Mechthild Harkness - Recently Updated Pages

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karapassingby — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 01:32:46 CST

Alan and Mechthild Harkness. Lear and Cordelia from Great Moments from Shakespeare

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Reviews and Clippings

Azdak — Thu, 10 May 2007 02:34:37 CDT

Newspaper Reviews and Program notes for Performances:

Live Art Society - Sakuntala
1928

The Ab-Intra Studio
1930's

Working with Chekhov
Dartington Hall
New York

Great Moments from Shakespeare
Europe and America
1949 -1950

High Valley Theatre Players
Ojai, California
1942 - 51

Mechthild Johannsen - Folk Songs
1948 -1952

Antigone Performances
Europe, America and Australia
1953 - 1970's

Working with Chekhov

Azdak — Thu, 10 May 2007 02:32:59 CDT

Michael Chekhov in Ivan the Terrible

Early Days - Kester Baruch writes from England, November 21, 1936

Dartington Hall: training session, 1936

Alan Harkness (undated photograph)

Playbill for The Little Theatre production of Twelfth Night, New York.
(Alan Harkness as Feste, far right.)

.... inside front cover

Cast list

Cast List cont.

Back page

Twelfth Night
Costume Design

(Alan Harkness)

Design for Feste

Design for Orsino

Design for Maria

Design for Malvoleo

Photographs from the production

(Alan Harkness as Feste)

Chekhov Theatre Players - Brochure cover

Centre page

cont..

Back page

The Cricket on the Hearth

Ridgefield, Connecticut, 1940

Mechthild Johannsen - Folk Songs

Azdak — Thu, 10 May 2007 02:21:02 CDT

High Valley Theatre

Azdak — Wed, 09 May 2007 01:50:17 CDT

The High Valley Theatre and Ojai Players 1942 - 51

Brochure for High Valley Theatre School

Program for Macbeth

Cast list for Macbeth

Review of program of Irish plays

Review of Pier Gynt, 1942

Review of Noah, 1942

Performance of Liliom, 1952

Ojai, California

Azdak — Wed, 09 May 2007 00:56:33 CDT

In 1947 Alan Harkness and colleagues formed the High Valley Theatre Workshop in the Ojai valley in California. The valley was a haven for artists, writers, musicians and those in search of spiritual refuge in a time of chaos. Krishnamurti lived there for many years, founding a high school with Aldous Huxley and others.

A brochure for the school expresses its aims as follows;

The aim of The High Valley Theatre is to be a workshop wherre actors may be fully trained, and a theatre where significant plays, old and new, may be prepared and sent on tour, with the actors receiving this necessary experience before audiences. The training ground is to be a home to which the actors may return and further develop and deepen the work.

The method of training is based on the approach of the Chekhov Theatre Studio, whereby a thorough training of voice and body for dramatic expression, as well as the actor's own inner creativeness is developed.

Some Important Aspects of the Training:

Imagination of a role, inner and outer characteristics and their incorporation.
Approach to technique through psychological gesture, objective and justification.
The five Greek Gymnastics which form a basis for many aspects of dramatic expression.
Deepening the experience of speech through studies based on Rudolf Steiner's method of Speech Formation and Eurythmy.
Fencing.
Dancing.
The application of all points of approach to dramatic sketches and improvisations, where problems of atmosphere, ensemble, rhythm, dramatic form and style are exercised.

Lectures will be given on theatre history, evolution of the drama and past and present trends.

Performances: A large part of the training will consist of public appearances in plays which have been prepared in the workshop. This will provide opportunity for practical experience in makeup, and in the preparation of costumes, scenery and lighting for the stage.

***

Notes about the aim in our Performances
(from the notebooks of Alan Harkness)

To transform the everyday body so that it may move as the expression of soul and spirit.
To transform the everyday speech so that the sounds and rhythms of poetry become vocal and inevitable

A word has its gesture

A movement has its sound

A true drama has its form which is gesture - movement sound - word.

There are studies which lead to these inner dynamics. When achieved in a performance they make a strong impression on an audience, even if it does not understand the actual language of the speech. The deeper levels of the human being are touched, not only of the head - understanding and sentiment. With such means one can more faithfully reveal the human tragi-comedy; awaken the emotions of the audience and in the Aristotelian sense bring harmony into these emotions.

We believe that the sustenance given to the audience psyche by such a performance is of especial value in our age when so much coarsens and deadens it.

Various techniques are being worked at to create this expressive rhythmical theatre and the response of audiences in Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Paris are encouraging - school children are particularly enthusiastic; but above all our aims are to move to tears and laughter; to invoke by the magic of theatre the unsuspected angels and even demons; and by the sympathetic participation of the audience to bring about a transformation of human nature. If only one could achieve it and if one dared say it: -

the theatre as an act of redemption.

This it certainly was at its greatest and can become so again today.

***

Notes for an article on The High Valley Theatre production of Uncle Vanya
- Alan Harkness

As it is with any work of art, different people have different interpretations of the play, Uncle Vanya. It is in interesting for those of us actively at work on a production of the play, here in Ojai, to read the New York critics on the current Old Vic presentation of the piece, and to note the local response here to the play. Stark Young, one of the few cultured and perceptive drama critics writing in New York, defends the play but criticises the lack of complete faith and mutual response in the acting of the English company. Of course reality and ensemble playing were especially developed by the Moscow Art Theatre where the Chekhov plays were first produced, and the plays are unthinkable without this weaving life. In reply to the criticism of 'gloom' he write: "Uncle Vanya is not gloomy; nothing so intense and inwardly alive could be dismissed as gloomy. It would also be called by Chekhov with his sensitive, observant, doctor's mind, a comedy."

Our presentation of the play must seem justified and stand or fall according to its ability to move and enthral an audience, and convey the special revelation of art. However a few words as to our view of the play, and our aims in producing it may be of interest.

To begin with, we feel privileged to work on Uncle Vanya in order to exercise out theatre craft. The plays of Chekhov with their psychological naturalism, the weaving of atmospheres and the subtly drawn characters demand a truthful and fine means of expression. Also, The High Valley Theatre has a small nucleus of actors who wish to work hard in an endeavour to create performances of excellence. From this group, Uncle Vanya could be well cast.

All the Chekhov plays show us that dark period 1890-1904; the fin-de-siecle, in middle class Russian life. Happily, that epoch is over, but in all parts of the world people are still living through the frustrations, hopes and boredoms of the Vanya characters. Very few have progressed beyond this. Outer technics have diverted the attention from within to gadgets and jittery mechanical amusements so that the soul is stunned; but those sensitive and courageous enough to look within will see with a certain humour and horror what Chekhov reveals. And here is one of the educational values in presenting the play: the objectifying of the feeling soul life. How few languid beauties are willing to look within, as does Yelena, and admit: "But as for me - I am a tiresome, futile person .... In music and in my husband's house and in all love affairs... When I come to think of it Sonya, I am very, very unhappy! There is no happiness for me in this world! None!"

But Chekhov is not all dejection. The Russian has abundant, vivid life and humour, and, although he has great difficulty in establishing any human balance between excesses of exaltation and despair, he has a religious belief in a future transformed humanity. Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov and Gorki all give expression to this. I do not believe this is a wishful thinking born out of dreadful social conditions, but a deep presentiment of a future development which may stem from this difficult but wonderful people.
In Uncle Vanya this belief is shown through the country doctor, Astrov, who is aware of this meanness of the contemporary life and of his own deadening feelings, and yet plants forests for a future race. Regarded as a crank by his contemporaries for his ideals and his refusal to eat meat, he is surely a portrayal of the country doctor Anton Chekhov himself. The last act is a remarkable texture of evening atmosphere and frustrated lives, with the bells of departing carriages jingling out into the night, carrying away the loved ones. But the play ends with a striking scene of belief in the future. Out of a broken heart, Sonya speaks to the sad Vanya words that glow with belief, while 'Waffles' strums a guitar.

Two catastrophic wars have shaken the world since Anton Chekhov wrote. People at all awake to the times are facing deeper abysses and seeking further illumination than the diagnosis and artistry of the doctor-writer could reveal. But as social history, Uncle Vanya shows us a dark epoch that is over and that had no answer or solution for the suffering humanity which Chekhov lays bare with acute sharpness and tender humour. As theatre, the play awakens fear and compassion and in the Aristotelian sense leads to a catharsis, also revealing that which art alone can reveal.

High Valley Theatre - in rehearsal

***

Great Moments From Shakespeare

Azdak — Wed, 09 May 2007 00:55:54 CDT

Images from
Romeo and Juliet

.

Images from
King Lear

Program - notes on scenes performed

Page from script

Images from Macbeth

Programme for Santa Barbara performance, 1951.

Review quotes taken from European performances. For further reviews and programs see Reviews and Clippings

'Moments' scrapbook

Azdak — Wed, 09 May 2007 00:48:20 CDT

..... an assortment of reviews and programs from performances of Great Moments from Shakespeare.

Gabriel Marcel in Les Nouvelles Litteraires, 16.2.1950

Review of Dornach performance, Jan. 1950

Review of Dornach performance

Review of German performance

Program for Dornach performance

Review of Dornach performance

Clippings re. Italian performances

American performances

Antigone Performances

Azdak — Mon, 07 May 2007 01:24:19 CDT

Program for London performance

Quotations from reviews

Extract from Canadian newspaper, 1953

Various clippings from American papers, 1953

more American reviews

Program notes for Australian performance during the 1970's.
At this stage Mechthild's school of dramatic arts, situated in Chatswood, was known by the name of Boama.

Program notes for Australian production

Notes for Australian production

Early Years: Sakuntala, The Ab-Intra Studio

Azdak — Mon, 07 May 2007 00:51:28 CDT

Prior to the formation of The Ab-Intra Studio, Alan Harkness worked with the Live
Art Society in their 1928 production of Sakuntala, the Indian classic by Kalidasa

THE LIVE ART SOCIETY

Sakuntala
1928

THE AB-INTRA STUDIO

Review: The Robe of Yama

Programs

Ab Intra cast list info

Reviews 1932

Review - Strindberg, Chekhov, Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Review: Jacques Copeau play

Ab Intra - Farewell Performance

In Memoriam

Azdak — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:26:42 CDT

The following is from a eulogy for Alan Harkness, given by Iris Tree:

Alan Harkness had radiance. Anyone who knew him must have felt this quality of light. He was light in his voice and movements in spite of the skinny legs and stomping feet that walked the earth. There was penetrating light in his thought, intentions and councils - and his search for clarity was also his search for form - for pure harmony and true ringing. Nothing murky, devious, soupy or sentimental. He even shocked us by his uncompromising clarities. He combined a strong will and great courage with intense pliability of mind and sensibility of body.

I was often astounded by the stamina of this seemingly frail, etherial being. He had another lovely gift - laughter. He laughed with sympathy, with joy. As a director he was a wonderful audience to act to. A child I know once said of him, 'I like that man with a clown's face.' But he could grieve too, other people's pains afflicted him. He was happiest, I think, when working with those with whom he shared his visions or when revelling in things like streams and trees. 'Art is the revelation of nature's secret laws' he often quoted. He lighted up in the presence of all beautiful things, he had the most delicate and kind way with nature. He was delicate and tactful - even to plants.

The first time I saw him was at Michael Chekhov's theatre studio in England. He was giving a class to the students. They stood around in their blue practice clothing while he told them the theme for an improvisation. It was a fairytale about a dying king who ruled a crumbling kingdom and to whom a young prince was born. The kingdom revived, the workers started building and a sort of a song began. The students instantly piled the structures into a tottering palace and acted with extraordinary imagination and skill. It seemed strange and wonderful to me. Later I became his pupil. I hope I am still.

He was born on July 22nd 1907 in Perth, Australia. His parents were great hearted people who loved and believed in, but did not always understand, their strange delicate son. He went to one of those awful English boy schools that believe in cold baths, cricket, bullying and long sermons on Sunday. The boys persecuted him which made him develop a new cunning and great physical fearlessness. He finally persuaded his parents to send him to an art school in Melbourne. There he won a scholarship and friends among artists who introduced him to the arts. Through his enthusiasm for Gordon Craig's work he became interested in stage design and did sets for a company of players with whom he also started acting. He was fascinated by all the means of expression in theatre: dance, music, design, poetry and always the discovery through art of mans true nature.

He decided to study in Europe the new theatre techniques developed in Russia and France, was disillusioned by the decadence of theatre in England and the dreariness. It was through contact with Michael Chekhov that his hopes and visions revived.

Michael Chekhov is undoubtedly a genius. Alan learnt a great deal from him and through him he learned of the work of Rudolf Steiner whose experiments with speech and movement have opened a new scale for the actor to play in. Alan at first resisted the new approach, later he embraced it. Chekhov made him teacher director. Alan loved not only to direct trained actors but to start new students on the trail. He had a wonderful sympathy for his pupils and real joy in their attempts at creation. 'It can be wonderful' he would say with enormous delight at some improvisation a student sketched, just as he would agonise at a performance which failed its high intent. That's what we liked. We would be stretched to find the perfect outward expression for an inward truth.

When the Chekhov Studio moved from England to Ridgefield Connecticut, Alan moved with it. He acted, taught and directed his own student performances which were so rich in promise and new life. It was a great grief to him when the studio broke up through necessities of war and discouragement in the first Broadway venture. Mostly however it was through human reasons. It is very difficult for people to work together without becoming friends and enemies, without being for and against. Remaining focussed, Alan was never entangled in theatrical strife but we was often the victim of it. Without unity blossoms cannot bear fruit. With his wife Mechthild, Alan must have come closest to this unity. Their 'Great Moments from Shakespeare' gave a beautiful hope of what a close knit company must become through a concentrated and delicate process. It was their performance of Lear that fired some of us to work together. The last agreement was made in Ojai on a cold windy day in a dark theatre that still kept its promise of our first attempts. All around us were scattered the props and pieces of plays, cobwebbed and broken. The many difficulties of the past met us there with its many hopes. We discussed our needs. We re-invoked our intentions. We rehearsed our new plays that were scheduled for today and Alan reiterated over and over again. 'Now is the time to begin!'

Work is never lost. Alan has not left us. The thread between us is vibrant still. I wrote a poem the night before Alan died. I thought of him at the time and intended to read it to him. I dedicate it to him now.

Birds, fish in air and water fleet
Flowers and their mystery of smell and singing words
From every flying, throbbing thing that grows and goes -
This rose, the shadows of the spiders weaving feet
And all the marvels floating through man's eyes
Shaped to his moving hope
And his pursuit of it so wild and far
Beyond the limits of his mortal scope -
This, and the kiss of meeting loves
Devout and passing as the seed and child
Follow with lifting limbs
With fighting, wounding, lifting, seeking hands
And crying hymns -
All, all this night one folded bud it seems
That to the sky breaks open to reveal us -
We are the dreams of God
And when He wakes we die.

Iris Tree
March, 1952

Iris Tree's poem was on the cover of the program for the Memorial Performance at the Lobero Theatre on April 9, 1952. The three Irish plays being presented on this occasion were those being worked on by Alan Harkness when he died.

Mechthild Harkness

Azdak — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:20:33 CDT

This piece, author unknown, is from typed notes found amongst the general pile of papers, which were sorted through after Mechthild's death in 1986.

Mechthild Harkness was born in Switzerland and emigrated with her family to the United States in 1923. From her earliest years Eurythmy and dramatic performances were an integral part of her daily life. At college she majored in drama and interpretive dancing. She then worked for a time at Daykarhanova's School for the Stage in New York. Her interest in music led her to the Julliard Institute and the opera department of the Mannes Music School. During the war years she completed her training in Eurythmy whilst participating in a variety of student opera productions.

In 1946 she joined the company of Alan Harkness, with which she toured the West Coast in repertory. She also taught in the High Valley Theatre School in Ojai, California. From 1949 to 1951 she and Alan Harkness toured Europe with their program, Great Moments from Shakespeare. In February of 1951 their son was born.

After the sudden death of her husband in 1952, Mechthild created her solo performance of Sophocles' Antigone, with which she toured America, England and Switzerland. In 1954 she became a permanent member of the acting ensemble at the Goetheanum in Switzerland, performing, teaching and producing over many years.

In 1967 Mechthild undertook to set up a speech and drama department at Emerson College in Sussex, England. In 1969 she and her son moved to Australia where she was engaged as voice coach for the Old Tote Theatre Company. In the early 70's she recreated her performance of Antigone for Sydney audiences. During this time she also established her own Speech and Drama school, work which, despite ongoing health and other difficulties, she continued in various forms until her death in 1986.

Mechthild's legacy lives on in the creative life of her many students. On the evening of July 28th, three nights after her death, an informal evening service was held at The Harkness Studio where a vigil was being kept. Among the many offerings of poetry, music and story on that night was the following, by student Daniel Stokes. Daniel had heard this tale from Laurens van der Post, who in turn had heard it from an African bushman.

A young hunter went to the village water hole one day to quench his thirst. As he bent over the pool the reflection of a beautiful Great White Bird appeared in the water. He looked up quickly to catch sight of the bird, but it had vanished. The unrest that the young hunter felt after this experience was so great that he could no longer feel at peace within himself, nor could he remain content with village life. He simply had to find the bird. The journey was a long and difficult one, until at last, as an old man, he climbed the mountain where the Great White Bird was known to roost. Finding that he did not have the strength to reach the summit, he fell prey to despair. Yet in that moment he looked up, and as he did so he noticed one small white feather floating down towards him. He caught it in his hand and in that moment he died, content at last. One feather from the Great White Bird was enough.

from "About Alan"

Azdak — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:02:14 CDT

These early images come from the pages of About Alan, a memoir written by Alan Harkness' sister, Doris Christie.

Family history: Kalgoorlie

Alan at eighteen months.

Alan and his sister, Doris

Ab-Intra Studio. Adelaide days.

Alan and Doris in Europe. In Rome they stayed in the flat where Keats died.

In Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Copy of letter from Dennis Glenny to Alan's sister, Doris Christie. 7/3/1952

Dear Doris,

It is hard to find words to express to you my feelings of sorrow and sympathy for you at this time. I can only remember how much of real triumph and glory there was in Alan's life - not as the world views triumph and glory, of course - but in the consistent following a line of spiritual honesty in everything he did. His influence in my life was considerable even though it was a comparatively short time that we worked together. But it was the combined impact of Alan, Michael Chekhov and Miss Crowther that completely changed the course of my life - and Alan was the person who made it possible for me to work with Mr.Chekhov and Miss Crowther.
I can remember the joy of working and the joy of living that Alan imparted. His life was a constant affirmation of a Christian scale of values - so much needede in the dark materialistic atmosphere of society today. Until I'd met Alan, I'd never met anybody who really set themselves out to search into the truth of things. When I first came across him, I thought it extremely odd - conventional cliches of thinking tend to make us shy of really honest people - but the more I saw of Alan, in working and in daily talking - the wider horizons of imagination were opened up. I didn't think that I could ever emulate Alan, but it was inspiring to be in touch with his keen heightened truthfulness.

Over the years I know he has been developing even more; and I had always hoped to have the experience of working once more under his direction.

You may feel pride, Doris, in the knowledge of the amount of love and guidance Alan was able to give to a great many people - and how he has been able to bring a new impulse into the life of the theatre, which will be recognised more and more in the years to come. It is a deep loss that he should have been taken from us - just when his knowledge was reaching its richest fruition.
I hope that we may see you in these parts again some time. You know that Miss Crowther and I regard you as 'family' and feel that you are as much a part of us as Alan is.

With love and affection

Dennis Glenny

***

From a Notebook

Azdak — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:58:21 CDT

The following pages are from the notebooks of Alan Harkness........
(includes unsourced quotations)

" This was called the great world-tragedy, the primordial drama: that the deity descended into the material world and was buried therein, in order to rise again within man."
R.S. Berlin 1905

Notes about the aims in our performances

To transform the everyday body so that it may move as the expression of soul and spirit.
To transform the everyday speech so that the sounds and rhythms of poetry become vocal and inevitable.

A word has its gesture.
A movement has its sound.
A true drama has its form which is gesture-movement-sound-word.

There are studies which lead to these inner dynamics. When achieved in a performance they make a strong impression on an audience, even if it does not understand the actual language of the speech. the deeper levels of the human being are touched, not only the head understanding and sentiment.

With such means one can more faithfully reveal the human tragi-comedy: awaken the emotions of the audience and in the Aristotelian sense bring harmony into these emotions.

We believe that the sustenance given to the audience-psyche by such a performance is of especial value in our age when so much coarsens and deadens it.

Above all our aims are to move to tears and laughter; to invoke by the magic of theatre the unsuspected angels and even demons; and by the sympathetic participation of the audience to bring about a transformation of human nature. If only one could achieve it and if one dared say it:-

the theatre as an act of redemption.

This it certainly was at its greatest and can become so again today.

***

The qualities we look for in the student come under four main headings;

1. Actor's Fire - Temperament - Imagination
2. Psychological Truth and Characterisation
3. Bodily and Vocal Expressiveness and Plasticity
4. Possibility of Development - Flexibility and Openness to Suggestion.

Improvisations which call for strong emotion are useful. Here are some suggestions:-

a) On the edge of a cliff - the student sees someone dangerously near its edge - it seems inevitable that the person will be killed - the student rushes forward calling out to stop him. This can be done in various atmospheres - storm, sunshine etc and with various imaginary costumes.
b) A mother with her dying child. She is exhausted having tended to it for days and nights and now she waits, knowing nothing more can be done.
c) The man who comes home to his newly wed wife and finds her dead on the floor.
d) Walking about and speaking as different characters shows many qualities.
e) Asking some half dozen times 'What is the time?' justifying not having heard the answer until about the 7th time calls forth inventiveness and a feeling of truth. f) We often ask the student to act his piece with a different Atmosphere - Idea - Quality - Tempo to judge flexibility. One or two phrases are often sufficient for this purpose.

***

Penitence

On the prairie, on the shore
By the long marshes where there are only birds,
On the desert where only light moves
There will be a city
I shall bring it with me –
There will be also the man at the bar
Fumbled up in brown coats
And the butts of cigars
And banging on the counter with the tumbler
And the head of the taxi man turning “Where to?” in the slush of the snow.
I shall bring this night also
Wherever I go.
Or shall I, in the dusk of the sun
At the cross between night and day
When the powerful flames spread up
And the great shining darkness begins
And the whole hymn is sung
And the sky is washed with all the colours
And the coming of the stars…
Shall I send up these penitent wretches
These cripples on crutches
These sad, lost people, send them up
Out of my eyes when sight is given to me
Out of my limbs when they are whole?

***

Notes from Sprachgestaltung und Dramatische Kunst
by Rudolf Steiner

(Lecture X The Mystery Character of D. Art)

..... Let us seek the source of drama within the mystery-art, so that the seriousness of such a concept of drama may enter into our ordinary dramas and into the actions of our modern actors.

In the costume we see represented how the gods work into human life. The course of such a drama portrayed events that occurred among the Gods showing how these events affected human life on earth. Everything on the stage was arranged so that the spectators had the feeling: the Gods themselves have descended to the stage with a part of their beings. This effect was created by the chorus which spoke in a manner between ordinary speech and singing, a special kind of recitative accompanied by instruments. By these means a style was evolved in sounds, syllables and sentence structures which lived before the audience in the musical plastic pictorial word. This special choral - chanting was capable of such variety and individualisation that the different Gods could sound forth as though incorporated.

Through such means the audience was able to experience what we call 'fear' of the divine, awe and dread, but they also felt that in their moral life, within their souls, they dwellt among the Gods. These were the primary aims of the old mysteries.

But the ability to perceive anything at all within such an unnaturalistic stylisation gradually disappeared and man placed himself upon the stage, substituting his own form for the beings which could no longer be experienced through the musical plastic pictorial word.

Let us look at the Egyptian Gods - as a rule they were not adorned with insipid human faces but were given animal faces which represent permanence in contrast to the the ever changing human visage. The rest of their figures were human in form to show their evolving natures, but a human face cannot remain permanently immobile without becoming fixed and dead in expression. So the Gods were given the unchanging animal mask to represent their eternal qualities. Then we see how man - when he first placed himself upon the stage as an individual - representing the God as an individual - appeared with an animal like mask. Thus the art of acting grew out of the mysteries.

......... Originaly man beheld the divine within nature in thunder and lightning in the clouds, but also in the impersonal sounding of the word through the chorus, but he felt within himself the Divine spark echoing the outer manifestation. He began to feel that when he represented his innermost being this was also something divine. Thus the representation of this inner spirituality evolved out of the drama of the Gods.

....... Today the actor must learn to stylise his prose, and to carry his inner experiencs into the revellations of the outer world. It is not enough if he behaves himself as he would in ordinary life. One needn't go to the theatre to see that because life itself is even so much richer than the few meagre bits sifted out for the stage.

***

The following is a typed (and unsourced) inclusion in the notebook.

Exercises in Spiritual Development
(General demands to which one must set or apply oneself)

First Exercise - Control of Thinking
The first condition is the acquirement of a perfectly clear thinking. To this purpose one must - if only for a short time in the day, some five minutes, (the longer and oftener the better) free oneself from the will-o-wisp nature of thought. One must become master of one's thought world. Oine is not master if outer conditions, profession, some tradition, social conditions, yes even belonging to a certain race, if day and season determine one's thoughts and the carrying out of them. So, through this exercise one must, with wholly free will, empty the soul of the ordinary every day thought flow, and out of one's own initiative urge a thought into the centre of the soul. It need not be a dominant or interesting thought; what is to be attained in an occult respect is even better attained when one in the beginning endeavours to choose as uninteresting a thought as possible. Thereby the self-active force of the thought becomes more stimulated; while with an interesting thought the interest carries on the thought itself. One says to oneself: I start out with a thought (e.g. a pin) and link up with it, through my own initiative, all that which can reasonably be connected with it; through which fthe first thought is obliged always to remain alive before the soul. This exercise is to be pracised daily for a month. One can take a new thought daily or keep to the same one for several days. After each exercise one tries to bring to the full consciousness the inner feeling or firminess and security, which with subtle attention one will soon observe in the soul. One so concludes this exercise by thinking of one's head and the spinal chord down in the middle of the back, in such a way as if one would let each feeling of firmness pour into this part of the body.

Second exercise - Control of Action
When one has exercised for about a month in this manner, a second demand steps in. One tries to invent any action which in the ordinary course of life up to the present has quite definitely not been taken up before. Now one performs this self chosen exercise as a duty every day. It is very good to choose an action which can be performed every day for as long a space of time as possible. Again it is better when one begins with an unimportant action to which one can, so to say, force oneself (e.g. one undertakes at a certain time of day everyday to water a plant, or look at the sky and the clouds in the same direction or to observe an object.) After a time a second such action should enter therein, after a time a third and so on, so manys as one can pursue with the maintainance of all one's duties. This exerise should again last a month but one shouldas much as one can during this second month also occupy oneself with the first month's exercise. But the second month's exercise should come first, and it must never be interrupted even for one day! All the same the first exercise and its effect must not be lost sight of, otherwise one will soon observe how the fruits of the first month are lost and the old backslide of 'uncontrollable thoughts' begins again. Above all one must take care that these fruits, once won must not be lost again. If one has produced through the second exercise a such-like executed initiative-action, so will one, with subtle attention, become conscious of a feeling of an inner activity impulse within the soul and one will soon pour, as it were, this feeling so into one's body that one lets it stream from the head down into the heart.

Third Exercise - Equanimity
In the third month, should be pushed into the centre of life, as a new exercise, the cultivation of a certain equanimity - as opposed to fluctuation between joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain; the exalting as high as heaven and grieving to death should with consciousness be replaced by an equable mood. One takes care that no joy runs away with one, no pain smites one to the ground, that no experience rends one with immoderate anger and vexation; no situation puts one out of countenance; that no expectation fills one either with anxiousness or joy and so on. One need not fear that such an exercise makes one empty and lacking in the fullness of life. One will rather observe much more in place of this that what proceeds from the exercise brings forth refined qualities. Above all one feels with subtle awareness one day, an inner peace; also one pours this subtle feeling into one's body in that one consciously lets it flow from the heart to the hands, feet and finally the head. This naturally cannot be taken after each single exercise for one has in truth not to do with one single exercise but with a continual awareness of one's inner life. But one must, at least once in the day, call before the soul this inner peace and then undertake the exercise of the streaming out from the head to the hands and feet.

Fourth Exercise - Positiveness/Seeking Good
In the fourth month one undertakes a new exercise which may be called Positiveness. This consists in seeking out continually the existing Good, Beautiful and Excellent in all experiences, natures and things. This quality in respect to the activity of the soul is best characterised by the Persian legend of Christ Jesus and the dead dog. If the esoteric student does this exercise he will soon observe that under cover of ugliness a hidden beauty exists; that even in a criminal lies veiled a hidden goodness, that in a lunatic somehow the divine lies hidden. This exercise is connected with that which one calls forbearance from criticism. Now, one must not comprehend it in such a way that one would call black white or white, black. But there is a difference between a judgement which proceeds merely from one's own personality and its sympathies and antipathies and a judgement which proceeds from the point of view of lovingly putting oneself in the place of a foreign being or stranger and without a single criticism, questioning oneself: How does this thing or being come to this, so to be or so to act? Then one comes to it gradually and quite of oneself to strive to help the imperfect instead of merely criicising, blaming or setting in order. The objection that life conditions of many people require them to criticise, blame or judge cannot be made here. There are, even many conditions present which make it impossible to carry out an occult training as here indicated, in any measure of fruitfulness. But here one should not impatiently wish all the same to make progress which can only be made under certain conditions. He who during a month can consciously place positivity in all his experiences will, little by little, observe a feeling in his inner being as if his skin were porous from all sides and his soul open itself to all secret and subtle events in the surroundings which before had completely escaped his notice. Therefore the point is to combat existing inattentiveness in man toward such subtle things. If one has filled this described feeling of the soul with a kind of beatitude then one so tries to draw his feeling towards the heart in thoughts and from there to let it stream into the eyes and out into space beyond and around the human being. Through this one grows, as it were, above one's self. One learns to observe a piece of one's surroundings as one observes a part of oneself that contains a quite intimate relation to the surroundings. A great deal of concentration is necessary for this exercise and above all things a recognition of the fact that all that is emotional, passionate and affected works destructively against the indicated mood.

Fifth Exercise - Impartiality towards what Life gives
In the fifth month then one tries to cultivate in oneself the feeling of meeting in an entirely unprejudiced manner, every new phenomenon. The esoteric student must completely break with man's ordinary attitude toward what comes to his hearing or to an occurence about which he then says: 'I have never heard that or seen that; I heard otherwise; I do not believe it.' The student must be ever ready to accept a perfectly new experience even when it contradicts his former experiences. For, all which hitherto he has recognised as legitimate; what till now has appeared to him as impossible - must not fetter him so that he be hindered in his reception of a new truth. The esoteric student must ever hold open the door for the belief that his hitherto existing knowledge can always experience a widening. He who in the fifth month is so minded to direct his attention on it will observe that a feeling creeps into his sould as is in that space which was spoken of in the previous exercise; something would come alive, as if something would stir in it. This feeling is extraordinarily fine and subtle. One must now try attentively to grasp this subtle vibration in the surroundings and let it, as it were, flow in through the skin in so far as the latter contains the sense of warmth. Less attention is applied at this stage towards impressions in the other senses, i.e. taste, smell etc, for it is at this stage of development not yet possible to distinguish the influences. Therefore the student leaves attention on taste, smell, etc to a later stage.

Sixth Exercise: Perseverance
In the sixth month one tries systematically in a regular alternation, again and again, to undertake all five exercises. Gradually through this a fine equilibrium of the soul is formed. One will especially observe that any existing discontent with the concerns or phenomena of the world will completely vanish. A propitiable mood arises in the soul in regard to all experiences. This is in no way an indifference. On the contrary the student qualifies essentially more than ever to function improvingly and progressively in the world. A quiet understanding unfolds itself for the things which earlier were completely shut off from the soul. Even the gait and gestures of a person alter under the influence of this exercise. And when, even, a person can observe one day that his handwriting has taken on another character then he may say that he is even now about to reach another stage on the forward path. Once again two things must be emphasised:
1) That this exercise has the power to paralyse the unfavourable so that only the positive remains present - and
2) That this attitude alone really assures positive success in Meditation and Concentration work.
The merely conscientious fulfillment of current morals does not satisfy the esoteric student, for these morals can be egoistic in so far as a person perhaps says to himself: 'I will be good so that I may be found good.' The esoteric student does good, not because he wishes to be found good but because he knows little by little that Good alone brings forward the evolution of the world to its final goal and that against this the Bad, Unwise and Ugly place continually temporal hindrances in the path of evolution.

***

Notes on Pipwick (from studying engravings)

1. The characters are full of temperament. They keep nothing inside but open themselves in a lot of gestures, situations, positions, etc. There is nothing restrained about the characters or the situations. When a character is restricted Dickens describes it as an exceptional thing - ie the incident of the two restrained gentlemen wherein one deliberately walked within the eyes of the other.
2. In studying the engravings you will see how the figures are expressing emotions. We must act so that if the expression is to be shown on the stage it must be shown with the whole body.
3. The manner in which they bow and do everything is so particular - if you study the engravings you will see what kind of movements must be made. This will help you to wear the costumes in the right manner.
4. One thing you must not take from the engravings - the grimace.
5. Pay special attention to bridges and transitions in the play. We must make everything seem psychologically complicated - everything in Dickens has been so compressed to such a point that he looks at things through a microscope. In imagining your characters imagine them as very complicated - your acting must be the result of very complicated work, although in the end we may do it absolutely simply.
6. By studying the engravings you will begin to feel that these people's lives are not continuously flowing but are expressed by means of bridges and transitions and points. Moving, stopping and moving.
7. The settings will be slightly out of perspective as suggested by the engravings - this may also be true of the costumes.
8. There will also be an element of dust about the costumes and settings so that they will give an old appearance, although the colour will not disappear. The audience must feel that it is a 'tasty dish'.
9. Do not look at the engravings from the point of view of aesthetic or intellectual pleasure, but really act them in your imagination. Re-live the pictures and make them live for you. 10. Read the novel as well as the play.

***

'Duty, - when a man loves the commands he gives to himself.' Goethe, Prose Aphorisms
'That which is fruitful alone is true.' Goethe

***

The earth woke up again

– The earth woke up again –
You were waiting in a taxi stemmed by the traffic
headed off and back and on
and those who called you did not know your name
You answered – and your face was in the glass,
and the earth died under the stones
and there were many words and many words
and your heart beat in the taxi
impatient to be dead, to sleep again
after the torment of continuance
the chain of house to house
across the dead scowl of the city
the grin……
Spring, summer, winter, falling
without one fruit, one leaf returning
- you still alive in the dead earth -
The earth woke up again…
Hark at the noise all night
the cicadas
hark how it swells and swells and blooms
root under root up-piercing
the ferny fringed bladed arrowing
sharp and spreading billowed tapering
bell’d and hooded million tongued,
wind lulled wind whipped fragrant million eyed
ears of the earth –
Listen! it wakes again
There is no house only windows
walls are leaf thin
and the city as the bloomed skin
of an almost ripened fruit breaks open –
And if you died the Earth would waken you –

***

Two dangers:-
The cosmic void:- loss of consciousness
The descent into one's own being:- egoism
(Greek Aeschylus tells of these dangers and how they are overcome by infinite compassion for all creatures) These two dangers overcome by Christ impulse.

***

The study of universe, earth and man must pass over from theoretical consideration so that our own will and enthusiasm may be fired for further development. What we call 'future' must be rooted in the past; knowledge has no value if not changed into motive power for the future.

***

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy
But he who kisses joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity's sunrise

(William Blake)

Lucy Neuscheller

Azdak — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:39:08 CDT

Lucy Neuscheller (nee Lucy van der Pals), mother of Mechthild, was a eurythmist, actress and teacher.

Al good pepul come! A program of Old English Christmas Plays enacted by The Olde Thyme Players, New York. (date unknown)

Christmas Plays of the Middle Ages (from the above programme)

In medieval England and Europe all the dwellers in towns and villages shared as actors or spectators, with earnest religious devotion and childlike naivete, in the presentation of the sacred Christmas Plays. God the Father, the Holy Ghost, Gabriel the Angel of the Annunciation, Mary and Joseph appeared upon the stage and moved amidst the audience, and they were fascinated by the visible presence of the Devil. But friendly simplicity did not detract from the heartfelt reverence with which the solemn scenes were enacted and beheld. Nothing produced by the present age can quite recapture that spirit of humility and faith.

In recent decades old German plays celebrating Christmas have been revived in their original form and mood by Rudolf Steiner. They are given each year at the Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland, and from this center the impulse spread to other parts of Central Europe and more recently to America and England.

During many Christmas seasons English medieval plays have been presented by The Olde Thyme Players at churches, clubs, schools and in other places throughout New York City and in the suburbs. The group of artists, teachers, business and professional men and women who constitute The Olde Thyme Players have come together for the purpose of thus celebrating in suitable and beautiful simplicity the Christmas Festival. This season again they take pleasure inviting you to witness their modest rendering of the sacred story.

For information communicate with Lucy van der Pals-Neuscheller, 620 West 116th St., New York City.

***

POEMS
A selection of poems from the notebooks of Lucy Neuscheller.

page of notebook (extractfrom the James Clarence Mangan translation of St.Patrick's Hymn before Tara and Algernon Swinburne's White Butterflies)

A Salutation to the Dawn
- from the Hindu

Look to the Day
For yesterday is already a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision
But today well lived makes every
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day,
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn.

Answer
- A.E. (George Russell)

The warmth of life is quenched with bitter frost;
Upon the lonely road a child limps by
Skirting the frozen pools: our way is lost:
Our hearts sink utterly.
But from the snow-patched moorland chill and drear,
Lifting our eyes beyond the spired height,
With white-fire lips apart the dawn breathes clear
Its soundless hymn of light.
Out of the vast the voice of one replies
Whose words are clouds and stars and night and day,
When for the light the anguished spirit cries
Deep in its house of clay.

Had I the Heavens' Embroidered Cloths
- W.B. Yeats (The Wind Among the Reeds, 1899)

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

I dreamed that it was neither night nor noon
- R.H. Carpenter

I dreamed that it was neither night nor noon
And in the blue and windy place
On one foot the sun
On one foot the moon
And stars like the dust of the road in my face.

from The Book of the Dead
- Egyptian

I am the pure lotus
Springing up in splendour -
Fed by the breath of Ra. -
Rising into sunlight
Out of soil and darkness
I blossom in the field.

Night
- A.E. (Collected poems, 1913)

Heart-hidden from the outer things I rose;
The spirit woke anew in nightly birth
Unto the vastness where forever glows
The star-soul of the earth.

There all alone in primal ecstasy,
Within her depths where revels never tire,
The olden Beauty shines: each thought of me
Is veined through with its fire.

And all my thoughts are throngs of living souls;
They breathe in me, heart unto heart allied;
Their joy undimmed, though when the morning tolls
The planets may divide.

The wind sways the pine
- from the Irish

The wind sways the pine
And below
Not a breath of wild air
Still as the mosses that glow
On the floorings and over the roots here and there
The pine tree drops its dead.
It is silent as under the sea.
Over head! Over head!
Rushes life in a race
As the clouds, the clouds chase
And we go, and we drop
Like the fruits of the tree
Even we, even so.

The Rune of the Peat Fire
- from the Irish, rendering - Kenneth McCleod
The first layer of peat is laid down in the name of the God of life, the second in the name of the God of peace and the third in the name of the God of grace.

The Sacred Tree
To save
To shield
To surround
The hearth
The house
The household
This eve
This night
O this eve
This night
And every night
Each single night

The Rune of Hospitality
- from the Irish, rendering - Kenneth McCleod.

I saw a stranger yesterday;
I put food in the eating place,
Drink in the drinking place;
And in the sacred name of the Trinity,
He blessed myself and my house,
My cattle and my dear ones
And the lark said in her song,
Often, often, often
Goes the Christ in the stranger's guise;
Often, often, often
Goes the Christ in the stranger's guise.

Vision
- Fiona Macleod (William Sharp)

In a fair place
Of whin and grass,
I heard feet pass
Where no one was.

I saw a face
Bloom like a flower -
Nay, as a rainbow shower
In a tempestuous hour.

It was no man nor woman
It was not human:
But beautiful and wild
Terribly undefiled,
I knew an unborn child.

Truth, Life, Eternal
- Albert Steffen

Truth, spake my spirit
And I beheld all transiency.
But the Word endures
And my fate begins.

Life, spake my spirit
And I beheld myself as bones of death.
But the Word endures
And my fate begins.

Eternal, spake my spirit
And I beheld the Christ upon the Cross.
But the Word endures
And my fate begins.

The Valley of White Poppies
- Fiona Macleod

Between the grey pastures and the dark wood
A valley of white poppies is lit by the low moon:
It is the grave of dreams, a holy rood. It is quiet there: no wind doth ever fall.
Long, long ago a wind sang once aheart-sweet rune.
Now the white poppies grow, silent and tall. A white bird floats there like adrifting leaf:
It feeds upon faint sweet hopes and perishing dreams
And the still breath of unremembering grief. And as asilent leaf the white bird passes,
Winnowing the dusk by dim forgetful streams.
I am alone now among the silent grasses.

Poems for Children

Silver
- Walter de la Mare

Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees;
One by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
From their shadowy cote the shite breasts peep
Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;
A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws, and silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream.

What Became of Them?
- Anon

He was a rat and she was a rat
And down in one hole they did dwell
And both were as black as a witch's cat
And they loved one another well.

He had a tail and she had a tail
Both long and curly and fine.
And each said: 'Yours is the finest tail
In the world excepting mine.

He smelt the cheese and she smelt the cheese
And they both pronounced it good
And both remarked it would greatly add
To the charm of their daily food.

So he ventured out and she ventured out
And I saw them go with pain
But what befell them I never can tell
For they never came back again.

Snow-Flake
- Mary Dodge

Whenever a snow-flake leaves the sky
It turns and turns to say: 'Goodbye!
Goodbye dear cloud, so cool and grey!
Then lightly travels on its way.

And when a snow-flake finds a tree,
'Good day!' it says 'Good day to thee!
Thou art so bare and lovely, dear,
I'll rest and call my comrades here.'

But when a snow-flake, brave and meek,
Lights upon a rosy maiden's cheek,
It starts - 'How warm and soft the day!
Tis summer!' - and it melts away.

Mechthild Johannsen

Azdak — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:39:37 CDT

Early Portraits

Portraits from Early Productions

from a Programme of Folk Songs

from unknown Ibsen play

Lilliom, High Valley Theatre, Ojai

as the poor working girl in Franky and Johnny, Ojai

***

Productions: 1976 -

Azdak — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:37:45 CDT

Man the Measure of all Things
This production involved a great deal of chorus work and incorporated a number of texts from Sophocles to T.S. Eliot. A selection of these appear (in random order) below......

Ode
from Sophocles' Antigone

Numberless are the world's wonders, but none
More wonderful than man: the stormgrey sea
Yields to his prows, the huge crests bear him high;
Earth, holy and inexhaustible, is graven
With shining furrows where his ploughs have gone
Year after year, the timeless labour of stallions.

The lightboned birds and beasts that cling to cover,
The lithe fish lighting their reaches of dim water,
All are taken, tamed in the net of his mind;
The lion on the hill, the wild horse windy-maned,
Resign to him, and his blunt yoke has broken
The sultry shoulders of the mountain bull.

Words also, and thought as rapid as air,
He fashions to his good use; statecraft is his,
And his the skill that deflects the arrows of snow,
The spears of winter rain: from every wind
He has made himself secure - from all but one:
In the late wind of death he cannot stand.

O clear intelligence, oh force beyond all measure,
O fate of man, working both good and evil!
When the laws are kept, how proudly his city stands!
When the laws are broken, what of his city then?

Echoing silence
Darkness lit up by beams
Light
Seeking its counterpart
In melody
Stillness
Striving for liberation
In a word
Life
In dust
In shadow
How seldom growth and blossom
How seldom fruit.

from Markings
- Dag Hammarskjold

Akhenaton's Hymn to the Sun

Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of the sky,
O living Aten, beginning of life!
When thou risest in the eastern horizon,
thou fillest every land with thy beauty.....

Man's thoughts reach out into the origins.
What as shadow he has thought,
what as phantom he has lived
emerges from the moulded world
of whose abundance
men, when thinking
dream in shadows,
of whose abundance
men, when seeing
live in phantoms.

(from The Portal of Initiation, R.S)

Give me a pure heart - that I may see Thee,
A humble heart - that I may hear Thee,
A heart of love - that I may serve Thee,
A heart of faith - that I may abide in Thee.

from Markings, Dag Hammarskjold

***

The Temple Legend
Written by Douglas Waugh this production, melding movement, drama and music, was inspired by the creation of the Temple of Solomon. The music was composed and played by Markus Harkness.

Solomon, Balkis and musician

Marj Waugh, eurythmist and long time colleague of Mechthild, in The Temple Legend.

The Harkness Studio

Azdak — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 04:53:35 CDT

The Harkness Studio was formed in Sydney in 1973. A full time training in Speech and Drama, following indications given by Rudolf Steiner, thus became available in Australia for the first time. The two archival articles on this page help to place the inauguration of The Harkness Studio within a chronological context.

Alice Crowther's Work in Speech and Drama

Excerpt from an article by Dennis Glenny in the Journal of the Anthroposophical Society of Australia, Vol. 2 No:4, August 1981

The introduction of Rudolf Steiner's Speech Formation, Dramatic Art and Eurythmy in Australia was the work of Alice Crowther. Although dramatic performances under the guidance of Marian Burley Griffin and Lute Drummond had been a feature of Anthroposophical work at the Open Air Theatre at Castle Crag for a number of years, Alice Crowther was the first teacher with a Dornach training to establish a Studio in Sydney. Many professional actors came to her and she gave a firm foundation to the first teachers in Rudolf Steiner education and curative education.

Upon learning of Steiner's work, Alice Crowther set off in the nineteen thirties to train in Speech Formation and Eurythmy at Dornach, intending to bring the work back to Australia. In Dornach she was one of the first group of English speaking people to train in Speech Formation and to work on framing English equivalents for Rudolf Steiner's speech exercises. At the Goetheanum she was able to take part in rehearsals and classes with Marie Steiner. She continued her speech work with Erna Grund and her Eurythmy work with Friedel Thomas.

Alice Crowther's intention to return to Australia after her training was diverted by a stroke of destiny. In 1936, Michael Chekhov, the Russian actor and director came to England to form a theatre company. He had known Rudolf Steiner before the first world war and found that his indications for the actor could extend and enliven what he himself had developed as a pioneer of new impulses of theatre under the direction of Constantin Stanislavsky and Gordon Craig in Russia, and had used this attitude to theatre in the Second Moscow Art Theatre. Alice Crowther was recommended to him as a speech teacher. From 1936 to 1941 they worked together in England and later in the United States. Another Australian working as a colleague with Michael Chekhov was Alan Harkness who had pioneered and artistic experimental theatre studio - the Ab Intra Studio with Kester Baruch, who had joined the Chekhov Studio as a writer.

Michael Chekhov gave his students a deep feeling of reverence towards the theatre and the actor's vocation. He made them aware of the origin of theatre in the mysteries and the function through tragedy and comedy of leading people to self awareness. When the students came to rehearse, they changed to a special rehearsal dress, so that one put aside personal interests and was concentrated on the work to be created together. The students worked on acting exercises given by Constantin Stanislavsky with the added dimension of an Anthroposophical training in concentration and perception. When a play was to be prepared, the main episodes and climaxes were improvised again and again before the actual text of the play was taken up. When the actors had their parts, each student had an individual private session with Alice Crowther to achieve in speech technique the qualities Michael Chekhov as director wanted brought through. Regular speech and eurythmy classes with Alice Crowther, as well as modern dance, gymnastics and music with other teachers were the basic training.

After the Munich crisis of 1938, the Chekhov Theatre Studio moved to the United States and opened their first professional season in New York with an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's The Possessed. Michael Chekhov chose this theme because he wanted to show the Western world what takes place when people give themselves over to destructive nihilistic forces. It came out of his own experience of living through the years of the Russian Revolution. The Theatre Studio toured as a repertoire of plays until the United States entered the war. In 1941 the Studio was disbanded. Michael Chekhov came to work in Hollywood. Alan and Mechthild Harkness and others carried the Studio way of working further in California.

It was then that Alice Crowther came to Sydney and established the Studio in Hamilton Street. Many and varied productions were performed between the years of 1941 and 1954 when the Studio was finally disbanded. From this time however, until her death in 1967, Alice Crowther continued to give speech and eurythmy classes at her house in Roseville. Her students were eventually to carry her work forward into the sphere of education. (Dennis Glenny)

The Harkness Studio - It's Growth and Work in Creative Speech and Drama
With thanks to Leslie Ford and Helen Greer for the use of this material

During the last year of her life Alice Crowther wrote to Mechthild Harkness and expressed how pleased she was that Mechthild was working so creatively with the art of formative speech in the English language - the realm of her own work. When Mechthild heard of Alice's death in 1967 she saw the possibility of coming to Australia to carry on some of Alice's work here. It had always been the intention of Mechthild and her late husband, Alan Harkness, to return to Australia bringing the fruits of their experience gained over many years of teaching, performing and producing in Europe and America. Two years later Mechthild arrived in Sydney.

Mechthild was surrounded by artistic activity from her earliest years, participating in performances even as a very young child. Her mother, Lucy Neuscheller, was one of the very early Eurythmists under Rudolf Steiner and brought the art of Eurythmy to the U.S.A. In her youth Mechthild attended a number of drama schools and trained in Opera. The family returned to Dornach for a few years where Mechthild first met Alice Crowther who was then doing her speech training with Erna Grund and her Eurythmy training with Friedel Thomas. Back in New York, Mechthild trained in Eurythmy and met her Australian husband, Alan Harkness, who was then working with the Chekhov Theatre Studio. When the Chekhov Studio disbanded, Alan went to California where Mechthild joined him. In 1949-51 she and Alan toured Europe and America with their duo performance of Great Moments from Shakespeare and spent time studying with Erna Grund in Dornach. They returned to America where Alan was tragically killed in 1952. In 1954 Mechthild returned to Dornach and received her Diploma in formative speech, graduating in the same year as Virginia Brett. She remained in Dornach for the next twelve years, teaching, performing and producing. In 1967 Francis Edmunds asked her to set up a Speech and Drama Department at Emerson College where she worked for the two years prior to her arrival in Australia.

In July 1969, the first classes commenced in Sydney with Mechthild teaching Speech, Eurythmy, Greek Gymnastics, Improvisation and Drama. Marj Waugh, who had been carrying the Eurythmy work after her many years with Alice Crowther, and Doug Waugh, connected with the early drama work of Lute Drummond, came along to give their blessing. A much appreciated and continuing support has come from an early student, Garry Richardson. Among the first students were Alan and Susan Whitehead, Eva Fieck, Dennis Glenny, Ruth Marx, Annika Jaensch (Benson), Ian and Mark Scrivener, Graham Dixon, Thomas Ludescher and Pat Brett. The early classes were held at Inala School and then at Thornleigh. Performances were offered as part of the Society's festival celebrations and workshop demonstrations were given at some of the schools.

In 1970 the Studio was officially formed and named Boama - Man in Art. A home for the new Studio was found in Chatswood where, in addition to Mechthild's classes, Ruth Ainsworth taught History of Art, Thomas Ludescher - Bothmer Gym and Marj Waugh - Eurythmy. The Studio gave a performance of Scenes 4, 5 and 6 of The Portal of Initiation. This was the first time any of Rudolf Steiner's Mystery Dramas had actually been staged in Australia.

The Creative Speech work has also left its mark in the realm of professional theatre in Australia. At the request of Robin Lovejoy, Mechthild became voice coach for the Old Tote Theatre and continued in this work for four years until Robin Lovejoy resigned as artistic director. John Bell, Ruth Cracknell, Drew Forsythe, John Gaden, Rod Haddrick, Ron Falk, Damien Parker, Dinah Shearing and many others were among the actors who worked with Mechthild during this time, and some later returned for private tuition.

As the Studio work grew, classes were given at Warrah and Inala, some of which were given by the more advanced students such as Annika. Mechthild herself was also busy again preparing for her inspired solo performance of Sophocles' Antigone, which she performed in Sydney and Melbourne.

In 1973 the Studio moved to Willoughby and was renamed The Harkness Studio, thus associating it with Alan Harkness who pioneered the very beginnings of experimental theatre in Australia. Work continued at Willoughby and later at Cremorne supported by Dennis Glenny (improvisation and drama), Graham Dixon (drama) and Robin Labron-Johnson (Speech, Drama and Greek Gymnastics). Both of the latter completed their diplomas with Mechthild. Avril Drew taught Eurythmy at this time. In June 1979 the Studio moved to its present premises in Manly.

1980 was a very full year with three major dramatic productions. There was an anthroposophical seminar at Mittagong in May, the theme of which was Man as a Threefold Being Active in Science and Art. The Studio spent the first term preparing a series of scenes from Rudolf Steiner's Mystery Dramas relating to the theme of the conference. The scenes were performed in Sydney and then at Mittagong. The second and third term were spent preparing a full programme with chorus work and scenes from Sophocles' Antigone.

As the years have gone by the school has grown and consolidated. Originally and for many years the bulk of the teaching of Speech, Drama, Eurythmy and Gymnastics as well as all of the administration was carried by Mechthild. Now some of those who have been her students in the past have returned to teach beside her. Mechthild's health has been poor this year but fortunately there is now a strong team of teachers working with her who are able to carry the work. Mechthild is at present teaching students in the final year of the training and taking the Speech chorus work which prepared a production of Steven Moore's play The Star and the Branch, performed at a seminar at Mittagong in September.

In 1981 the school has 18 students spread over the four years of training. Apart from Australia students have come from the U.S.A. (3), South Africa (1), Canada (1), England (1), Switzerland (1) and New Zealand (3). The school is the only school working with Rudolf Steiner's formative speech and dramatic indications in English, which teaches drama as well as speech. When Virginia Brett closed her English speech school in Dornach at Easter this year, several of the students came to continue their training here.

Students who complete the course receive a Diploma in affiliation with the Section for Speaking and Musical Arts at the Goetheanum School for Spiritual Science. Students do the course for a variety of reasons. Some want to work in professional theatre, some do the therapeutic work or teaching and others for their own development.

In 1980, the Harkness Studio became a non-profit company and is now entering a new phase of its life as a registered charity with supporting membership. In July this year, members and friends were invited to a workshop performance of Steven Moore's play, The Star and the Branch, followed by a meeting, to discuss the possibilities of fund raising. Apart from the rent, all running costs and wages must be met by students' fees. These are at present inadequate to afford the teachers a living wage. The logical solution would be to raise the fees, but the students receive no financial assistance from the Government, and hence must work to support themselves and their study. Last year, a scholarship fund was initiated, and at present lends money on a monthly basis enabling students to pay fees on time. It is hoped that this will expand to carry students, at least through their final year, by way of loans repayable after completion of the training. A nucleus of friends is emerging as a support group, to raise funds to cover expanding needs of the Studio. We are now faced with the task of presenting this work to a wider community, and inviting support from those who recognise the need for a drama with spiritual content, and a technique capable of bringing that content to life. The Harkness Studio continues to further the speech and drama impulse first brought to Australia by Alice Crowther, and strives to strengthen and carry that impulse into the future. (Article by Leslie Ford and Helen Greer - assisted by Mechthild Harkness)

Antigone

Azdak — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 04:50:15 CDT

In 1953, after her husband's death, Mechthild Harkness created Sophocles' Antigone as a solo performance with which she toured America and Europe. After coming to Australia in 1969 she revived her production, playing at the Q Theatre and other venues in and around Sydney. The images on this page cover a range of productions.

'....exquisite, fascinating sensibility. The spectators were deeply and utterly moved.'
National Zeitung, Switzerland.

'Mechthild Harkness has not only fine artistry, but a compelling presence that gives authority and meaning to her characterization.' Santa Barbara News Press, USA

Paris
Les Nouvelles Litteraries (Gabriel Marcel)
.... rival of Ruth Draper, she managed without effort to reconstruct by gesture, intonation and mime the soul of each of her characters.

Arts
A style of playing of exceptional quality where the gesture is of rare beauty .... a grandeur and simplicity of which one knows few examples in Paris.

***

JOHANNSEN IMPRESSES WITH GREEK TRAGEDY

Tom Proctor
Ojai Valley News

Sophocles' tragic drama, Antigone, was given an unusual and effective presentation by Mechthild Johannsen last weekend at the High Valley Theatre. In an ambitious one-man show Miss Johannsen depicted characters, chorus and played her own compositions of incidental music. The production is well conceived, and as an actress Miss Johannsen shows admirable facility as she moves swiftly from one sharply delineated character to the next, achieving her effects through her flexible vocal ability and remarkable grace of costume and body movement. The poignant scenes between Antigone and her sister, Ismene, were particularly good, as was the characterization of the old king, Creon. Music as mentioned above, was created by the performer, and proved once again that she is a woman of many talents. Sounds of the harp and varying sizes of recorders were contrasted with the brazen notes of a gong and drum beats in beautiful melodic patterns, or formal dark and foreboding accompaniments for the tragic words of the classic. As a tour-de-force, Miss Johannsen has chosen a vehicle and a medium for which she is admirably suited. The production is an excellent one.

***

La Jolla Light
Thursday, Jan 15th, 1953

Antigone Presentation Enjoyed Here
A very enthusiastic audience attended the unusual presentation of Antigone at La Jolla Art Centre last Friday evening. Mechthild Johannsen, by use of her remarkable voice color and range, her adequate but never superfluous gesture and the mere shifting of a scarf portrayed all the characters in the Dudley Fitts and George Fitzgerald translations of Sophocles' great drama. She gave each one his peculiar setting: played on reed instruments for intervals: emphasized descriptions by playing on a small Irish harp and strengthened dramatic effects by beating a drum or cymbal. Her range of characterisation made possible even physical differences for in directly dialogue the transformation from the distraught young girl Anigone to the robust and cruel Creon was readily visualized and accepted. Spectators, as tragedy followed tragedy, waited with fascination the inevitable climax and the just punishment of the man who abused his powers and nursed an arrogant pride...... The Greek story, the originality of its presentation, and Miss Johannsen's superb performance gave members of the Art Center a memorable evening. (Freda L. Klapp)

***

Introduction to the dramatic presentation of Antigone by Sophocles
...from programme notes

The tragic events centered around Oedipus, King of Thebes, culminate in the third drama of Sophocles' trilogy in the doomridden figure of Antigone, daughter of Oedipus. The story begins with Oedipus, left in the wilderness at birth by his royal father, King Laios of Thebes, in the attempt to prevent a prophecy from being fulfilled. Found, rescued and brought up in a foreign court, Oedipus returns to his native city, unknowing of his true origin. On the journey he kills his father and after solving the riddle of the Sphinx that holds thrall over Thebes, he is proclaimed King and given the widowed queen, Iocaste - his mother - for his wife. Four children spring from this marriage: two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene. When the truth becomes known Iocaste hangs herself and Oedipus puts out his own eyes. He is later deposed from the throne by his sons and goes begging on the roads with Antigone, to his death in exile. The two sons agree to share in the rule of Thebes, each to reign in alternate years. But their father's curse, which they incurred when deposing him, determines their fate. When Eteocles has ruled a full year he refuses to relinquish the throne to his brother. Polyneices then calls upon the Argives to support his cause and sets forth to besiege his native city with the Argive army. When neither side seems to be winning the two brothers agree to fight it out single handed. In the ensuing combat they kill each other and the Argive host withdraws from the siege. Creon, uncle of Oedipus' children, now becomes king. The scene is still Thebes, the public square before the palace. The ensuing action is divided into three parts and takes place between dawn and dusk on the day after the fatal battle between the two brothers.

***

Audiences Spellbound by Antigone
Monterey Peninsula Herald, September, 1953

A Saturday night audience which filled every seat in the Golden Bough Players' Circle sat spellbound as Mechthild Johannsen gave an inspired interpretation of one of the world's great classical tragedies. In her solo performance of Sophocles' Antigone, Miss Johannsen admirably recreated a diversified cast of characters and managed to preserve all the dignity and majesty of a full production. The text used by Miss Johannsen is a Dudley Fitts and George Fitzgerald translation, its five scenes woven into an impressive tapestry by music of her own and Leopold van der Pals composition - performed with skill and infinite grace on harp, flute, gong and kettle-drum.

Antigone, the third in a cycle of ancient Greek tragedies beginning with Oedipus Rex, dramatizes the conflict between an edict by the gods and an ultimatum of a tyrant. While the situation, that of a young girl caught between a law of the gods demanding that she perform funeral rites for her slain brother and the threat of death at the hands of her kingly uncle is she does so, seems long outmoded, the underlying theme of the play and the lines through which it unfolds are as timely as today's newspaper.

Miss Johannsen is not only an experienced actress, but one exceptionally well equipped with beauty of voice and feature. Her interpretation of Antigone showed a rare depth of understanding and sensitive appreciation of her material. It seems a great pity that this one woman show of Antigone should be given only a single performance here. (Irene Alexander)

***

SYDNEY
PRODUCTIONS

Curtain Up

Solo performance by Mechthild Harkness of Sophocles' Antigone at the Boama art centre, Chatswood.

Mrs. Harkness has toured America, England and Switzerland with this performance, which shows the depth of her talent.

The tragedy of Sophocles' work was fully explored by Mechthild Harkness' interpretation of each of the main characters. She in turn was Antigone, her sister Ismene, King Creon, his son Haimon, the blind prophet Teiresias, the sentry, the messenger and the chorus.

The performance was a masterpiece of understatement with a bare setting, a single costume with versatile drapes and three musical instruments - a drum, cymbals and a harp, on which the actress played to heighten the effect of the chorus.

Almost with a single gesture, she conjured up the picture of ancient Greece, the city of Thebes and the dry earth on which the unburied Polyneices lay.

In a performance of sustained power, Mechthild Harkness developed the sense of impending doom into ultimate tragedy with the death of Antigone, Haimon and Euridice. Her gift for creating the reality of the past into the present comes into the realm of really great theatre. (North ShoreTimes, 1971)

***

Portraits of later days

Azdak — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 21:25:32 CDT

Mechthild in the garden of the retirement village at Allambie Heights in 1986

At the hostel in Glebe, later in 1986. Mechthild's last place of residence.

The following series of photographs was taken just prior to Mechthild's death in July 1987

This article appeared in the Journal of the Anthroposophical Society of Australia, Vol. 7, No. 4, August 1986
Mechthild Harkness (20.3.20 - 25.7.86)
In the morning hours of the 25th July, shortly before the sun fought its battle with the stormy cold conditions of the most wintry weather since the turn of this century, Mechthild Harkness crossed the threshold from this sense world at 9.15 a.m. A dramatic elemental act was accompanying her exit, and at moments during the day, friends observed some peaceful rays of sun filtering through the grey turmoil of clouds, opening the curtains for her entry into the new world.
The Life of Mechthild Harkness
In whatever part Mechthild acted one experienced that she had full command of all her artistic faculties. She could leave herself as a person behind, and unite so much as an actor with the substance of the word and content, with gesture and voice, that the elemental world would be present. In her last hours she lay peacefully whilst the drama now was being performed by the elements themselves in her environment.
Mechthild lived her life's path true to her own personality. She stayed independent, defiant for her cause, strong and upright in the face of work and denying her ailing body up to death.
Mechthild embodied speech and drama, and in her last hour, already unable to verbally reply any longer, when she was told how much her friends loved her work, that they were grateful for what she has given, and that her work will live on, she spoke with a radiant smile, already permeated by her spirit-self.
Mechthild did not stand for ceremonies: she went straight to the point of her work with her remarkable individual determination, even to the end. She left instructions that she would not want a funeral service, nor any religious ceremony. Only Mechthild could do such a thing in style, since she had filled her friends with strength, with substance of the Word, so that they could be with her in spirit and yet could leave her free to do what eventually everyone must learn to do, to cross the threshold alone. Alone, and yet in company: that was the essence of Mechthild's life.
Mechthild, who was born in Dornach, and named by Rudolf Steiner (her name means 'Mighty Maiden'), gave the short account of her life which was published in October 1981 in this Journal, from which the following excerpt is taken:
Mechthild was surrounded by artistic activity from her earliest years, participating in performances even as a very young child. Her mother, Lucy Neuscheller, was one of the very early Eurythmists under Rudolf Steiner and brought the art of Eurythmy to the U.S.A. In her youth Mechthild attended a number of drama schools and trained in Opera. The family returned to Dornach for a few years where Mechthild first met Alice Crowther who was then doing her speech training with Erna Grund and her Eurythmy training with Friedel Thomas. Back in New York, Mechthild trained in Eurythmy and met her Australian husband, Alan Harkness, who was then working with the Chekhov Theatre Studio. When the Chekhov Studio disbanded, Alan went to California where Mechthild joined him. In 1949-51 she and Alan toured Europe and America with their duo performance of Great Moments from Shakespeare and spent time studying with Erna Grund in Dornach. They returned to America where Alan was tragically killed in 1952. In 1954 Mechthild returned to Dornach and received her Diploma in formative speech, graduating in the same year as Virginia Brett. She remained in Dornach for the next twelve years, teaching, performing and producing. In 1967 Francis Edmunds asked her to set up a Speech and Drama Department at Emerson College where she worked for the two years prior to her arrival in Australia.
In July 1969, the first classes commenced in Sydney with Mechthild teaching Speech, Eurythmy, Greek Gymnastics, Improvisation and Drama. Marj Waugh, who had been carrying the Eurythmy work after her many years with Alice Crowther, and Doug Waugh, connected with the early drama work of Lute Drummond, came along to give their blessing. A much appreciated and continuing support has come from an early student, Garry Richardson.
In particular, the late Dennis Glenny, who left us two years ago, close to the same July date as Mechthild's passing, was deeply committed to supporting and furthering her work.
So she began her work in Australia with the powers of independence, inwardly centred on the work of speech and drama. Outwardly restless in her destiny, which took her 24 times across the Atlantic from Dornach to the States and back, and also here in Australia, she moved her studio at various times from one place to another, every time starting anew. But wherever she worked she left her imprint.
In the Studio in Sydney she attracted students from all over the world. Young enthusiasts came from Israel, England, South Africa, America, and from Dornach, to study with Mechthild. Her speech formation was so outstanding that her work became the centre for the English speaking speech impulse. She was authorised to give the successful pupil a 'Goetheanum' diploma on behalf of the section for the Arts. Every year a new group of students would join her course, and when her pupils and friends gathered three days after her death to share memories, they all sat together around a large circle of two rows. There were many friends, and yet these were only those who had worked with her during the last years and thus we needed to imagine on that occasion many, many more such circles of friends around Mechthild, the friends of the early times of Lorien-Novalis School, the friends of the formative youth movement of 1970 in the Anthroposophical Society, the friends of Emerson College, and of the thirteen years at the Goetheanum and then in the United States and, last but not least, those of her early childhood, her sister and her husband, the early Anthroposophists, closing the circle from the beginning of her earthly path to her last act on this southern continent Australia, which she so dearly loved and into which she spoke so strongly with her powerful spirit and the true formative word.
Her work will live on, and we shall be conscious of her in the coming Summer Conference, which will be on the theme of The Renewal of the Word, so that she will further her intentions in the word, so that she can bring further nourishment to speech formation.
Karl Kaltenbach

Stars once spoke to men,
their growing silent is world destiny.
Awareness of this silence can be pain
for earthly man.
Yet in the muted silence
there now ripens
what men speak to the stars:
Awareness of this speaking
can become strength
for Spirit-Man.
Rudolf Steiner

In