Letter/Manifest to the Heirs of Tomorrow
Marisa Trench de Oliveira Fonterrada
IA/Unesp – Brasil
My dear future readers
I suppose that this group of texts in form of a MANIFEST, addressed to you – that were born, or not yet, in the second quarter of the 21st century -, an action thought by the Companhia de Música Teatral, as part of the commemoration of their 25 years of activity, can help you direct your own researches, solidify values and inspire your own living, your actions, your poetics, starting from the experience of those that have been on Planet Earth in a precedent period. Although, while I am very honored by the invitation to participate in this proposal, I could not deny the doubt that immediately came to my mind: “What could I offer to our heirs?
Yes, you are the heirs of the humanity that occupied Planet Earth during the 20th and 21st century, and now you receive from us the bittersweet fruits that will be part of your way of life, until you feel yourselves able to improve, change or even ban them with courage. After all, we produced two World Wars on the twentieth century and from there on, the conflicts have not stopped.
And it is not only that! Today, when we are almost finishing the first quarter of the twentieth-first century, we can say that we live in a strange world, in which the Western population chose certain actions called “civilized” by their modernity, practice, convenience or profit opportunity. No doubt that in this respect there were here many advances; science took big steps and brought many solutions to different problems, which benefited a great part of the world population in many areas, such as health, communication, technology
However, little by little, this modernity infused changes in the environment, and unbalanced the temperature of the planet, provoked disease, and extinguished species. It is not possible to ignore the recurrent wildfires, windstorms, hurricanes, and also the droughts that kill rivers, plants, and animals. And it seems that we did not improve our capacity for dialogue because we are always in conflict with each other.
It is against this state of things that the outcry of conscious people is raised by making efforts to alter this regrettable situation, although this protest, at least until now, has not proven strong enough to promote significant changes in society’s behavior. Everywhere attentive ears listen to the sounds of destruction and the silence of disenchantment. This situation cannot continue, and I do hope it does not reach you. Or, if it does, I trust that you will know how to deal with it with loving competence, so as to find a better world than that one we have built until now!
I imagine that our contribution to you, dear heirs of tomorrow, should step in a different path; so I would like to encourage you to find out sensible, poetic, interesting and creative ways of dealing with the world, taking care of the environment through healthy communication, through fraternity and by the practice of Art in its multiple forms. Art has many facets, many expressions that are revealed in different languages: Visual Arts, Dance, Music, Theatre, among others, that can be unique or combined to explore, in a joint exercise, their multiple forms, adopting perhaps, a similar style as that one created by Murray Schafer – the Theatre of Confluence:
” I am calling this the Theatre of Confluence, because confluence means a flowing together that is not forced but is nevertheless inevitable – like the tributaries of a river at the precise moment of their joining” (SCHAFER, 2002, p. 26).
This is what I hope you will able to build: Art made with sounds and movements, with bodies in the space, Art which sprouts from the observation and from the listening of elements of nature, Art that comes up from collective actions and that is not only an expression of isolated persons; Art integrated in life, able to evolve the community in healthy, sensible and poetic movements; Art that shows the best of human beings, that moves them away from competition and moves them towards complicity; I do hope that in this direction the people/artists come together, think, imagine, provoke, propose, create and make Art.
If you, heirs of tomorrow, propose to consider the nature as a source of inspiration, if you see it, respect it , listen to it, and live together with it, and if you believe that there is an artist inside each human being, you will see that, in a continuous effort, not only will you produce beautiful and true spectacles, but you also will transform the world.
This is my sincere desire, heirs of tomorrow, hopeful that you can build/rebuild a beautiful and true world from an Art present in the life of everybody and of each one.
Marisa (beginning of the twenty-first century! )
