Glass Bead Game
In the General Introduction to The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse presents a model for a fictitious society of scholars, separated from the world, engaging, rearranging, and reformulating the inherited traditions of all the world’s knowledge. This process, called the Glass Bead Game, is defined as “a mode of playing with the total contents and values of our culture; it plays with them as, say, in the great age of the arts a painter might have played with the colors on his palette.” Not withstanding the utopian-dystopian machinations of the novel as a whole, as it explores the boundless nature of human potential and the implications of our attempts to bound that potential, the Glass Bead Game offers an excellent metaphor for the art of rearrangement. I have borrowed the title to demonstrate an aspect of artistic practice that focuses on thematic organization and expression of the world’s ideas. This is an ongoing project that offers models for multidisciplinary performance practice, playlist construction, and similar modes of organizing knowledge to help elucidate the threads running through discrete disciplines, and to support development of interdisciplinary consciousness.
Night
PROLOGUE
...sunset… (6pm)
Raga Purvi (sunset) improvisation with:
Poetry Reading: Ulysses excerpt, by Tennyson (UK/Ancient Greece)
Beginning with “the lights begin to twinkle,” to end of poem.
1.Purim Dance: Hara’ashan / The Noisemaker (Israel)
ACT I
...moonrise… (6-8pm)
[THEMATIC EMPHASIS: THE LUNAR IMAGINATION]
Raga Yaman (early night) improvisation with:
Poetry Reading: From Mistral’s Madwomen (Chile)
“The night itself is riddled with her, / wide with her, and alive with her. / It seems that it has no word / or other traveler, no other secret sign.”
2. Guzheng Song: Autumn Moon over the Han Palace (China)
3. Comedy Sketch: featuring the Space Race and Moon Landings (inspired by Eddie Izzard’s “Do You Have a Flag” sketch) - (USSR/USA)
4. Dance and Drumming: Macru (Guinea/Susu) A dance to celebrate the full moon.
5. Commedia dell’ Arte Improvisation: Pierrot sketch (Italy)
6. Rock Song: Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival (USA)
...the night is young… (8-10pm)
[THEMATIC EMPHASIS: OPTIMISM AND REBIRTH]
Raga Chayanat (early night) improvisation with:
Poetry Reading: Your Night is of Lilac by Mahmoud Darwish (Palestine)
7. Arabic Popular Song: Sakan El Leil/ The Night Became Young فيروز - سكن الليل by Fairuz/Gibran [Translation] (Lebanon)
8. Narrative and Reenactment: Water Lantern Ceremonies of East Asia and educational piece on how the event manifests across Asia, with instrumental Thai music in the background (East/SE Asia)
9. Isicathamiya Song: The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Ladysmith Black Mambazo (South Africa)
...for in dreams we enter a world that is entirely our own… (10pm-12am)
[THEMATIC EMPHASIS: DREAMSCAPES]
Raga Kirvani (night) improvisation with:
Poetry Reading: Talking in the Night by Rumi (excerpt, first 20 lines)
10. Folk Quartet: Son Mi Doide (Bulgaria) [lyrics] An a capella song from the Rhodope mountains about dreaming of a little maiden on a river.
11. Theatre: Excerpt from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (England) A dream scene from the Shakespearean classic.
12. Media: Projected Gameplay of Psychonauts (USA) A videogame about entering people’s dreams.
13. Theatre and Music: Excerpt from Noh Play Kanawa (Japan) A divine oracle visits dreams and helps a woman become a demon out of spite for a lover who betrayed her.
14. Flamenco Song and Dance: La Estrella Blanca by Fondo Flamenco (Spain) A song about dreams and desires.
INTERMISSION
Zozobra Burning (New Mexico)
ACT II
...burning the midnight oil… (12-2am)
[THEMATIC EMPHASIS: NIGHT PARTIES, CELEBRATIONS, AND LAMENTATIONS]
Raga Bahar (midnight) improvisation with:
Poetry Reading: Yawn of Yawns by Vasko Popa (Serbia)
15. Bollywood Dance: Dholi Taro Dhol Baaje (India)
16. Performance: Drag Show Piece (LGBTQIA+)
17. Film: Film Noir Spoof (France/USA)
18. Tango Song and Dance: Amargura by Carlos Gardel (Argentina)
A song about bitterness: “Star of the sky, why do you look at me?”
...the witching hour… (2-4am)
[THEMATIC EMPHASIS: CREATURES OF THE NIGHT]
Raga Hindol (after midnight) improvisation with:
Poetry Reading: The Night by Rilke (Germany)
19. Reading/Painting: Excerpt from Roald Dahl’s The BFG with Live Painting (Norway): A children’s book excerpt about the mythology and whimsy of the witching hour.
20. Aria: Queen of the Night by Mozart (Austria)
21. Film: Remake Scenes based on What We Do in the Shadows (New Zealand)
22. Folk Song: La Llorona (Mexico)
23. Comedy Sketch: A student collaboration piece featuring dark creatures from around the world, highlighting similarities and differences of international folklore.
...it’s always darkest before the dawn… (4-6am)
[THEMATIC EMPHASIS: SILENCING]
Raga Sohini (before sunrise) improvisation with:
Poetry Reading: Night Funeral In Harlem by Langston Hughes (USA)
24. Choro Song: Noites Cariocas by Jacob do Bandolim (Brazil)
25. Shadow Choreography and Narrative of the Disappeared (Global): A Highlight of global political “disappearances” past and present.
26. Calypso Song: Last Night The Landlord Nearly Killed Me by Lord Christo (Trinidad)
27. Filler: The Moon Gazer (Trinidad/Guyana)
28. Folk Rock Song: House of the Rising Sun by the Animals (NOLA folk/UK)
POSTLOGUE
...sunrise…
Raga Ahir Bhairav (daybreak) improvisation with:
Poetry Reading: Dawn Chorus by Sasha Dugdale (UK)
29. Dance: Choreography to Also Sprach Zarathustra by R. Strauss (Germany)
Bows to Saturday Night by the Bay City Rollers (Scotland)