“Between 'action' and 'cut', that's mine. No matter how big
the production is, that's still my space. That's a sacred place.” – Oscar Isaac
Jerzy Grotowski, the Polish theorist, used the term, The
Holy Actor, so then it could be said, the holy actor is in a sacred place. In
what ways is art hallowed? Grotowski takes an insightful stab at that question:
Why do we sacrifice so much energy to our art? Not in order
to teach others but to learn with them what our existence, our organism, our
personal and repeatable experience have to give us; to learn to break down the
barriers which surround us and to free ourselves from the breaks which hold us
back, from the lies about ourselves which we manufacture daily for ourselves
and for others; to destroy the limitations caused by our ignorance or lack of
courage; in short, to fill the emptiness in us: to fulfill ourselves...art is a
ripening, an evolution, an uplifting which enables us to emerge from darkness
into a blaze of light.
Be it theatre, film, music, writing, art… this is the divine
nature of the pursuit. Creation. But the art is just the (bi)product. The
creation is within; it’s the continual (re)discovery through observation and
self-examination, which, if done with real intent, discards the façade, until
the true self emerges. The legend of Michelangelo’s artistry has it correct,
“You just chip away the stone that doesn’t look like David.”
The beauty of art is that it’s a shared experience, so as
artists are chipping away, I get to chip too. The more I allow others'
creations to affect me, the more fully me I become, Inside. After all, life is
art, or at least it can be if it's lived bravely and in wonder. And, because
this movie touches on all these aspects, it fills me full with that "blaze
of light."
