MAHWAH, New Jersey (NNA) – An evolving international group of fourteen artists is coming together again to work on a new play based upon the characters and events of Rudolf Steiner’s first four Mystery Dramas.

The group consists of members of Portal Productions who produced Rudolf Steiner’s four Mystery Dramas in the English language and toured throughout the northern hemisphere during the 1980s and 1990s, as well as artists who worked on the Dvorak New World Symphony Eurythmy tour through Lemniscate Arts in 2005/6.

The Working of the Spirit is written by Michael Hedley Burton from an outline of scenes and events by the play’s producer, Marke Levene of Lemniscate Arts: “It is a project to create a vessel for the spirit in the arts now and in the future,” he says. As well as a modern fifth mystery drama, the group also plan to bring a Shakespearean production and an orchestral eurythmy production for twenty-first century audiences around the world in 2015/16

Marke Levene describes his approach to the work in the following way: “The lessons of the dramas are for me to understand how to work with the reality that only what we bring with us from our work with others will truly carry the formative forces of the future both individually and for the collective cultural possibilities. The aim is to reveal a pathway to an ever widening audience, at least an initial understanding of the complexity of destiny for individuals and for culture at large.”

Far-reaching revolution

Michael Burton is currently working on the second draft of the play: “My picture of what this new play could bring is of a far-reaching revolution in the performing arts. The work that we are planning will be hated by some, for it challenges people on many different levels. But there are new forms of art that we are only beginning to understand.

“The life-and-death questions of our time cannot be considered separately from questions regarding the presence or absence of spiritual powers in people’s lives, and the art of drama is uniquely placed to bridge human experience with objective, spiritual fact. This festival of a new form of speech, drama and eurythmy could change the world! We will start open to such possibilities, and gradually it will be revealed to us what is possible.”

Members of the group have come together in various locations around the world in the last couple of years, including Delphi, Spring Valley and London, as they have worked towards the content of the new drama. They have also sought to gain greater clarity of understanding of the formative forces of destiny and the central questions of esoteric Christianity that unfold in Steiner’s four dramas.

The group are currently working on plans for their next meeting and Michael Burton and UK-based, Adrian Locher, will come together shortly in Australia to work on further refinement of the texts. Mark Levene is also planning to spend time with Michael Burton in Australia to work on some of the developmental ideas that have arisen on the story line of the play itself.

Challenges

The challenge for the group of artists in producing a new play is to keep alive and develop a performing art that is rooted in beauty, truth and goodness while addressing today’s questions of the artistic direction in the company.

A second challenge is to consolidate the financial support needed to meet all of the production’s requirements and to seek contributions from around the world of those willing to assist in the aim of producing a modern mystery drama. This is a large anthroposophical project that will need financial support to meet its aims of bringing the spirit to international audiences.

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Contact: Lemniscate Arts, Suite 400, One International Blvd., Mahwah, NJ 07495, USA,
tel.: +1 707-695-2969, fax: +1 845-517-5497, email: info (at) WorkingOfTheSpirit.com. To donate visit the website (see link below).

Item: 140422-03EN Date: 22 April 2014

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