Julie Taymor: Spider-Man, The Lion King and life on the creative edge
Summary
TLDREn este script de video, la directora de arte Julie Taymor comparte experiencias de su carrera en el teatro, ópera y cine, destacando su proceso creativo y su amor por la verdad aparente del teatro. Narra un momento crucial en su vida en Indonesia, donde aprendió la importancia de la autenticidad artística y la necesidad de la luz para el público. Taymor también explora la esencia de sus obras, como 'El Rey León' y 'La Tempestad', utilizando el concepto de ideogramas para capturar la esencia de las historias. Además, ofrece un vistazo a su trabajo en 'Spider-Man', enfocándose en la combinación de tecnología y arte para traer vida a las historias en el escenario.
Takeaways
- 🎭 La importancia de la autenticidad en el arte: Julie Taymor enfatiza la necesidad de ser fiel a lo que uno cree como artista y de estar consciente de la presencia del público.
- 🌏 La influencia de experiencias personales en la creación artística: Taymor comparte su experiencia en Indonesia como un momento seminal que influenció su trabajo.
- 🎨 La representación de mitos y rituales: El relato de la ceremonia de iniciación en Bali muestra cómo los rituales culturales pueden ser una fuente de inspiración para la obra de teatro.
- 🔄 El concepto de 'ideograma': Se utiliza para capturar la esencia de una obra, como en el caso de 'El Rey León' donde el círculo representa la vida y la sequía.
- 🎭 La magia del teatro: Se destaca cómo el teatro permite a la audiencia completar los espacios en blanco y creer en la representación de conceptos complejos.
- 🎨 La combinación de tecnología y arte: Taymor muestra su amor por la alta tecnología y la baja tecnología, y cómo ambas son esenciales en la creación de obras de teatro y cine.
- 🎬 La adaptación de obras de teatro al cine: Se comparte cómo la obra 'La Tempestad' se adaptó al cine, utilizando la cámara y las perspectivas para crear efectos mágicos.
- 🕺 La importancia del movimiento en el espectáculo: En 'Spider-Man', el movimiento es clave para hacer que los personajes parezcan vivos y traer a la vida la historieta.
- 🌋 La metáfora de la transformación y el riesgo: La experiencia de escalar un volcán representa la transformación y los riesgos que implica la creación artística.
- 👥 La colaboración en el proceso creativo: Taymor agradece a sus colaboradores y enfatiza que la creación artística es un esfuerzo colectivo.
Q & A
¿Qué obras de teatro, ópera y cine menciona Julie Taymor que ha realizado en los últimos 20 años?
-Julie Taymor menciona 'Oedipus Rex', 'The Lion King', 'Titus', 'Frida', 'The Magic Flute' y 'Across The Universe' como algunas de las obras que ha realizado en teatro, ópera y cine.
¿Qué evento significativo de su vida ocurrió cuando Julie Taymor visitó Indonesia por primera vez?
-El evento significativo fue un ritual de iniciación para jóvenes hombres en una aldea de Bali, donde Julie Taymor asistió a una ceremonia que ocurría cada cinco años y que también fue un rito de paso para ella.
¿Qué lecciones importantes aprendió Julie Taymor de su experiencia en Bali?
-Julie Taymor aprendió la importancia de ser fiel a lo que uno cree como artista y también la importancia de ser consciente de la presencia del público, que necesita la luz, para lograr un equilibrio entre la creatividad y la conexión con el espectador.
¿Cuál es el concepto de ideograma que Julie Taymor utiliza en su trabajo creativo?
-El ideograma es un concepto que Julie Taymor compara con una pintura al pincel japonesa, donde se reduce una idea compleja a una imagen simple y esencial que representa el núcleo de la historia o concepto que está trabajando.
¿Cómo describe Julie Taymor el uso del círculo como ideograma en 'The Lion King'?
-Julie Taymor describe el círculo como el ideograma de 'The Lion King', representando la vida circular y el ciclo de la vida, como se ve en la máscara de Mufasa y en la representación simbólica de la sequía con un círculo de seda en el escenario.
¿Qué elemento del teatro aprecia Julie Taymor y cómo lo relaciona con la obra 'The Lion King'?
-Julie Taymor aprecia la aparente verdad del teatro y la capacidad del público para completar los espacios en blanco, como en la escena donde las personas con platos de césped en la cabeza representan la sabana, sin cuestionarlo literalmente.
¿Cómo aborda Julie Taymor la combinación de tecnología y técnicas tradicionales en su trabajo?
-Julie Taymor ama tanto la alta tecnología como la baja tecnología, y muestra ejemplos de cómo se utiliza en 'Spider-Man', pero también resalta la importancia del bailarín que sabe cómo usar su cuerpo y moverse en los cables.
¿Qué adaptación de Shakespeare hizo Julie Taymor y con qué enfoque?
-Julie Taymor hizo una adaptación de 'The Tempest', que inicialmente estrenó en el teatro con un hombre como Prospero, pero más tarde decidió que la obra también funcionaría con una mujer, y trabajó con Helen Mirren en la película.
¿Cómo cambió la representación de 'The Tempest' de la obra de teatro a la película?
-En la película, Julie Taymor utilizó la cámara y las perspectivas para cambiar la forma en que se presentaba la historia, como con el inicio de la película con una close-up de un castillo de arena que luego se revela ser un miniatura en la mano de una niña.
¿Qué elementos se combinan en la obra de teatro de 'Spider-Man' según Julie Taymor?
-En 'Spider-Man', Julie Taymor combina elementos del circo, la música rock 'n' roll y el drama para crear una obra en vivo que busca hacer todo lo que no se puede hacer en dos dimensiones en la televisión o el cine.
¿Qué lección de vida extrajo Julie Taymor de su experiencia cerca del volcán Gunung Batur en Indonesia?
-Julie Taymor extrajo la lección de que, al igual que en su experiencia en el borde del volcán, uno debe seguir adelante a pesar de las dificultades y los desafíos, manteniendo la determinación y la visión para superar los obstáculos.
Outlines
🌏 Experiencia Transformadora en Indonesia
La primera parte del guion relata la experiencia de Julie Taymor en Indonesia, que fue un momento definitorio en su vida. A través de la narración de un ritual de iniciación en la isla de Bali, Taymor comparte cómo descubrió que el arte no siempre requiere un público tangible, sino que puede ser una ofrenda a lo divino. Esta revelación influenció su enfoque en el arte, enseñándole la importancia de ser sincero con su visión creativa y, al mismo tiempo, estar consciente de la necesidad de 'luz' para el público, que es esencial para la comunicación y la conexión con el espectador.
🎨 Crear con Conciencia del Público
En el segundo párrafo, Taymor profundiza en el equilibrio entre la creatividad y la necesidad de conectar con el público. Utilizando 'El Rey León' como ejemplo, ella explica su proceso creativo, que comienza con la identificación de un 'ideograma', un concepto clave que representa la esencia de la obra. En el caso de 'El Rey León', es el círculo, que simboliza la vida y el ciclo de la vida. Taymor enfatiza la importancia de la narrativa y la técnica en el teatro, y cómo el uso de tecnología y la técnica de bajo perfil pueden complementarse para crear una experiencia impactante y espiritual para el espectador.
🎭 Del Teatro al Cine: 'La Tempestad'
El tercer fragmento sigue con la transición de la obra 'La Tempestad' de la escena del teatro al cine. Taymor compara cómo se presenta la historia en ambos medios, destacando la utilización de la 'ideografía' para representar la idea central de la obra: el contraste entre la naturaleza y la civilización. En el teatro, utiliza el ejemplo de un castillo de arena para ilustrar este concepto, mientras que en el cine, aprovecha las herramientas visuales para crear una representación más dinámica y detallada de la misma idea. La narración resalta la flexibilidad y el poder de la adaptación de una historia a diferentes formatos artísticos.
🕸️ 'Spider-Man': La Esencia del Teatro en Vivo
El cuarto y último párrafo se centra en la producción de 'Spider-Man', donde Taymor y su equipo buscan aprovechar al máximo las posibilidades únicas del teatro en vivo. La sección incluye comentarios de otros miembros del equipo de producción que destacan la importancia de la perspectiva y la dinámica en la creación de escenas que parecen escapar de las reglas de la gravedad. La sección también incluye reflexiones personales de Taymor sobre su experiencia en un volcán, que simboliza su situación actual y la de su compañía, enfrentando desafíos y superando obstáculos con perseverancia y creatividad. El mensaje final es de unión, resiliencia y la capacidad de superar las dificultades a través de la colaboración y la creatividad colectiva.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Mitología
💡Transformación
💡Teatro
💡Ideograma
💡Círculo de la vida
💡Arte escénica
💡Balí
💡Spider-Man
💡La Tempestad
💡Cine
Highlights
Julie Taymor reflects on her 20-year career in theater, opera, and film.
Taymor shares a pivotal moment from her time in Indonesia that deeply influenced her artistic philosophy.
The importance of retelling myths and stories to keep them alive is emphasized.
Taymor describes the transformative process of creation, likening it to the mythological phoenix.
Her experience in Bali during an initiation ceremony for young men inspired her understanding of performance.
The revelation that performers were acting for God, not for an audience, had a profound impact on Taymor.
Taymor discusses the balance between artistic integrity and audience needs in the creation process.
She introduces the concept of 'ideograph' as a fundamental starting point for her work, exemplified by 'The Lion King'.
The use of the circle as a recurring motif in 'The Lion King' to represent the circle of life.
Taymor's appreciation for the art of theater and the audience's willingness to embrace the illusion.
The significance of both high-tech and low-tech elements in creating a compelling performance.
Insights into the process of adapting 'The Tempest' from stage to screen, focusing on the sand castle metaphor.
The transition from theater to film allows for different storytelling techniques, as demonstrated in 'The Tempest'.
Taymor's innovative approach to 'Spider-Man' on Broadway, combining circus, rock 'n' roll, and drama.
The challenge of bringing comic book movement to life on stage in 'Spider-Man'.
Bono's perspective on comic book heroes as modern mythologies.
Taymor's personal anecdote of climbing an active volcano in Bali, symbolizing overcoming creative challenges.
The metaphor of the precipice and the importance of moving forward despite challenges in the creative process.
Taymor concludes with a message of perseverance and the collective effort of creators.
Transcripts
(Music)
["Oedipus Rex"]
["The Lion King"]
["Titus"]
["Frida"]
["The Magic Flute"]
["Across The Universe"]
(Applause)
Julie Taymor: Thank you. Thank you very much.
That's a few samples of the theater, opera
and films that I have done over the last 20 years.
But what I'd like to begin with right now
is to take you back to a moment
that I went through in Indonesia,
which is a seminal moment in my life
and, like all myths,
these stories need to be retold
and told, lest we forget them.
And when I'm in the turbulent times, as we know,
that I am right now, through the crucible
and the fire of transformation,
which is what all of you do, actually.
Anybody who creates knows there's that point where
it hasn't quite become the phoenix or the burnt char.
(Laughter)
And I am right there on the edge,
which I'll tell you about, another story.
I want to go back to Indonesia
where I was about 21, 22 years, a long time ago,
on a fellowship.
And I found myself, after two years there
and performing and learning, on the island of Bali,
on the edge of a crater, Gunung Batur.
And I was in a village where there was
an initiation ceremony for the young men,
a rite of passage.
Little did I know that it was mine as well.
And as I sat in this temple square
under this gigantic beringin banyan tree,
in the dark, there was no electricity, just the full moon,
down in this empty square,
and I heard the most beautiful sounds,
like a Charles Ives concert
as I listened to the gamelan music
from all the different villagers that came
for this once-every-five-years ceremony.
And I thought I was alone in the dark under this tree.
And all of a sudden, out of the dark,
from the other end of the square,
I saw the glint of mirrors lit by the moon.
And these 20 old men who I'd seen before
all of a sudden stood up in these full warrior costumes
with the headdress and the spears,
and no one was in the square, and I was hidden in the shadows.
No one was there, and they came out,
and they did this incredible dance.
"Huhuhuhuhuhuhuhahahahaha."
And they moved their bodies and they came forward,
and the lights bounced off these costumes.
And I've been in theater since I was 11 years old,
and performing, creating, and I went,
"Who are they performing for
with these elaborate costumes,
these extraordinary headdresses?"
And I realized that they were performing for God,
whatever that means.
But somehow, it didn't matter about the publicity.
There was no money involved.
It wasn't going to be written down. It was no news.
And there were these incredible artists
that felt for me like an eternity as they performed.
The next moment,
as soon as they finished and disappeared into the shadows,
a young man with a propane lantern came on,
hung it up on a tree, set up a curtain.
The village square was filled with hundreds of people.
And they put on an opera all night long.
Human beings needed the light.
They needed the light to see.
So what I gained and gathered from this incredible,
seminal moment in my life as a young artist
was that you must be true
to what you believe as an artist all the way through,
but you also have to be aware
that the audience is out there in our lives at this time,
and they also need the light.
And it's this incredible balance
that I think that we walk
when we are creating something that is breaking ground,
that's trying to do something you've never seen before,
that imaginary world
where you actually don't know where you're going to end up,
that's the fine line on the edge of a crater
that I have walked my whole life.
What I would like to do now is to tell you
a little bit
about how I work. Let's take "The Lion King."
You saw many examples of my work up there,
but it's one that people know.
I start with the notion of the ideograph.
An ideograph is like a brush painting, a Japanese brush painting.
Three strokes, you get the whole bamboo forest.
I go to the concept of "The Lion King"
and I say, "What is the essence of it?
What is the abstraction?
If I were to reduce this entire story
into one image, what would it be?"
The circle. The circle. It's so obvious.
The circle of life. The circle of Mufasa's mask.
The circle that, when we come to Act II and there's a drought,
how do you express drought?
It's a circle of silk on the floor
that disappears into the hole in the stage floor.
The circle of life comes in the wheels
of the gazelles that leap.
And you see the mechanics.
And being a theater person, what I know and love about the theater
is that when the audience comes in
and they suspend their disbelief,
when you see men walking or women walking
with a platter of grass on their heads,
you know it's the savanna.
You don't question that.
I love the apparent truth of theater.
I love that people are willing to fill in the blanks.
The audience is willing to say,
"Oh, I know that's not a real sun.
You took pieces of sticks.
You added silk to the bottom.
You suspended these pieces. You let it fall flat on the floor.
And as it rises with the strings, I see that it's a sun.
But the beauty of it is that it's just silk and sticks.
And in a way, that is what makes it spiritual.
That's what moves you.
It's not the actual literal sunrise that's coming.
It's the art of it.
So in the theater, as much as the story is critical
and the book and the language,
the telling of the story, how it's told,
the mechanics, the methods that you use,
is equal to the story itself.
And I'm one who loves high tech and low tech.
So I could go from --
For instance, I'll show you some "Spider-Man" later,
these incredible machines that move people along.
But the fact is, without the dancer
who knows how to use his body and swing on those wires,
it's nothing.
So now I'm going to show you
some clips from the other big project of my life this year,
"The Tempest."
It's a movie. I did "The Tempest" on a stage three times
in the theater since 1984, '86,
and I love the play.
I did it always with a male Prospero.
And all of a sudden, I thought,
"Well, who am I gonna get to play Prospero?
Why not Helen Mirren? She's a great actor. Why not?"
And this material really did work for a woman equally as well.
So now, let's take a look at some of the images
from "The Tempest."
(Music)
(Video) Prospera: Hast thou, spirit, performed to the point the tempest that I bade thee?
Ariel: I boarded the king's ship. In every cabin, I flamed amazement.
Prospera: At first sight, they have changed eyes.
Miranda: Do you love me?
Ferdinand: Beyond all limit.
HM: They are both in either's powers.
Trinculo: Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.
(Music)
Looking for business, governor?
Caliban: Hast thou not dropped from heaven?
Stephano: Out of the moon, I do assure thee.
Prospera: Caliban!
Caliban: This island is mine.
Prospera: For this, be sure, tonight thou shalt have cramps.
Antonio: Here lies your brother no better than the earth he lies upon.
Sebastian: Draw thy sword.
And I, the king, shall love thee.
Prospera: I will plague them all, even to roaring.
Ariel: I have made you mad.
Prospera: We are such stuff as dreams are made on.
and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
(Music)
JT: Okay.
(Applause)
So I went from theater, doing "The Tempest"
on the stage in a very low-budget production
many years ago,
and I love the play, and I also think
it's Shakespeare's last play,
and it really lends itself, as you can see, to cinema.
But I'm just going to give you a little example about
how one stages it in theater
and then how one takes that same idea or story
and moves it into cinema.
The ideograph that I talked to you about before,
what is it for "The Tempest"?
What, if I were to boil it down,
would be the one image that I could
hang my hat on for this?
And it was the sand castle,
the idea of nurture versus nature,
that we build these civilizations --
she speaks about it at the end, Helen Mirren's Prospera --
we build them, but under nature, under the grand tempest,
these cloud-capped towers, these gorgeous palaces will fade
and there will -- leave not a rack behind.
So in the theater, I started the play,
it was a black sand rake, white cyc,
and there was a little girl, Miranda, on the horizon,
building a drip castle, a sand castle.
And as she was there on the edge of that stage,
two stagehands all in black
with watering cans ran along the top
and started to pour water on the sand castle,
and the sand castle started to drip and sink,
but before it did,
the audience saw the black-clad stagehands.
The medium was apparent. It was banal. We saw it.
But as they started to pour the water,
the light changed from showing you the black-clad stagehands
to focusing, this rough magic that we do in theater,
it focused right on the water itself.
And all of a sudden, the audience's perspective changes.
It becomes something magically large.
It becomes the rainstorm.
The masked actors, the puppeteers, they disappear,
and the audience makes that leap into this world,
into this imaginary world of "The Tempest" actually happening.
Now the difference
when I went and did it in the cinema,
I started the actual movie
with a close-up of a sand castle, a black sand castle,
and what cinema can do is,
by using camera, perspective,
and also long shots and close-ups,
it started on a close-up of the sand castle,
and as it pulled away,
you saw that it was a miniature sitting in the palm
of the girl's hands.
And so I could play with the medium,
and why I move from one medium to another
is to be able to do this.
Now I'm going to take you to "Spider-Man."
(Music)
(Video) Peter Parker: ♪ Standing on the precipice,
I can soar away from this. ♪
JT: We're trying to do everything in live theater
that you can't do in two dimensions
in film and television.
PP: ♪ Rise above yourself and take control. ♪
George Tsypin: We're looking at New York from a Spider-Man point of view.
Spider Man is not bound by gravity.
Manhattan in the show is not bound by gravity either.
PP: ♪ Be yourself and rise above it all. ♪
Ensemble: ♪ Sock! Pow! ♪
♪ Slam! Scratch! ♪
Danny Ezralow: I don't want you to even think there's a choreographer.
It's real, what's happening.
I prefer you to see people moving,
and you're going, "Whoa, what was that?"
(Music)
JT: If I give enough movement in the sculpture,
and the actor moves their head, you feel like it's alive.
It's really comic book live. It's a comic book coming alive.
(Music)
Bono: They're mythologies.
They're modern myths, these comic book heroes.
PP: ♪ They believe. ♪
(Screams)
(Music)
(Applause)
JT: Ohhhh. What was that?
Circus, rock 'n' roll, drama.
What the hell are we doing up there on that stage?
Well, one last story, very quickly.
After I was in that village, I crossed the lake,
and I saw that the volcano was erupting
on the other side, Gunung Batur,
and there was a dead volcano next to the live volcano.
I didn't think I'd be swallowed by the volcano,
and I am here.
But it's very easy to climb up, is it not?
You hold on to the roots,
you put your foot in the little rocks
and climb up there, and you get to the top,
and I was with a good friend who was an actor,
and we said, "Let's go up there.
Let's see if we can come close to the edge
of that live volcano."
And we climbed up and we got to the very top,
and we're on the edge, on this precipice,
Roland disappears into the sulfur smoke
at the volcano at the other end,
and I'm up there alone
on this incredible precipice.
Did you hear the lyrics?
I'm on the precipice looking down
into a dead volcano to my left.
To my right is sheer shale. It's coming off.
I'm in thongs and sarongs. It was many years ago.
And no hiking boots.
And he's disappeared, this mad French gypsy actor,
off in the smoke, and I realize,
I can't go back the way that I've come. I can't.
So I throw away my camera. I throw away my thongs,
and I looked at the line straight in front of me,
and I got down on all fours like a cat,
and I held with my knees to either side
of this line in front of me,
for 30 yards or 30 feet, I don't know.
The wind was massively blowing,
and the only way I could get to the other side
was to look at the line straight in front of me.
I know you've all been there.
I'm in the crucible right now.
It's my trial by fire.
It's my company's trials by fire.
We survive because our theme song is "Rise Above."
Boy falls from the sky, rise above.
It's right there in the palm of both of our hands,
of all of my company's hands.
I have beautiful collaborators, and we as creators
only get there all together.
I know you understand that.
And you just stay going forward,
and then you see this extraordinary thing
in front of your eyes.
Thank you.
(Applause)
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