Category: Others

“What is not trained while we are growing, brings pain and aches later… On the second floor of the school I line up Hiroko with children of her age group and gave everyone a number. Then, standing in front of them, I called out, “Attention, everybody. When I call one, two, three, put your right hand on top of your head as fast as you an – at the word three, remember, not before or after.” This training ability is very fine for violin playing. Children enjoy this game very much. Before a rehearsal I let them play it to loosin them up, and without fail, they are besides themselves with pleasure, laughing and giggling. But Hiroko alone was very slow in putting her hand on her head. She really took her time, as if time were nonexistent. More than playing Violin, I wanted her to change her pace of movement. I continued the game with all the children. Finally, Hiroko could play violin well, and did her best to move with alacrity. The next twelve or thirteen years showed a surprising change. She became alert and active, and she acquired a large repertoire of music. Now Hiroko Yamada is the only Japanese girl member of the Berlin Radio Orchestra.”

“I am speaking here under the rubric, Technique and Interpretation in the Performing Arts, and if there were ever a title dreamed up to strike me dumb, this one verges on inspiration. It is not that I have any difficulty with the idea of technique. I can see that as clearly as anybody that the notion of technique in, say, rock climbing, is immediately intelligible. But your actual rock climber, as opposed to a critic of rock climbing, would probably describe what he does as climbing up rocks in the way that seems to make the best sense if you don’t want to fall off the rock, and as your actual playwright, rather than a lecturer, I would say that the theater seems to me, on the whole, to be a way of telling stories which are acted out for an audience and which mean pretty much what the audience thinks they mean.

In a while I’ll probably drop this faux naif persona. I’m not even sure myself to what degree it’s a posture. But I don’t think of myself as employing a technique distinguishable from common sense and a common understanding of storytelling. The rest is the hard part.”

– Tom Stoppard, “Pragmatic Theater”, pg. 1

I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. – Jorge Luis Borges