Theater Mitu

"Founded in 1997, Theater Mitu has earned a wide reputation as an adventuresome and dynamic ensemble of artists. Under the leadership of artistic director Rubén Polendo, the Company is dedicated to transliterating a wide variety of performance traditions, exploring theatrical form, and supporting the creative growth of its members, who are at the creative core of each piece the Company produces. Its considerable body of work has taken on a variety of forms: developmental work with some of the world's leading theatrical innovators, productions in conjunction with universities and conservatories, outreach to non-theatrical communities, and research and training with its members.

Mitu's work has been developed and presented at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, the McCarter Theater in Princeton, NJ, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, The Alliance Theater in Atlanta, GA, The Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati, Patravadi Theater in Bangkok, Thailand, UNAM/CUT in Mexico City, The Perseverance Theater in Alaska, The Public Theater, Lincoln Center Theater, INTAR, Blue Light, The Juilliard School, New York University, NAATCO, The Skirball Center for the Performing Arts and New York Theatre Workshop.

Mitu maintains a dynamic education program in which company members teach Mitu's Training Methodology called Whole Theater at several institutions including NYU, Juilliard, Bard College, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, National University of Mexico and CUNY Graduate Program. The company also runs a yearly summer intensive in Bangkok, Thailand and will begin a similar program in Bangalore, India. Mitu also has a commitment to community outreach and has developed yearly programs and/or relationships with the Geneseo Migrant Worker Center in upstate New York, Albuquerque's Working Classroom and Columbia's School of Theology.

Mitu has received several funding, grants, awards and nominations from various foundations including Nancy Quinn, The Katherine Dalglish Foundation, The Watermill Center, The Sundance Institute, The Greenwald Foundation, Naked Angels, The Mental Insight Foundation, The Doris Duke Foundation, Arts International, The Ford Foundation, NYSCA, NEA, The Salzburg Festival, The Eastern European Artist Exchange, The Envision Development Grant and The Herb Alpert Foundation. Theater Mitu is a member of the Alliance of Resident Theaters in New York."

Mission

Theater Mitu is a permanent group of collaborators that methodically experiments with theatrical form. We investigate the spiritual core of world performance traditions to create original work and re-envision classics. This is the foundation of a teaching and training methodology that is call Whole Theater.

Definition

Definitions of "Mitu":

a. Sanskrit word for Communion

b. Bengali word for Balance

c. Japanese word for the phrase Empty of Fear

d. Thai word for the phrase from the depths of the heart

e. Spanish contraction of the words Mine and Yours

f. English phonetic for Me Too

Definition of Our Logo:

Written in cuneiform, an ancient Sumerian form of writing, the Theater Mitu logo graphically represents our attempt to find a common ground between the human, the Divine, and the truths that have been forgotten.

The two triangles at right angles in the upper left of the logo represent forgotten truths, or lost knowledge: the positioning of the triangles suggests a balance between the axis of heaven and the axis of earth.

The downward pointing triangle over the "t" represents the Divine: that downward moving and enlivening spiritual energy symbolized by the horizontal arm of the archetypal axis mundi (the mythical axis of the world around which the entire universe revolves and which reaches from heaven to earth).

The two triangles in the logo, one behind the other, represent humanity: the repetition of the triangular figure suggests community and references the vertical arm of the axis mundi. This functions as a symbol for the world of men.

That the figures representing truth and lost knowledge are depicted as connected to the figures representing the human community speaks to the relationship between humanity and its stories and myths: that through these cultural treasures, mankind can attempt to touch the divine which, while represented here as a distant presence, nonetheless crowns the whole logo. This endless striving for connection is represented by the "t" of Theater Mitu, which attempts to bridge the gaps between all of the elements in the image, striving for a more perfect reconciliation of these potent and essential energies.

Productions

• Scorched (Workshop Reading 2011)
• CHAOS (World Premiere March 2011)
• Medea (2010)
• A Play On War (2010)
• Death of a Salesman (Tour 2009)
• DR.C (or, how I learned to act in eight steps) (2009)
• Crane Story (Workshop 2009)
• Death of a Salesman (2008)
• Apostle Project (2008)
• Canticle (2008)
• Sister Sarah, Brother Sky (Workshop 2007)
• Blind Mouth Singing (2007)
• Mexico City (Workshop 2007)
• Exploration: Butoh (2007)
• Moonchild (2007)
• Raven Odyssey (2007)
• HAIR (2006)
• String of Fragmentation (2006)
• Ahraihsak (2006)
• Happy Accident #2 (2006)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (2006)
• Drawer Piece (2006)
• Legend of Kinaree (2005)
• Dhammashok (2005)
• Happy Accident #1 (2004)
• The Maids (2004)
• The Ramayana (2001-2003)
• The Odyssey (2003)
• Sleepwalkers (2002)
• The Mahabharata (2002)
• La Donna Serpente (2002)
• The Tutor(2001)
• 4 Saints in/Mexico (2001)
• The Shakespeare Project (2001)
• Two Sisters and a Piano (2000)
• Hamletmachine (2000)
• The Hologram Theory (2000)
• The Row (Workshop 2000)
• Black Codes From the Underground (1999)
• Catholica Book II (1998)
• but above all without a plan... (1998)
• Muin-al Buka: The Master of Weeping (Workshop 1998)
• In Search of Duende (1998)
• Catholica Book I (1997)
• Miss Julie (1997)
• Orígen: an Aztec Myth (1997)
• Dreaming of Rope Ladders (1997)
• The Noh Cycle (1997)

Training & Methodology

Whole Theater

For more than a decade Theater Mitu has been dedicated to the transliteration of world theater performance and ritual traditions towards a training for the contemporary theater-maker. The goal of this training and the training itself is what we call Whole Theater.

We define Whole Theater as:

A Theatrical Experience that is rigorously visual, aural, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual all in the same moment.

Education

In the West, the artist's personal mythology is often discounted due to a focus on technique, mastery and measurable markers of success. Yet the question remains: what propels the artist? What are the stories that have formed who they are and what they create? We believe the answers to these questions can only be discovered when the artist is asked to forget everything they know in order to explore themselves outside of a context that is familiar; artistically, philosophically and aesthetically. Theater Mitu's Whole Theater methodology requires students to ultimately satisfy questions about their own process as a reflection of who they are.

Theater Mitu focuses on Education in four main sections:

1. INTERNATIONAL INTENSIVES:

• South India Artist Intensive
• Bangkok Artist Intensive
• Japan Artist Intensive (upcoming)
• Nepal/Sikkim Artist Intensive (upcoming)

2.UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS:

• Current residency at NYU- Abu Dhabi
• Residency at NYU- Tisch (Playwrights Horizons Theater School)
• Bard, Brigham Young University, CCM, The O'Neill Theater Institute, SUNY Geneseo, University of Mexico, UT Austin, Vassar

3. PRODUCTION COLLABORATIONS:

• Bard
• Juilliard
• NYU (Grad and Undergrad)
• UCLA
• ACT Conservatory

4. INTERNSHIPS:

• Theater Mitu's internship program allows young theater artists and college students with a focus in theater the opportunity to explore and support the inner-workings of a professional New York -based theater company. Through administrative, research, and artistic tasks, interns are asked to take great initiative while working with professional collaborators in all aspects of theatrical production. This program is a hands-on approach that creates a stimulating environment for tenacious and exciting theater artists of tomorrow.

Website

Please visit Theater Mitu's website for more information: http://theatermitu.org/

References

Eliza Bent. "Madness In The Methods." American Theatre Jan 2008: 56+.

External links

• Theater Mitu.org
• Theater Mitu at Vimeo.com
• Theater Mitu on YouTube
• DR.C at the Watermill Center
• DR.C on Playbill.com
• Ahraihsak on offoffonline.com