|
Newsletter 4/2002
CRAZY WISDOM
The Gurdjieff Musical
by John Maxwell Taylor
Eight years ago, I began composition of a large-scale musical
based on the life of Gurdjieff. As Thomas de Hartmann points
out on one of the Gurdjieff/De Hartmann recordings, his teacher
placed great emphasis on the transforming power of music.
Gurdjieff also said that one day, epics would be written based
upon "Beelzebub's Tales."
Whether or not "Crazy Wisdom" qualifies as an epic,
its creation has been an epic undertaking, a conscious labor
born in the face of uncertainty. Given the state of musical
theater today, revivals and shows built around the hits of
pop stars such as Abba and Billy Joel, the prospect of a full
New York presentation was never an incentive. Entry level
for a basic Broadway musical production runs around $5,000,000.
And would the average Joe and his wife want to go and see
a show that tells them they are asleep?
In spite of such deterrents there are always greater forces
willing creativity to proceed. First, one knows that a teaching,
like time and the needs of an evolving human race, cannot
stand still. Gurdjieff and his message cannot be locked into
a standing position, like the stone over his grave in France.
I once had a dream that I was in that graveyard looking for
the last resting place of the man. I couldn't find it, but
when I exited I saw him looking at me through the eyes of
all the people on the street, as if to say "I am not
in there…I am out here in everyone. And I will teach
you through the people you meet and interact with." Such
a perspective connects us with a living Gurdjieff, one who
has escaped from the books and bindings of rigid outlook.
The living Gurdjieff is everywhere, calling us onto the judo
mat in ordinary daily situations, willing us to remember our
selves, setting up challenging scenarios. Freed by death from
the limits of three dimensions, the Gurdjieff of the 21st
century teaches directly, through conscience and consciousness
as an inner companion, a friend and guardian of the emerging
sense of "I".
Is it possible that an echo of such an influence can be caught
in a theatrical medium? In music drama, as Wagner well understood,
time and events can be compressed into actions that propel
listeners forward emotionally to higher consciousness. Musical
theater is not a book, or a teacher, a seminar or a memory.
It can be a living event in which the dead return to life.
Unless Gurdjieff becomes a living event in our individual
consciousness we risk turning him and his teaching into a
museum and ourselves into curators. In "Crazy Wisdom",
Gurdjieff's spirit reanimates to be seen and felt from a new
perspective.
Sometimes artistic creations challenge us to go beyond our
acquired programming and echo their potential aliveness within
ourselves. Whether or not they do so depends more on us than
the works themselves. I had a conversation with Tim Rice and
some friends in 1969 in a London pub when he was writing the
lyrics for "Jesus Christ Superstar." The question
arose as to whether Jesus would be recognized if he were to
walk in the door. All present concluded that he would not.
When "JC Superstar" became an international phenomenon,
against all odds, many Christians were appalled. It was not
their Jesus up there. Christ was a divinity, not a "Superstar"
and they considered the work sacrilegious. Yet many people's
lives were touched by seeing a musical that attempted to portray
a man who was more than a man. Today more than ever we need
to see examples of human possibility on the stage and screen.
The truth needs to be poured out of the eternal into new temporal
forms. I would like to think that the story of Gurdjieff as
told in "Crazy Wisdom" is a move in that direction.
listen
to a clip
John Maxwell Taylor
more info: http://www.worldtransformations.com/index.html
|
