Artistic Statement
Joseph Campbell once wrote that the difference between a littérateur and an artist is compassion: the artist has compassion for the human experience. Curt Tofteland, the founder of Shakespeare Behind Bars, expanded on this idea of the necessity of compassion in art when he stated that “empathy is not a part of human nature. It’s not just there by natural occurrence. It’s there by example through what you see… We do that through art and literature. “The ideas of these great men proved true to my development as an artist and as a human being. As a teenager I was privy to the Royal Shakespeare’s production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream when it came to New York in the 1990s as well as The Tempest starring Patrick Stewart. These productions allowed me to see master artists at work. In my teens I wanted to know what made these performances so powerful for me. As I have grown older I understand that it is the compassion, philosophy and understanding of humanity that Shakespeare poured into his world as well as the compassion, philosophy and understanding of the theatre artist involved in these productions. I ruminate over these ideas as I try to understand my mission as a theatre artist. I believe that true understanding of humanity rests with what Jung describes as the collective unconscious. Creating performances that are based in the truths of the collective unconscious is the ultimate act of compassion and art. These numinous performances create an opportunity for apotheosis for both performer and audience member. I want to further my training in classical acting in order to strengthen my ability to create at this level.
My research and artistic projects concentrate on using Jungian archetypes, myths, motifs and monomyths for theatre making. I have a mission to democratize the consumption of art while raising the aesthetic; this mission manifests in my creation of theatre that often has social justice themes but are well crafted and utilize classical and innovative techniques. I focus on creating performances that resonate with the collective unconscious and thus are transcendent. Often my staging and directing style utilize expressionism and epic theatre. This work ranges from new dramatizations of classical theatre to creations of new works based on interviews and oral histories.
My projects move beyond many of the elements of physical theatre and traditional Eastern storytelling in that I have a strong emphasis and employment of epideictic rhetoric. In combination with the components of dramatic writing, my works are structured around exordium, narration, division, proof, refutation and peroration; these elements are presented through monologues, dialogues, and physical staging. My 2012 thesis production for the University of Louisville: Mad at Miles: A Black Woman’s Guide to Self Defense, utilized essays from Pearl Cleage to create an 80-minute stage play about domestic violence. The work on this production led me to research Carl Jung’s theories on the collective unconscious and archetypes. I used these theories to create characters from Pearl Cleage’s essays. This work was a turning point in my artistic career because it helped me pinpoint what truly makes theatre transcendent: the images and motifs of archetypes and the collective unconscious. I self-published my findings in a book entitled How I Make Transcendent Theatre. The process also allowed for me to gain understanding in playwriting and self-publish two plays: God in the Midst of It All as well as Lil’ Bard (a journey of a young girl’s understanding Shakespearean sonnets).
I often think of my artistic approach as purposeful expressionism. From the days when I was fifteen years old and watching my first Broadway play, I knew that theatre was a powerful communication between performer and audience. As I have grown as a director, I understand it is a communication among the audience and ALL the artists who serve to make a show happen. Therefore, in all my artistic endeavors I aim to move beyond an indulgence of displaying moods, neuroses, and fears on stage. Instead I hope to touch on what is true about the human psyche. When I find a play with theme or an idea that is exciting and/or frightens, I turn to the writings of Carl Jung, Marion Woodman, Stella Adler, Hegel, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Erich Neumann, Joseph Campbell, and other titans of mythology and aesthetics, and I research how this theme or idea fits in with the collective unconscious, and what this theme means in the course of individual and collective human development. The result of this effort (hopefully) is a nuanced production that depicts the truth of the human experience.
I utilize a pedagogy grounded in the theories of Stanislavski but that also leaves room for the heightened in performance. My students and actors become grounded in the subject/object relationship of the actor and the character. I believe in an experience-based and investigative approach in developing young artists. My classes are centered around risk-fail-risk harder; the objective to this approach is to create strong artists who can tackle the truth about the human experience. My mission as a theatre arts educator is to clarify process and raise the aesthetic of theatre arts.
My research and artistic projects concentrate on using Jungian archetypes, myths, motifs and monomyths for theatre making. I have a mission to democratize the consumption of art while raising the aesthetic; this mission manifests in my creation of theatre that often has social justice themes but are well crafted and utilize classical and innovative techniques. I focus on creating performances that resonate with the collective unconscious and thus are transcendent. Often my staging and directing style utilize expressionism and epic theatre. This work ranges from new dramatizations of classical theatre to creations of new works based on interviews and oral histories.
My projects move beyond many of the elements of physical theatre and traditional Eastern storytelling in that I have a strong emphasis and employment of epideictic rhetoric. In combination with the components of dramatic writing, my works are structured around exordium, narration, division, proof, refutation and peroration; these elements are presented through monologues, dialogues, and physical staging. My 2012 thesis production for the University of Louisville: Mad at Miles: A Black Woman’s Guide to Self Defense, utilized essays from Pearl Cleage to create an 80-minute stage play about domestic violence. The work on this production led me to research Carl Jung’s theories on the collective unconscious and archetypes. I used these theories to create characters from Pearl Cleage’s essays. This work was a turning point in my artistic career because it helped me pinpoint what truly makes theatre transcendent: the images and motifs of archetypes and the collective unconscious. I self-published my findings in a book entitled How I Make Transcendent Theatre. The process also allowed for me to gain understanding in playwriting and self-publish two plays: God in the Midst of It All as well as Lil’ Bard (a journey of a young girl’s understanding Shakespearean sonnets).
I often think of my artistic approach as purposeful expressionism. From the days when I was fifteen years old and watching my first Broadway play, I knew that theatre was a powerful communication between performer and audience. As I have grown as a director, I understand it is a communication among the audience and ALL the artists who serve to make a show happen. Therefore, in all my artistic endeavors I aim to move beyond an indulgence of displaying moods, neuroses, and fears on stage. Instead I hope to touch on what is true about the human psyche. When I find a play with theme or an idea that is exciting and/or frightens, I turn to the writings of Carl Jung, Marion Woodman, Stella Adler, Hegel, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Erich Neumann, Joseph Campbell, and other titans of mythology and aesthetics, and I research how this theme or idea fits in with the collective unconscious, and what this theme means in the course of individual and collective human development. The result of this effort (hopefully) is a nuanced production that depicts the truth of the human experience.
I utilize a pedagogy grounded in the theories of Stanislavski but that also leaves room for the heightened in performance. My students and actors become grounded in the subject/object relationship of the actor and the character. I believe in an experience-based and investigative approach in developing young artists. My classes are centered around risk-fail-risk harder; the objective to this approach is to create strong artists who can tackle the truth about the human experience. My mission as a theatre arts educator is to clarify process and raise the aesthetic of theatre arts.
←
Triza Cox
Artistic Statement
Joseph Campbell once wrote that the difference between a littérateur and an artist is compassion: the artist has compassion for the human experience. Curt Tofteland, the founder of Shakespeare Behind Bars, expanded on this idea of the necessity of compassion in art when he stated that “empathy is not a part of human nature. It’s not just there by natural occurrence. It’s there by example through what you see… We do that through art and literature. “The ideas of these great men proved true to my development as an artist and as a human being. As a teenager I was privy to the Royal Shakespeare’s production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream when it came to New York in the 1990s as well as The Tempest starring Patrick Stewart. These productions allowed me to see master artists at work. In my teens I wanted to know what made these performances so powerful for me. As I have grown older I understand that it is the compassion, philosophy and understanding of humanity that Shakespeare poured into his world as well as the compassion, philosophy and understanding of the theatre artist involved in these productions. I ruminate over these ideas as I try to understand my mission as a theatre artist. I believe that true understanding of humanity rests with what Jung describes as the collective unconscious. Creating performances that are based in the truths of the collective unconscious is the ultimate act of compassion and art. These numinous performances create an opportunity for apotheosis for both performer and audience member. I want to further my training in classical acting in order to strengthen my ability to create at this level.
My research and artistic projects concentrate on using Jungian archetypes, myths, motifs and monomyths for theatre making. I have a mission to democratize the consumption of art while raising the aesthetic; this mission manifests in my creation of theatre that often has social justice themes but are well crafted and utilize classical and innovative techniques. I focus on creating performances that resonate with the collective unconscious and thus are transcendent. Often my staging and directing style utilize expressionism and epic theatre. This work ranges from new dramatizations of classical theatre to creations of new works based on interviews and oral histories.
My projects move beyond many of the elements of physical theatre and traditional Eastern storytelling in that I have a strong emphasis and employment of epideictic rhetoric. In combination with the components of dramatic writing, my works are structured around exordium, narration, division, proof, refutation and peroration; these elements are presented through monologues, dialogues, and physical staging. My 2012 thesis production for the University of Louisville: Mad at Miles: A Black Woman’s Guide to Self Defense, utilized essays from Pearl Cleage to create an 80-minute stage play about domestic violence. The work on this production led me to research Carl Jung’s theories on the collective unconscious and archetypes. I used these theories to create characters from Pearl Cleage’s essays. This work was a turning point in my artistic career because it helped me pinpoint what truly makes theatre transcendent: the images and motifs of archetypes and the collective unconscious. I self-published my findings in a book entitled How I Make Transcendent Theatre. The process also allowed for me to gain understanding in playwriting and self-publish two plays: God in the Midst of It All as well as Lil’ Bard (a journey of a young girl’s understanding Shakespearean sonnets).
I often think of my artistic approach as purposeful expressionism. From the days when I was fifteen years old and watching my first Broadway play, I knew that theatre was a powerful communication between performer and audience. As I have grown as a director, I understand it is a communication among the audience and ALL the artists who serve to make a show happen. Therefore, in all my artistic endeavors I aim to move beyond an indulgence of displaying moods, neuroses, and fears on stage. Instead I hope to touch on what is true about the human psyche. When I find a play with theme or an idea that is exciting and/or frightens, I turn to the writings of Carl Jung, Marion Woodman, Stella Adler, Hegel, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Erich Neumann, Joseph Campbell, and other titans of mythology and aesthetics, and I research how this theme or idea fits in with the collective unconscious, and what this theme means in the course of individual and collective human development. The result of this effort (hopefully) is a nuanced production that depicts the truth of the human experience.
I utilize a pedagogy grounded in the theories of Stanislavski but that also leaves room for the heightened in performance. My students and actors become grounded in the subject/object relationship of the actor and the character. I believe in an experience-based and investigative approach in developing young artists. My classes are centered around risk-fail-risk harder; the objective to this approach is to create strong artists who can tackle the truth about the human experience. My mission as a theatre arts educator is to clarify process and raise the aesthetic of theatre arts.
My research and artistic projects concentrate on using Jungian archetypes, myths, motifs and monomyths for theatre making. I have a mission to democratize the consumption of art while raising the aesthetic; this mission manifests in my creation of theatre that often has social justice themes but are well crafted and utilize classical and innovative techniques. I focus on creating performances that resonate with the collective unconscious and thus are transcendent. Often my staging and directing style utilize expressionism and epic theatre. This work ranges from new dramatizations of classical theatre to creations of new works based on interviews and oral histories.
My projects move beyond many of the elements of physical theatre and traditional Eastern storytelling in that I have a strong emphasis and employment of epideictic rhetoric. In combination with the components of dramatic writing, my works are structured around exordium, narration, division, proof, refutation and peroration; these elements are presented through monologues, dialogues, and physical staging. My 2012 thesis production for the University of Louisville: Mad at Miles: A Black Woman’s Guide to Self Defense, utilized essays from Pearl Cleage to create an 80-minute stage play about domestic violence. The work on this production led me to research Carl Jung’s theories on the collective unconscious and archetypes. I used these theories to create characters from Pearl Cleage’s essays. This work was a turning point in my artistic career because it helped me pinpoint what truly makes theatre transcendent: the images and motifs of archetypes and the collective unconscious. I self-published my findings in a book entitled How I Make Transcendent Theatre. The process also allowed for me to gain understanding in playwriting and self-publish two plays: God in the Midst of It All as well as Lil’ Bard (a journey of a young girl’s understanding Shakespearean sonnets).
I often think of my artistic approach as purposeful expressionism. From the days when I was fifteen years old and watching my first Broadway play, I knew that theatre was a powerful communication between performer and audience. As I have grown as a director, I understand it is a communication among the audience and ALL the artists who serve to make a show happen. Therefore, in all my artistic endeavors I aim to move beyond an indulgence of displaying moods, neuroses, and fears on stage. Instead I hope to touch on what is true about the human psyche. When I find a play with theme or an idea that is exciting and/or frightens, I turn to the writings of Carl Jung, Marion Woodman, Stella Adler, Hegel, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Erich Neumann, Joseph Campbell, and other titans of mythology and aesthetics, and I research how this theme or idea fits in with the collective unconscious, and what this theme means in the course of individual and collective human development. The result of this effort (hopefully) is a nuanced production that depicts the truth of the human experience.
I utilize a pedagogy grounded in the theories of Stanislavski but that also leaves room for the heightened in performance. My students and actors become grounded in the subject/object relationship of the actor and the character. I believe in an experience-based and investigative approach in developing young artists. My classes are centered around risk-fail-risk harder; the objective to this approach is to create strong artists who can tackle the truth about the human experience. My mission as a theatre arts educator is to clarify process and raise the aesthetic of theatre arts.