Dance • Poetry • Storytelling • Art • Music
Performance
Nadia Hava-Robbins
PO Box 990667
Redding, CA 96099
(530) 229-7818
bohemian@snowcrest.net
Don't miss our next major event!
On the Verge of Absurdity
The Traveling Bohemians! return this fall with a new original performance, "On the Verge of Absurdity", a uniquely thought provoking yet entertaining evening of spoken word, music, song, dance, and art. Directed by Nadia Hava-Robbins, MA, storyteller, dancer, and poet, and featuring the works of Albert Camus and Franz Kafka, as well as a variety of Redding's best artists, this show promises to be their best yet!
Saturday, November 16, 2002 at 8:00 PM. Old City Hall. 1313 Market Street Redding. General admission $8.00, at the door or at Bernie's Guitar 3086 Bechelli Lane 223-2040. For information call 530-229-7818 or email bohemian@snowcrest.net
Saturday, November 16, 2002
8:00 in the Evening
The Old City Hall
1313 Market Street
Redding, CA
Performance, Art, and Philosophy
by Nadia Hava-Robbins, MA
10/1/02
The Traveling Bohemians! return this fall with a new original performance,
"On the Verge of Absurdity", a uniquely thought provoking yet entertaining
evening of spoken word, music, song, dance, and art.
This performance is about absurdity, existentialism, and individualism.
Absurdity in our lives is certainly not a novel concept. Take
communication, for example. At times it has become absurd and meaningless,
perhaps because of the disparity between what is said and what is done.
One of Samuel Beckett's characters remarked, "My dear have you ever thought
we speak a dead language?" To many of us, language does seem dead. Words
appear to be a series of lifeless objects strung together in a hopeless
attempt to convey a meaning or a feeling. Lev Shestov remarked, "Perhaps
truth by its nature makes communication between people impossible, in any
case, communication by the intermediary of words. Everyone may know it for
himself, but in order to enter into relations with his fellow men he must
renounce truth and adopt any conventional lie."
Another example of absurdity arises out of examining man's existence as
being meaningless or without purpose. It is no wonder than mankind has
pre-occupied himself throughout history with finding meaning in his life.
Ultimately, though, it is the responsibility of each individual to find
his/her own meaning or purpose in this chaotic world and to make decisive
choices about one's own future in order to achieve dignity as a human
being. Albert Camus felt that it was necessary to ponder the meaning of
life and the absence thereof, and that the human being longed for some
sense of clarity in the world. He said, "If the world were clear, art
would not exist." To take it a step further, Czeslaw Milosz concludes,
"Poetry, every art, is a flaw and reminds human societies that we are not
healthy, even if we confess it with difficulty."
Obviously, art - every kind of art - plays an important role in our lives.
Camus felt that art is an essential and fundamental human activity,
expressing aspirations to freedom and beauty. Art defies the notion that
individual existence is nothing more than a social unit and an
insignificant component in the evolution of history. He notes that when
artists are involved in their art they become truly themselves, reaching
their individual pinnacle of human existence.
Therefore, in keeping with this absurd, chaotic world of ours, the
Traveling Bohemians! have created an absurd performance, only to conclude
that everything is really OK as long as we become conscious of the
absurdity of our situation and try to take fate into our own hands as much
as we can under whatever circumstances.
This performance includes the works of Albert Camus and Franz Kafka, but
primarily showcases original works of poets, writers, storytellers, Craig
Boyer, Constance Mae Craver, Larry Harris, Sara Hoxie, and Shane Weissman; musicians and
songwriters, Suze Altieri, Nick Ciampi, Wade Craver, Brian J. Kenny, and
Garrett Sorenson; dancers Carolyn Burleigh, Jinjer Rader, and Suzanne Sullivan; and artist Joseph Aulde. Directed
by Nadia Hava-Robbins, MA, poet, storyteller, and dancer, who also performs
in the show, it promises to be their best yet.
Saturday, November 16, 2002 at 8:00 PM. Old City Hall. 1313 Market Street
Redding. General admission $8.00, at the door or at Bernie's Guitar 3086
Bechelli Lane 223-2040. For information call 530-229-7818 or email
bohemian@snowcrest.net.