We begin with the dilemma that our current philosophy contradicts the traditions of our art form and its medium. Our current philosophy, inspired greatly by post-structuralist beliefs (both existential and deconstructive in origin), requires us to question everything. We create values as we go whether we like it or not, as Nietzsche points out, and the attempt to follow traditions for no other reason than that they are traditions, relegates us to a slave morality. While making us comfortable, many of our traditions and rituals simply act to make us mindless. On the other hand, the structure, even a benevolent and multicultered "tuned way" as pointed out by Lao Tzu and Jospeh Campbell, brings our lives into focus and centers us. Sometimes this center pulls together a society, and without this pull-whether it is a common language, mythos, or cannon-we fail to communicate. How do we then, within a current philosophy that stands against moralist structure, create a ritual theatre?
As we know, theatre began as ritual. We have succeeded many times through many genres in taking ritual out of theatre, and while this has created many great plays, and mostly all of the modern great plays, we have come to the time when we have to return to our roots or we will have nothing. We have gone as far as we can with a realistic and, as I consider it, a conflict-oriented theatre and must return to the ritual. I believe the importance of the ritual is that it takes us out of our lives and places us in another realm that could be considered spiritual, but by no means must be spiritual in the ordinary sense.
