During a rehearsal a few weeks ago, Tan Dun briefly mentioned the phrase “unconditional gentleness”. It seems that when he was a young man in a Buddhist environment, his teacher used this phrase to describe a way of being, a philosophy of living. It accurately describes the atmosphere that permeates this theater as we mount this world premiere.

This week, the week before our dress rehearsal and opening night, feels like we are “down to the wire”. There are staging changes, technical adjustments, costume and make-up refinements, changes in the musical score as music is added in some places, cut in others. They happen hourly and the amount of professionalism and good will from all members of the company is palpable. The librarians, who work long hours in order to get the orchestra scores ready for the following morning, not to mention informing everyone - the technical staff, stage managers, titles people, directing staff, musical staff, chorus, and yes, not least of all, the singers - so that we are all, literally, on the same page, deserve special mention. And yet, this is just one tiny example that is reflected throughout the entire theater.

All of us have had moments of stress as this baby is birthed. For creating is like that, especially when the product is so public! At some point we have to let the child be seen. Isn’t every creative project like that? The underlying structure, unconditional gentleness, sensitivity, support and encouragement remain solid, like the Great Wall of China.

This entry was posted by Donna Racik on Thursday, December 14th, 2006 at 2:18 pm and is filed under The First Emperor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.