The Holy Theatre by Peter Brook

   This chapter focuses on what appears to be a highly elusive form of theatre. I'm going to state what I PERSONALLY got out of this chapter, and then precede insert a bunch of quotes that inspired me.

   I think that this chapter emphasizes that there are a lot of things in society that used to be holy, but because of commercialism and various things these once holy things have now become pleasant but less meaningful. Brook attempts to express how we need a holy theatre, because like events like Christmas, the holiness has been sucked out. However, it has been so long since the holiness has been present that even Peter Brook himself can't define what the holiness is anymore. he is calling fro theatre to return to its most pure state, which he brings across talking about theatre performed in war torn desolate places that have started stripping away the other non-holy aspects of theatre.

QUOTES:

"it could be called The Theatre of the Invisible-Made-Visible: the notion that the stage is a place where the invisible can appear has a deep hold on our thoughts. "

"In the burnt-out shell of the Hamburg Opera only the stage itself remained—but an audience assembled on it whilst against the back wall on a wafer-thin set singers clambered up and down to perform The Barber of Seville, because nothing would stop them doing so. In a tiny attic fifty people crammed together while in the inches of remaining space a handful of the best actors resolutely continued to practise their art. In a ruined Düsseldorf, a minor Offenbach about smugglers and bandits filled the theatre with delight."

"The best of the romantic theatre, the civilized pleasures of the opera and the ballet were in any event gross reductions of an art sacred in its origins. Over the centuries the Orphic Rites turned into the Gala Performance"

"More than ever, we crave for an experience that is beyond the humdrum. Some look for it in jazz, classical music, in marijuana and in LSD. In the theatre we shy away from the holy because we don't know what this could be—we only know that what is called the holy has let us down, we shrink from what is called poetic because the poetic has let us down. "

"A happening was originally intended to be a painter's creation—which instead of paint and canvas, or glue and saw­dust, or solid objects, used people to make certain relation­ships and forms. Like a painting, a happening is intended as a new object, a new construction brought into the world, to enrich the world, to add to nature, to sit alongside everyday life."

"The actor searches vainly for the sound of a vanished tradition, and critic and audience follow suit. We have lost all sense of ritual and ceremony—whether it be connected with Christmas, birthdays or funerals—but the words remain with us and old impulses stir in the marrow."
:)