Katari Brown, Joanna Rotté
ALL VICTORIOUS OCEAN was adapted by Philadelphia playwright and actor Joanna Rotté from the 18th Century Tibetan masterpiece, The Secret Life and Songs of the Tibetan Lady Yeshe Tsogyal. (see Artist’s Statement) This 75-minute theatre production depicts momentous events that took place in 8th century Tibet during the extraordinary life of Yeshe Tsogyal, a tantric yogini, who unstintingly pursues spiritual liberation and becomes the first Tibetan to attain complete enlightenment: the ultimate realization of the Buddhist path.
The cast includes:
· Yeshe Tsogyal – (YESH ay SO gyal) the legendary ageless tantric yogini
· Disciple – a young woman with all the marks of a dakini, (literally “sky dancer” or the feminine embodiment of enlightened energy) who sings and maintains a purification ritual throughout the performance
Joanna Rotte, Russell Pagano, Kris Harvey-Stinson, Dan Perelstein
· Chorus of practitioners – two men and a woman, mantra (sounds and syllables that are chanted to foster spiritual transformation) chanters and singers, who emerge as characters in Yeshe Tsogyal’s story
· Guru Padmasambhava – fully realized Meditation Master (who introduced Tantric Buddhism into Tibet and was Yeshe Tsogyal’s Guru as she was his Queen Consort)
The production includes an original music score by Dan Perelstein (see Creative Team; Composer’s Notes) and a variety of choreographed gestures and movements inspired by traditional Tibetan sacred dance.
The stage environment is designed by Production Designer Ellie Byrom-Haley (see Creative Team) in a style we are calling “Magical Minimalism” inspired by the Tibetan Buddhist discipline of “sacred space”.
The costumes, designed by Heidi Barr, are historic yet modern, combining traditional Tibetan lush silks and embroidered brocades with contemporary attire of shades of grey, blue, and black.
A 25-minute version of the script was first performed as a solo reading in November 2008, at the Shambhala Meditation Center in Philadelphia in honor of the Feminine Principle, which in Buddhism is viewed as the embodiment of pristine wisdom, or the quality of fundamental wakefulness, that is inherent in human beings. The occasion marked the installation of a banner depicting Yeshe Tsogyal as the symbolic representation of the Feminine Principle. A 40-minute version of the script was performed as a solo reading in December of 2008 at the Won Institute for Applied Meditation Studies in Philadelphia. The current 75-minute play premiered October 30th 2009 as the feature cultural event of the 38th Annual Conference (Mid-Atlantic Region) of the Association for Asian Studies, hosted by Villanova University.
Photos by Julia Wilkinson (www.juliawilkphoto.com)
