face it.
> i am lost in a place of non language
> i am entitled to silence with no rhythm
> i have friends that don't exist
> in a house that doesn't belong to me.
> i am from the sea
> do mar, do existir
> Not a bird with wings or kidneys
> See, my friends say they have no fear and those are
> the ones
> "they" call reals.
> But that ain't one person with no fears.
> Salve Dalai Lama, Bless Him.
> I am not a lyer, but a pretender
> A real one, mind.
> I don't eat fashion
> but I eat meat.
> And I've never killed no one.
> Except mosquitoes...
> Mainly in India.
> I don't believe in politics
> They get all the attention
> What about the poets?
> The poets of no-language
> Don't they get a voice?
> Cause, see, i have a cause
> I got more then one cause
> But most of all my cause is me.
> My freedom.
> My expression.
> And all I want is to communicate
> All we ever wanted was to
> commune
> communicate...and now.....
> we commute to commit
> To see the bridges to our future
> I ain't got a voice
> I ain't got a mirror
> I ain't got make up on...
> Damm it! I forgot my sleepers!
> But I got a job.
> Men! I pay taxes.
> And I feed the state. I feed the wheel...
> And boy....oh! boy!!!
> I can't still express my ass.
> I can't cook for the President.
> Mr.President:
> Yesterday I have eaten fried chicken.
> And I've paid a couple of words.
> Say what? Pounds? Dollars?Euros?
> Who gives a chit?
> All the same. I ended up eating chit
> and I still don't have a voice.
> And I say, oh you, mr.terrorist
> will you kill Bush?
> Will you kill the mother fuckers who raped your wifes?
> Will you kill the bastards that put ideas in your
> minds?
> Will you consider Islam?
> Think about it.
> you.i pay taxes.
> i respect.
> You want my opinion?
> ask me. I'll tell you.
> See my life?
> I'm here cause you made me come here.
> Cause you sold me a dream.
> And made me leave my country.
> Well, thank you.
> Now give me my freedom.
> Do not kill the innocents.
>
> the immigrants
>
> -

ROOF THEATRE east meets west

for more info: www.rooftheatre.blogspot.com

ROOF THEATRE PROJECT

is a way to re-integrate art and ritual in our daily lives, a way to re-connect the world and the arts, ourselves and each others.

The project started as a search of an acting method and became a method of action.
I started trying to find an universal method that would suit any actor independently of his age, gender, cultural or economical background.
Workshops and research were made in different countries, with the most various people and the understanding of that method extended into a social action.
More then a method the work became a practice, and that practice is fundamental for the understanding of its method.

For me theatre is a way to meet the self, an encounter of our body, mind and emotion- bringing awareness into our presence.
Theatre is a practice, an exercise, bringing out a more articulate consciousness of the all.

My work starts in the empty, neutral, black space.
Interculturalism is the base for my research allowing a neutral field of creation to be born.

Roof theatre method is one to embody mind experience.
The performer listens to their inner journeys and concentrates on the actions, realizing it's intention, and consciously responding to impulses.

The performer as an object of study is divided in parts that are organically connected between them, and must be re-connected whenever he is performing, as a different level of energy is being used. These parts are designated mental body, physical body and emotional body, and the relation between them is energy.

For energy we understand a movement of opposite forces or an interaction between concentration and release of tensions.
It's a very physical experience and there's nothing mystical or metaphysical in it.
The energy is classified in terms of quality, rhythm, direction, and intention, and must be realized objectively by the performer in action and in pre-action.
Therefore, all energy is spent in conscious movement or conscious stillness.

The awareness of this process is germinated in the performer through exercises that decompose his actions into stimulus, motivation, need, impulse, action and re-action.
The emotional body awareness is raised by exercises that work with memories, dreams, and motivations that are artists creative material.
Relaxation exercises, postures, massage, voice exploration and movement compositions are used to develop physical awareness.

Roof Theatre process is one of de-mechanization, the retuning, or de-tuning of the performer.
During my workshops we work from the starting point of what gives each one of us pleasure.

Whatever makes you dream, will be the starting point for a process that goes from physical warm up, search for movement identity, encounter of your own voice, creating a character, working a text , learning lines, work on physical actions, playing intentions,to observing techniques. The workshop plan is always changed according to the needs of the group participating.

We can focus on character, on movement, on the emotional body, or on how can one approach a play.
It's part of Roof Theatre process to allow each performer to express what they want to work and to give them the space to do so.
As a director, I don't give solutions, I guide the actor towards his own solution.

The workshop is an experimental space for each participant liberates his own creativity, a relaxed and involved event that allow people to develop their theatre acquaintance, body consciousness and self-wakefulness becoming more present and alive.
It is usually an unexpected experience for most of participants because it operates as an extreme emotional release, giving them a way to express themselves, withou needing any special techniques or divine talents.

ROOF THEATRE promotes workshops in LONDON.
FOR MORE INFO CONTACT: www.rooftheatre.blogspot.com

WAKE UP WOMAN SITE SPECIFIC VIDEO PERFORMANCE

Wake up woman!
The cock is crowing;
It's 3 a.m.
Wake up- it's time to weed the fields
in the distant hills.
Sleep no more;
Arise from the burdens of yesterday,
Forget the hours of toil
In that hot sun
That arose when you worked in the field
But set while you hurried to clear the weeds.
In the dark you return, as you left,
To those empty cooking pots.
Alas! the day is over
When the family enjoys the day's meal
But before you rest your feet
A voice calls: Woman get me hot water!
With that you know it's over
Until the cock crows
And the circle begins again:
Wake up woman!
Wake up woman!

by Assumpta Acam-Oturu, Uganda.


I came across this poem two years ago, in a book entitled "Eye to eye, women", beautifully compiled by Anita Desai, a fabulous indian novelist.
Even though the poem doesn't strike me as an amazing piece of writing, there was something in it that made me read it again, and again, and again.
I particularly liked its rhythm, its circular repetitive structure, the simplicity of the short sentences. If you see, its connection with nature is made in a more realistic and less idyllic way and there is much said in it in such a short melodic way!
We can feel through these words a tired working body, obeying its duties in life, surviving and waiting for release. The cycle of life is therefore implicit, and behind this cycle we feel a strong energetic will to carry on despite the difficulties, a strength of character and an understanding of daily life in the big picture that is very feminine, utterly being an expression of womankind.
Women in Uganda, as in most parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, still do most of the work- they grow and cook food, gather water and wood, and take charge of rasing children. I like particularly the fact that it was written by one of these women, and so I believe the context in which it was written to be extremely relevant.

When I found this poem, hidden in a small southwestern british library, I had just arrived from India myself, and was very in touch with the different ways of women, their roles, differences and similarities.I had realized by looking at women's positions in politics, in their religions, in their families and in their culture in the east, my own position as a woman in the western world and in this universe, and most crucially I understood there weren't many differences between east and west, on a deeper level.
I decided then it was time for a deeper reflection on this important social, political and also spiritual issue. Women studies, women movements needed an artistic and simultaneously realistic approach, that would be all encompassing, whilst specific.
To become aware is to resist. There are enough women in this era well enough aware that their self-sufficience, education, and involvement in politics is so important that they need to undertake some serious action.
It is to them that I'm now working.

in the underground, London

Ana Baldaia

Ana Baldaia is a traveller, a writer, a performer, a workshop leader, a performance researcher, a theatre director, a feminist, a youth worker, a cooker, a lover, a friend, a sister and a daughter.
She studied acting in Portugal and Directing in New York.
She created and directs Roof Theatre, a laboratory for Theatre Research, promoting workshops in Lisbon, London, Rio, Mombai and NY.
She performed in different plays and video work.
She is currently working on a liveart show (video and performance) entitled Wake up Woman.
In this blog you can find information about her work, pictures and some of her writing.