Some people try to use the work as they learn it and they're just not good at passing it on to others. Some people try to use the ViewPoints as a technique to stage plays and end-up creating a big mess and confusing (and sometimes pissing-off) a lot of people. Of course, several articles have been written on how different "qualified" directors make use of ViewPoints for ensemble-building and/or blocking rehearsals, and most of the mistakes I've seen fall somewhere on that axis. Though, I've also seen some people morphing the work into something entirely different, and though I didn't myself agree with those specific instances, who's to say that ViewPoints can't bend and change and continue to evolve in new and strange ways. We don't want it to become a dead language after all. Certainly, in the years between my various encounters with Barney O'Hanlon (SITI member, longtime Bogart and Overlie collaborator, and the most dedicated explorer of the ViewPoints as a concept that I've ever met) his own interpretation of the work has grown, evolved, and deepened. Whole sections of the training that seemed at the center of it ten years ago have been more recently cast slightly aside by those on the vanguard of testing the ViewPoints and their application.

How to Offend Me

The difference between those who offend me and those who don't has largely to do with the respect they give to the ViewPoints and its teachers, and their honesty about their own experience. All the good ViewPoints instructors I've had have been very careful to explain that the only viewpoints they can teach are their own interpretation of what they;ve learned. As Barney said in the last workshop I watched (just a couple months ago) "I don't teach Anne Bogart's ViewPoints, I don't teach Mary Overlie's ViewPoints, I teach my understanding of the ViewPoints - Barney's ViewPoints." When people start talking ViewPoints as if they're an expert, or without first clarifying their position, I do tend to tune out.

Isaac, too, admits to a prejudice that rises when people talk about Viewpoints. His seems to be for an entirely, maybe opposite reason, and he's right to wonder where it comes from. Where does mine come from? Why so protective? Why is it such a hotpoint?

I like Zack Calhoun's point.

Viewpoints is a big buzz word and I feel is often wielded by some inexperienced directors who are making up for their lack of confidence by dropping the term.

The ViewPoints Are MINE!

Or, maybe it's like when you have that one favorite band that no one else knows about. For me it was Ben Folds Five. Again, I'm not gonna play the game, but me and that band went waaaay back, they were mine. And then one day they were on MTV and after not too long everyone knew them, and I had to wait in line for good seats at their concerts, and watch from far away, and I was happy for their success, but I didn't really want to share. Maybe my prejudice about ViewPoints has more to do with that. I'm willing to admit to that. And I do see the idiocy of it.

On to Isaac's other questions.

How/when do you use the viewpoints? Do you find them helpful? For what purposes? For those of you who've studied with the SITI company, what was the experience like?

3 Ways I Use the ViewPoints

I use the ViewPoints in a couple different ways, depending on the play.

1) I always lead the cast in ViewPoints training, no matter what play we're working on. It is a great way to build ensemble, get past the awkward stages, and bond people quickly. It's also good training for any actor's body and mind. Also, it encourages a creative, open atmosphere, which is what I cherish most of all in the rehearsal room. So, no matter what the play is, we train before anything else.

2) Some, maybe most, of the shows we make are original, essay/collage works. They are in some ways similar to SITI's earlier work (and their upcoming Hemispheric Disturbances) and contain a lot of somewhat abstract movement work. We use Viewpoints as one way to quickly and effectively generate movement as an ensemble. How this happens is difficult to describe, and it's different each and every time. Essentially though, the Viewpoints training helps the actors to improvise movement that's engaging and meaningful. The actors improvise, I take notes (and videotape), we talk about or point to what was cool, improvise some more, play games, work around benchmarks and concepts, and eventually end-up with a movement sequence. Then, we mash some words on top of it and see what happens. The words and the movement each assert their needs, and eventually we reach a compromise that's difficult to perform and fun to watch. This method is very similar to some of the ways I've seen SITI use improvisation in their rehearsals and it grew in part out of my obsessive research into their methods.

3) The ViewPoints are also present though, and are always a part of the way I view the world, and our work. So, even if I was directing The Odd Couple for some odd reason, I'd be paying close attention to spatial relationships, tempo, timing, and so forth, and looking for opportunities to make more interesting use of those relationships. It's also a great way to communicate with actors and give them freedom. Rather than saying, "Ian, you need to sit in the chair for that line," I might say, "Ian, could you tend to the architecture in that moment?" Ian knows what I mean because of our shared vocabulary, and we've found an opportunity for him to make something that'll probably be cooler than if he just sat down.

Music and Lyrics

One very astute critic, Jay Weitz, said that the relationship between the movement and words in our shows is like the relationship between music and lyrics. The movement is the music. The actors all really liked that idea, and said that the movement, while adding a layer of difficulty, actually makes it a lot easier to remember all the long speeches and big words in our shows.

(Another actor once described our process as "running around in circles for a couple of weeks until it turns into a play" which is maybe a little more accurate than I'm comfortable with.)

Returning to the Source

As for my experience with Anne Bogart and SITI, I think of it as returning to the source. They are a source of energy, encouragement, and inspiration. We're always trying to push ourselves to explore the ViewPoints and our work in new ways, and each encounter with Anne and SITI gives us new insights to incorporate and discuss. In fact, this last encounter with Barney and Akiko Aizawa caused a radical change in the way I lead ViewPoints training and has opened me up to ways of thinking about the rehearsal process in general. I think I'm more open than ever.

So, there's my initial contribution. Who else out there is using ViewPoints? How? What do you do different? What have you gained from your exposure to the training and the work of its practitioners? What do you think?

Endnotes

(Also, I type it like that, ViewPoints, with the capital P, just cause I think it's cool. It doesn't mean anything, and it's not official in any way.)

A Note on Credentials: Often people start these ViewPoints conversations by listing their credentials. And I get it, but It's a mode of introduction that I've grown really tired of over the past few years. As soon as you say "Viewpoints" or "Anne Bogart" or "SITI" in a room, everyone feels the need to show that they know more than you do, or at least that they've had more contact with Anne Bogart than you. (Obviously, that's not true of everyone, and those who don't do that know who you are, and it's part of the reason we're still talking and working together.) I don't really get-off on that game, so I hope it can suffice for me simply to say that I've learned a lot about ViewPoints and how Anne Bogart and Mary Overlie and Tina Landau work and I feel confidant that I've approached this work with due respect and thoroughness. (I guess if anyone wants to take specific issue with this, they can email me.)

Note: If you read this post earlier, you may thinking, "what happened?" Yes, I re-arranged a bit, I put the pissy part at the end instead of the beginning. I like it better now.